Making Sense of Reasonableness

When the Supreme Court of Canada released its judgment in Dunsmuir v New Brunswick in 2008, there was general (if cautious) agreement that this development was likely to simplify substantive review. That is, Dunsmuir 's downsizing of the standards from three to two (cutting out patent unreasonableness and leaving only reasonableness and correctness), together with its streamlining of the work of selecting the standard (by way of a set of categorical presumptions), was regarded, not least by the judges issuing the decision, as a win for efficiency and judicial economy.