That Most Canadian of Virtues

In this paper, I argue that the use of comity by the Supreme Court in its Charter jurisprduence, particularly its Section 7 jurisprduence, has lacked any conceptual clarity or fidelity to international law. This paper aims to advance the scholarly literature in three ways: first, by developing a taxonomy of s.7 extraterritorial cases and second: by showing how comity has been developed in four key areas of the law I identify it as playing a role in: extradition cases, the use of foreign-obtained evidence, civil cases in Canada where Canadians may be exposed to foreign criminal prosecution, and in the so-called 'war on terror'. I conclude the paper by arguing, third, that the SCC has employed comity as an interpretive principle to produce a conceptual muddle wholly incompatible with the traditional rules of international law.