Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T11:35:54.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Autonomy and Permeability of Law: The Case of the Canadian Prohibition of Cannabis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Nicolas Carrier
Nicolas Carrier
Affiliation:
Université de Lille-1, Département de sociologie,Université de Rouen, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Niklas Luhmann's sociology proposes that law is an autonomous social system, which cannot be determined from the outside. In this theoretical framework, law's relations with its environment are mainly grasped with the concepts of autopoiesis and deparadoxification, and through the corresponding paradox of openness through closure. It provides a framework to explore intersystemic relations which refuses a vertical, linear domination of law by other discursive formations. This paper takes (some dimensions of) the 2003 re-validation of the constitutionality of the prohibition of cannabis by the Supreme Court of Canada as a pretext to theoretically clarify and empirically explore this framework. In the case presented here, law notably gives precedence to some biomedical objects over the liberal doctrine. It may well do the exact opposite in future operations. Sociology is condemned to be surprised by the creativity that law displays in autonomously maintaining and transforming itself.

Résumé

La sociologie de Niklas Luhmann suggère de concevoir le droit comme un système social autonome, ne pouvant être déterminé de l'extérieur. Dans un tel cadre théorique, les relations du droit avec son environnement sont saisies à l'aide des concepts d'autopoïèse et de déparadoxification, ainsi que par le biais du paradoxe de l'ouverture par la fermeture. La théorie propose une façon d'analyser les relations intersystémiques qui refuse une domination verticale et linéaire du droit par d'autres formations discursives. Cet article utilise (quelques dimensions) de la re-validation de la constitutionnalité de la prohibition du cannabis par la Cour Suprême du Canada comme prétexte pour clarifier théoriquement et explorer empiriquement un tel cadre. Dans le cas étudié, le juridique choisit notamment d'accorder plus d'importance à des objets biomédicaux qu'à la doctrine libérate. Il pourra faire exactement le contraire dans ses prochaines opérations. La sociologie est condamnée à être surprise par la créativité que déploie le juridique en se maintenant et se transformant de façon autonome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , April 2007 , pp. 123 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, Volume I: Part I et II, & Vols II: Part III (2002), online: Parliament of Canada <http://www.parl.gc.ca>>Google Scholar; Giffen, P.J., Endicott, S. & Lambert, S., Panic and Indifference: The Politics of Canada's Drug Laws. A Study in the Sociology of Law (Ottawa : Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, 1991)Google Scholar; Commission of Inquiry on the Use of Non-prescription Drugs, Cannabis (Ottawa: Information Canada, 1972)Google Scholar.

2 For a survey of critics, see, among others, Beauchesne, L., Les drogues. Les coûts cachés de la prohibition (Montréal: Lanctôt, 2003)Google Scholar; Carrier, N. & Quirion, B., “Les logiques de contrôle de l'usage des drogues illicites: la réduction des méfaits et l'efficience du langage de la périllisation” (2003) 2 Drogues, santé et société 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bertrand, M.-A., “La Politique des drogues : Contestations, paradoxes et confusions” (2000) 6 Psychotropes – Revue internationale des toxicomanies 9Google Scholar; Carrier, N., “Discours de patrouilleurs montréalais sur la détection de l'infraction de possession de drogues prohibées … ou pour trouver le ver, encore faut-il pouvoir toucher la pomme” (2000) 6 Psychotropes – Revue internationale des toxicomanies 103Google Scholar; Szasz, T., La persécution rituelle des drogués, bouc émissaires de notre temps : le contrôle d'État de la pharmacopé (Paris: Éditions du Lézard, 1994)Google Scholar; Alexander, B.K., Peaceful Measures. Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Baratta, A., “Une politique rationnelle des drogues? Dimensions sociologiques du prohibitionnisme actuel” (1990) 14 DéViance & Société 157CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bakalar, J.B. & Grinspoon, L., Drug Control in a Free Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

3 Carrier, N., “Les vedettes de la prohibition du cannabis” (2004) 2 & 3 Drogues, santé et société 233CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pires, A.P., La politique législative et les crimes à “double face”: Éléments pour une théorie pluridimensionnelle de la loi criminelle (Drogues, prostitution, etc.), Rapport d'expert à l'intention du Comité spécial du Sénat du Canada sur les drogues illicites (2002), online: Parlement of Canada <http://www.parl.gc.ca>Google Scholar.

4 Schur, E.M., Crimes Without Victims (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965)Google Scholar.

5 Cornell, D., “Time, Deconstruction, and the Challenge of Legal Positivism: The Call for Judicial Responsibility” in Leonard, J.D., ed., Legal Studies as Cultural Studies. A Reader in (Post) Modern Critical Theory (New York: SUNY Press, 1995) 234Google Scholar.

6 Weber, M., Économie et société – II – L'organisation et les puissances de la société dans leur rapport avec l'économie (Paris: Plon, 1971)Google Scholar.

7 Macdonald, A., “Critical Legal Pluralism as a Construction of Normativity and the Emergence of Law” in Lajoie, A. et al. , eds., Théories et émergence du droit : pluralisme, surdétermination et effectivité (Montréal: Thémis, 1998) 20Google Scholar. In so doing, according to Latour, systems theorists are serving the interests of the jurists; Latour, B., La fabrique du droit (Paris: La Découverte, 2004) 283Google Scholar.

8 Capps, P. & Olsen, H.P., “Legal Autonomy and Reflexive Rationality in Complex Societies” (2002) 11 Social & Legal Studies 552CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Izuzquiza, I., “Niklas Luhmann ou la société sans hommes” (1990) 89 Cahiers internationaux de sociologie 377Google Scholar.

9 Foucault, M., Les mots et les choses (Paris: Gallimard, 1966)Google Scholar.

10 Lafontaine, C., L'empire cybernétique. Des machines à penser à la pensée machine (Paris: Seuil, 2004)Google Scholar.

11 Schmutz, E.M., “Présentation” in Luhmann, N., Politique et complexité. Les contributions de la théorie générate des systèmes (Paris: Cerf, 1999) 31Google Scholar.

12 Arnaud, for example, stated laconically : “d'une règle de droit ne saurait en naître une autre”; Arnaud, A.-J., “Droit : le sytème et l'ensemble” in Arnaud, A.J. & Guibentif, P., eds., Niklas Luhmann observateur du droit (Paris: Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1993) 154Google Scholar.

13 Luhmann took some pleasure in answering such a critic: “Obviously, the theory of operational closure of autopoietic systems does not say that these systems could exist without any environment. The suspicion of ‘solipsistic’ existences was always an absurd one and says more about whoever formulates it as an objection than about the theory being attacked itself”; Luhmann, N., The Reality of the Mass Media, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000) at 107Google Scholar.

14 Ibid. at 11.

15 See e.g., Luhmann, N., Theories of Distinctions. Redescribing the Descriptions of Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Luhmann, N. “The Paradox of Form” in Baecker, D., ed., Problems of Form (Standford: Stanford University Press, 1999) 15Google Scholar; N. Luhmann, “Sign as Form” in D. Baecker, ibid. 46.

16 Wittgenstein, L., Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, suivi de Investigations philosophiques, (Paris: Gallimard, 1961)Google Scholar.

17 See Becker, H.S., Outsiders (Paris: Éditions A.-M. Métaillié, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Luhmann, N., Observations on Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Luhmann, N., Social Systems (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Luhmann, N., Essays on Self-Reference (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

19 See N. Luhmann, Theories of Distinction, supra note 15.

20 Luhmann, N., L'Amour comme passion. De la codification de l'intimité (Paris: Aubier, 1990) at 112Google Scholar; see also “Introduction” in D. Baecker, supra note 15, 1; Clam, J., “System's Sole Constituant, the Operation: Clarifying a Central Concept of Luhmannian Theory” (2000) 43 Acta Sociologica 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 See Cilliers, P., “Complexity, Deconstruction and Relativism” (2005) 22 Theory, Culture & Society 255CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Lea, J., “Criminology and Postmodernity” in Walton, P. & Young, J., eds., The New Criminology Revisited (Houndmills: MacMillan Press, 1998) 73Google Scholar.

23 Bourgois, P., In Search of Respect. Selling Crack in El Bario (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) 114Google Scholar.

24 Sokal, A. & Bricmont, J., Les impostures intellectuelles (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1997)Google Scholar.

25 Baudrillard, J., Simulacres et simulations (Paris: Galilée, 1981)Google Scholar.

26 N. Luhmann, The Reality of the Mass Media, supra note 13.

27 See N. Luhmann, Social Systems, supra note 18.

28 Atkinson, P., The Ethnographic Imagination. Textual Constructions of Reality (London: Routledge, 1990)Google Scholar.

29 Lyotard, J.-F., Le différend (Paris: Minuit, 1983)Google Scholar.

30 Luhmann, N., “La société comme différence” (1998) 61 Sociétés. Revue des sciences humaines et sociales 31Google Scholar.

31 Lalonde, M., “Sur Niklas Luhmann : L'être et la société comme résolution de problèmes” (1995) 14 Société 9Google Scholar.

32 Clam, J., Droit et société chez Niklas Luhmann. La contingence des normes (Paris: PUF, 1997) at 261Google Scholar.

33 N. Luhmann, Theories of Distinction, supra note 15 at 52; N. Luhmann, Social Systems, supra note 18 at 218.

34 N. Luhmann, Theories of Distinction, supra note at 15 at 190.

35 N. Luhmann, Social Systems, supra note 18 at 22.

36 Luhmann, N., “La restitution du douzième chameau : du sens d'une analyse sociologique du droit” (2001) 47 Droit et Société. Revue internationale de théorie du droit et de sociologie juridique 15Google Scholar.

37 This lead Teubner to speak of an “alienating justice”: “When conflicts in the social world appear non-resolvable then their falsification by law shows its potential. It creates an additional, admittedly unrealistic, artificial, fictitious world out of the issues at stake. Fictionalisation makes conflicts, in a situation of their moral and social undecidability, decidable, at least in the imaginary world of the law. (…) The point is no longer for the law to be responsive to the self-understanding of the parties involved, to broader social norms, moral values, community standards which govern the conflict situation. Just the opposite, the point is to reconstruct the conflict straightforward against common sense. Not assimilation of legal decisions to community standards but their alienation from them makes the surplus value of legal reconstruction visible.” Teubner, G., “Alienating Justice: On the Surplus Value of the Twelfth Camel” in Priban, J. & Nelken, D., eds., Law's New Boundaries. The Consequences of Legal Autopoiesis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001) 26Google Scholar.

38 See R. Cotterrell, “The Representation of Law's Autonomy in Autopoiesis Theory” in J. Priban & D. Nelken, ibid. 80.

39 Luhmann, N., “Le droit comme système social” in Arnaud, A.-J. & Guibentif, P., eds., Niklas Luhmann observateur du droit (Paris: Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1993) 60Google Scholar.

39 Pirès, A. P. Compare, “La rationalité pénale moderne, la société du risque et la juridicisation de l'opinion publique” (2001) 33 Sociologie et Société 179CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Ibid.

41 N. Luhmann, “Clôture et couplage” in A.-J. Arnaud & P. Guibentif, supra note 39, 91.

42 The legitimacy of law's operations, for Luhmann, rests neither on the fact that individuals regard them as just, nor on the Weberian thesis that individuals believe in their legitimacy on the basis of their legality. Legitimacy is conceived as independent from mental constructs of the social system's communications. See also Teubner, G., Droit et réflexivité. L'auto-référence en droit et dans l'organisation (Paris: LGDJ/Story-Scientia, 1994)Google Scholar.

43 Luhmann, N., La légitimation par la procédure (Québec : PUL, 2001)Google Scholar.

44 Freitag, M., “De la terreur au meilleur des mondes. Globalisation et américanisation du monde: vers un totalitarisme systémique?” in Dagenais, D., ed., Hannah Arendt, le totalitarisme et le monde contemporain, (Québec : PUL, 2003) 353Google Scholar; Freitag, M., L'oubli de la société. Pour une théorie critique de la postmodernité (Laval: PUL, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Freitag, M., Dialectique et Société I : Introduction à une théorie générale du Symbolique (Montréal: Éditions Saint-Martin, 1986)Google Scholar; Freitag, M., Dialectique et Société II: Culture, pouvoir, contrôle. Les modes de reproduction formels de la société (Montréal: Éditions Saint-Martin, 1986)Google Scholar.

45 M. Freitag, Dialectique et Société, ibid. at 325.

46 See also Gagné, G., “Les transformations du droit dans la problématique de la transition à la postmodernité” in Belley, J.-G. & Issalys, P., eds., Aux frontières du juridique. Études interdisciplinaires sur les transformations du droit (Laval: GEPTUD, 1993) 221Google Scholar.

47 N. Carrier, “Les vedettes de la prohibition du cannabis” supra note 3.

48 R. v. Malmo-Levine, R. v. Caine, [2003] 3 S.C.R. 571 [Malmo]; R. v. Clay, [2003] 3 S.C.R. 735 (SCC) [Clay].

49 R. v. Parker, [2000] ONCA C28732 at para. 11 [Parker].

50 R. v. Hitzig, [2003/ ONCA C39532.

51 R v J P, [2003] ONSC 03-CR-00002

52 R v Hadwen, [2003] SKPC 66, R v Nicholls, [2003] BCPC 132

53 For instance, in R v Nicholls, ibid at para 1, 2 “The defendant, Mr Nicholls, asserts in this pre-trial application on a charge of “simple possession of marihuana” under s.4 (1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, that it is not “fair” that this British Columbia prosecution continue because citizens in the provinces of Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia—given the state of the law in those provinces—are “immune from prosecution” for the same offence Thus he says I should make one of a number of proposed orders which would have the effect of ending the proceeding, and the associated unfairness That his application is brought is not surprising The law relating to possession of marihuana in Canada at the moment is in fact—to speak colloquially—a mess No doubt it would be of assistance were Parliament to intervene legislatively, sooner rather than later, to address evolving public opinion and evolving jurisprudence But my task on this application is to discern and apply the law as it currently stands in British Columbia”

54 On this point, lower courts have concluded that “[t]here being no right to use marijuana created by the right to life, liberty and security of the person, the question of the principles of fundamental justice need not be considered” See R v Malmo-Levine, [1998] BCJ 1025, s 295; R v Caine, [1998] BCL 885 The Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed such an argument, and established that cannabis use “does not qualify as a matter of fundamental personal importance so as to engage the liberty and security interests under s 7 of the Charter” See R v Clay, [2000] ONCA C28066, para 18

55 See notably Dworkin, G., “Moral Paternalism” (2005) 24 Law and Philosophy 305CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burgess-Jackson, K., “Our Millian Constitution: The Supreme Court's Repudiation of Immorality as a Ground of Criminal Punishment” (2004) 18 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy 407Google Scholar; Silver, M.S., “Rethinking Harm and Pornography : Conflicting Persona land Community Views” (2002) 12 Women's Law Reporter 171Google Scholar; Hart, L.A., Law, Liberty and Morality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

56 See Malmo, supra note 48 at para. 150.

57 Ibid. at paras. 158, 160.

58 Clay, supra note 48 at para. 4.

59 Malmo, supra note 48 at paras. 22, 23.

60 See notably Comité spécial sur les drogues illicites, Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, Volume I : Part I & II, supra note 1; Channabasavanna, S.M., Paes, M. & Hall, W., “Mental and Behavioral Disorders Due to Cannabis Use” in Kalant, H. et al. , eds., The Health Effects of Cannabis (Toronto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 1999) 269Google Scholar; Grinspoon, L., “Medical Marijuana in a Time of Prohibition” (1999) 10 International Journal of Drug Policy 145CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Hall, W., Solowij, N. & Lemon, J., The Health and Psychological Consequences of Cannabis Use, National Drug Strategy, Monograph Series no.25 (Sydney, National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, 1994)Google Scholar.

62 Malmo, supra note 48 at para. 61.

63 Godbout v. Longueuil (City), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 844.

64 Malmo, supra note 48 at par. 86.

65 Ibid. at para. 114.

66 Ibid. at para. 115.