Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

1684.1.3.1. FunctionA judgment is the final decision in a legal dispute which is argued and settled in a court oflaw and determines winners and losers (Songer 2008: 78). A judgment is written not onlyfor the benefit of the parties involved in the case, but also for the benefit of legalprofession, for the benefit of other judges and for the benefit of appellate Courts. In fact,decisions may set a precedent which is always binding on lower courts. This is called thedoctrine of binding precedent or stare decisis.4.1.3.2. Institutional contextIn Canada, judicial courts are organized into three levels, each one corresponding to aspecific jurisdiction area: federal courts are courts constituted under federal statutes withjudges federally appointed (e.g. Supreme Court of Canada and Federal Court of Canada);appellate courts are courts constituted under provincial statutes with judges federallyappointed (e.g. Alberta Court of Appeal); provincial courts are courts constituted underprovincial statutes with judges provincially appointed (e.g. Youth Court, Family Court)(Gall 2004: 230).All court decisions of the English corpus were produced by the Supreme Court ofCanada (henceforth, SCC), which is the highest court in Canada. According to the SupremeCourt Act R.S., c. S-19, s. 35 (1985), the SCC has and exercises an appellate, civil andcriminal jurisdiction within and throughout Canada. SCC judgments are, in all cases, finaland conclusive. The SCC grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year toappeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts (Hogg2009).