By: Brenda Heelan Powell, Arlene Kwasniak, Braum Barber, and Ruiping Luo
Statute Commented On: The Alberta Emergency Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, SA 2024, c 9
PDF Version: The Alberta Emergency Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 Surges Executive Powers under the Water Act
Emergency Legislation and the Rule of Law
Since the 1215 Magna Carta, democratic society has been based on the tenet that the Executive in power is not above the rule of law. The United Nations has described the core values underlying the rule of law as follows:
… the rule of law is a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of the law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness, and procedural and legal transparency. (United Nations and the Rule of Law).