What is the test to determine whether an individual has standing to challenge legislation or government acts?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique v. British Columbia (Education), 2011 BCSC 1219 (CanLII):

The test to be applied in determining whether an individual has standing, as of right, to challenge legislation or government acts is set out in the rule in Boyce v. Paddington, [1903] 1 Ch. 109. In a frequently cited passage from that case Buckley J. stated the rule as follows at p. 114: A plaintiff can sue without joining the Attorney-General in two cases: first, where the interference with the public right is such that some private right of his is at the same time interfered with (e.g., where an obstruction is so placed in a highway that the owner of the premises abutting upon the highway is specially affected by reason that the obstruction interferes with his private right to access from end to his premises to and from the highway); and, secondly, where no private right is interfered with, but the plaintiff, in respect of his public right, suffers special damage peculiar to himself from the interference with the public right.

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