Examining Chief Justice McLachlin's judicial leadership

Vanessa A. MacDonnell

Chapter 19 in Elgar Companion to Female Chief Justices in Comparative Perspective, 2026, pp 400-417 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter tells the story of the Supreme Court of Canada's first female Chief Justice, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, through the prism of three “sites” of her leadership at the Court: the Supreme Court dining room, the court conference room, and the Grand Entrance Hall. Each of these sites conveys something important about McLachlin's leadership of the Court. The dining room brings her “service and support” approach to leadership to the fore. The court conference room represents her intellectual leadership and ability to generate consensus. And the Grand Entrance Hall invokes McLachlin's extensive and very capable quasi-diplomatic work as Chief. Her leadership was therefore not limited to her ability to generate consensus—the standard account. Rather, it was defined by her capable stewardship of the institution and by her commitment to fostering a well-functioning and collegial court, free of the deep divisions that have marked other eras of the Court.

Keywords: Judicial leadership; Chief Justice; Supreme Court of Canada; Apex courts; Courts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308637
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