Lex Pundit
Procedure

Natural justice

The two rules of fair decision-making: hear the other side, and no one may judge their own cause.

The idea

Natural justice — in modern Canadian usage, procedural fairness — is the common law's minimum code for anyone deciding another's rights. Audi alteram partem: the person affected must know the case against them and have a fair chance to answer it. Nemo judex in causa sua: the decision-maker must be unbiased, in fact and in appearance.

The content flexes with the stakes: a licence renewal may require only notice and written comment; a professional-discipline hearing that could end a career approaches trial-like protection. Breach has a distinctive consequence — the decision is quashed regardless of whether it was substantively right, because a fair process is owed, not just a correct outcome.

An example

A board revokes a licence based on a complaint the licensee never saw. Whatever the complaint's merits, the revocation cannot stand: the case was decided without hearing the other side.

In Canada

The duty of fairness applies to virtually all administrative decisions affecting individuals (Nicholson, Cardinal), with its content calibrated by the Baker factors — and for judges themselves, the test is whether a reasonable, informed person would apprehend bias.