Disagreement Is Not Enough: Supreme Court Clarifies Horizontal Stare Decisis

• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Law Firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
• Author: Canadian Appeals Monitor and Emil Stanca

The Supreme Court has recently pronounced a judgement in R v Sullivan, 2022 SCC 19, discussing the contours of horizontal stare decisis - the extent to which a decision of a court is binding on other courts of coordinate jurisdiction within a province. A court may only depart from previous rulings of a coordinate court in narrow circumstances - it is not enough to simply disagree with previous rulings, or to hold that they are "plainly wrong".

Background

The respondents, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Chan, committed violent crimes while under the influence of intoxicating substances. Both argued at their trials that their extreme state of intoxication rendered their actions involuntary, thereby precluding a guilty verdict. Their respective trial judges did not allow this defence by virtue of s. 33.1 of the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, and both Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Chan were convicted.¹

The appeal of the two convictions were heard together and reached the Supreme Court. In R v Brown, 2022 SCC 18, a decision released concurrently, the Supreme Court had already concluded that s. 33.1 of the Code violated the Charter and was...