Simplification or Semantics? Evaluating Vavilov's Impact on Standard of Review

The Supreme Court of Canada’s pivotal decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov introduced a categorical approach to standard of review analysis, aiming to simplify the existing framework. This article traces the evolution of standard of review analysis and outlines previous empirical studies that examine Vavilov’s effect on this analysis. The article describes a new empirical study that employs a current large language model to measure various variables pertaining to Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal decisions, such as length of standard of review analysis and party agreement on standard of review. The findings confirm that Vavilov has simplified the standard of review analysis, but perhaps that this simplification may have resulted from an evolving approach that began in the years preceding Vavilov.