It appears that legal trends in the United States, at least those involving the Supreme Court, have a tendency to migrate north. Last year there was concern that the appointment of justices to the Canadian Supreme Court was becoming too political, just like the American process for filling court vacancies. Now comes word that Canada's highest court's caseload has been dwindling over the past several years, just like the caseload of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:
A steady drop in the number of judgments produced by the Supreme Court of Canada hit a striking new low in 2006, with the court rendering just 59 decisions. Statistics compiled by The Globe and Mail show a total that is dramatically lower than years such as 1990, when the court rendered 144 rulings, and 1993, when it handed down 138 rulings.
This decrease looks remarkably similar to what is taking place in the U.S. As the
New York Times reported last month:
The number of cases the court decided with signed opinions last term, 69, was the lowest since 1953 and fewer than half the number the court was deciding as recently as the mid-1980s.
