SOC 4900 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Crown Attorney, Legal Aid
26 Nov 2015
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Document Summary
Minister of justice/ attorney general one person. Represent views of doj at cabinet including funding/budget. Communicate overall direction from cabinet to department. Answer to parliament for policy/administration of criminal justice. Offer legal advice to government and provide legal defence. Administration of justice including crowns and courts. Advise parliament on the constitutionality of government legislation. Attorney general is a professional position and minister of justice is a political position: attorney generals don"t have to be a lawyers. But they have been in the past. Federal department of justice does not persecute offences under the criminal code: section 92(14) of the constitution act: prosecution of the criminal law is the responsibility of provincial attorney general. Responsible for the persecution of a variety of offences that do not fall in the criminal code. The minister of justice does not personally conduct litigation: decentralized across canada, but appeals, to the supreme court are centralized and require formal ministry approval.
