Federal Courts Act

Marginal note:Rules

• 46 (1) Subject to the approval of the Governor in Council and subject also to subsection (4), the rules committee may make general rules and orders

  • (a) for regulating the practice and procedure in the Federal Court of Appeal and in the Federal Court, including, without restricting the generality of the foregoing,

    • (i) rules providing, in a proceeding to which the Crown is a party, for examination for discovery of a departmental or other officer of the Crown,

    • (ii) rules providing for discovery and production, and supplying of copies, of documents by the Crown in a proceeding to which the Crown is a party,

    • (iii) rules providing for production of documents by the Crown in a proceeding to which the Crown is not a party,

    • (iv) rules providing for the medical examination of a person in respect of whose injury a claim is made,

    • (v) rules governing the taking of evidence before a judge or any other qualified person, in or outside Canada, before or during trial and on commission or otherwise, of any person at a time either before or after the commencement of proceedings in the Federal Court of Appeal or the Federal Court to enforce the claim or possible claim in respect of which the evidence is required,

    • (vi) rules providing for the reference of any question of fact for inquiry and report by a judge or other person as referee,

    • (vii) rules respecting the service of documents within Canada and rules authorizing and governing the service of documents outside Canada,

    • (viii) rules governing the recording of proceedings in the course of a hearing and the transcription of that recording,

    • (ix) rules governing the appointment of assessors and the trying or hearing of a cause or other matter wholly or partly with the assistance of assessors, and

    • (x) rules governing the material to be furnished to the Federal Court of Appeal or the Federal Court by the Tax Court of Canada or any federal board, commission or other tribunal, for the purposes of any appeal, application or reference;

  • (b) for the effectual execution and working of this Act and the attainment of its intention and objects;

  • (c) for the effectual execution and working of any Act by or under which jurisdiction is conferred on the Federal Court of Appeal or the Federal Court or on any judge of either court in respect of proceedings in that court and the attainment of the intention and objects of that Act;

  • (d) for fixing the fees to be paid by a party to the Registry of the Federal Court of Appeal and of the Federal Court for payment into the Consolidated Revenue Fund in respect of proceedings in those courts;

  • (e) for regulating the duties of officers of the Federal Court of Appeal or the Federal Court;

  • (f) for fixing the fees that sheriffs, marshals or other persons to whom process may be issued may receive and take, and for regulating their obligation, if any, to account for those fees to the persons or departments by whom they are employed, or their right to retain them for their own use;

  • (g) for awarding and regulating costs in the Federal Court of Appeal or the Federal Court in favour of or against the Crown, as well as the subject;

  • (h) empowering a prothonotary to exercise any authority or jurisdiction, subject to supervision by the Federal Court, even though the authority or jurisdiction may be of a judicial nature;

  • (i) permitting a judge or prothonotary to vary a rule or to dispense with compliance with a rule in special circumstances;

  • (j) despite subsection 28(3), providing for the enforcement of orders of the Federal Court of Appeal in the Federal Court;

  • (k) designating an act or omission of a person to be in contempt of court, respecting the procedure to be followed in proceedings for contempt and establishing penalties for a finding of contempt; and

  • (l) dealing with any other matter that any provision of this Act contemplates being the subject of a rule or the Rules.

• Marginal note:Extent of rules

  (2) Rules and orders made under this section may extend to matters arising out of or in the course of proceedings under any Act involving practice and procedure or otherwise, for which no provision is made by that Act or any other Act but for which it is found necessary to provide in order to ensure the proper working of that Act and the better attainment of its objects.

• Marginal note:Uniformity

  (3) Rules and orders made under this section may provide for a procedure that is uniform in whole or in part in respect of all or any class or classes of matters and for a uniform nomenclature in any such matters.

• Marginal note:Advance publication of rules and amendments

  (4) Where the rules committee proposes to amend, vary or revoke any rule or order made under this section or to make any rule or order additional to the general rules and orders first made under this section and published together, the committee

  • (a) shall give notice of the proposal by publishing it in the Canada Gazette and shall, in the notice, invite any interested person to make representations to the committee in writing with respect thereto within sixty days after the day of that publication; and

  • (b) may, after the expiration of the sixty days referred to in paragraph (a) and subject to the approval of the Governor in Council, implement the proposal either as originally published or as revised in such manner as the committee deems advisable having regard to any representations so made to it.

• Marginal note:Rules to be laid before Parliament

  (5) A copy of each rule or order and of each amendment, variation or revocation of a rule or order made under this section shall be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first fifteen days after the approval by the Governor in Council of the making thereof on which that House is sitting.