The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the most important enactment in Canadian History. At one fell swoop, it did away with the major constitutional difference between Canada and the United States... The book is certain to arouse much debate and has to be read by anyone seeking to understand Canadian political life. -- Seymour Martin Lipset, George Mason University, author of Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada Here finally is a book that unveils the politics that infuse Canadian courts and their decisions... and warns us of the effects of a judicialized politics on our democratic traditions. -- Leslie A. Pal, Carleton University This important book by Morton and Knopff significantly advances the understanding of why and how judicial power is shrinking the scope of democratic decision-making in all contemporary democracies... It should be a wake-up call for Canadians and others who still believe that one of our most important rights is to have a say in setting the conditions under which we live, work, and raise our children. -- Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School This is a splendid book, even better than the authors' Charter Politics (1992). It rockets along, combining balanced scholarship and philosophical insight with breathtaking readability. -- Janet Ajzenstat, McMaster University This is a terrific book: important, compelling, uncompromising. Knopff and Morton prove beyond a reasonable doubt that post-Charter courts are not just fiddling at the margins of our laws, they are re-making them wholesale. For anyone who cares about Canada's future, this is a must read. -- William Watson, McGill University Morton and Knopff have given comparativists just what they need to know to fit the judicial politics of Canada into a more general picture of the "judicialization" of politics. Their account is also an essential building block in constructing a general theory of constitutional judicial review because they track the move of a constitutional court long concerned with "federalism" issues into civil rights and liberties matters. -- Martin Shapiro, University of California, Berkeley

The Charter of Rights has transformed Canadian politics. The Supreme Court has used the Charter to change government policy on an ever-expanding list of controversial issues-abortion, aboriginal rights, gay rights, bilingualism, criminal law enforcement, and prisoner-voting. The Court has made itself the second most powerful institution in Canadian politics after the Federal Cabinet. Morton and Knopff demonstrate that the Court is not so much the cause as the means by which the Charter Revolution has been achieved. Behind the judges is a well orchestrated network of state-funded interest groups that use litigation and the media to achieve what they can't win through democratic elections.