notwithstanding clause
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.36 in modern English
31
Scrabble Score
21
Letters
4
Syllables
14
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Section 33 of Part I (Charter of Rights and Freedoms) of the Canadian Constitution Act (1982), which permits the creation of laws without regard for certain constitutional rights. Specifically, under section 33 the federal and provincial governments may enact laws "notwithstanding" section 2 (Fundamental Freedoms) and sections 7 through 15 (Legal and Equality Rights) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Such laws may be in effect for up to five years and are renewable.
Canadian usage
noun
A clause within a legal instrument that occurs in spite of any other clause that forbids it.
Example Sentences
- "Secretary of State Lucien Bouchard is standing firm on his defence of Quebec's use of the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause to safeguard the French language in that province."
- "Literary critic William Empson identified seven kinds of ambiguity. Had he looked further, he might have discerned an eighth—Canada's constitutional debate, complete with notwithstanding clauses, devolutions and non-derogations, asymmetries and distinct identities."
- "The struggle for gay rights took a historic leap forward yesterday with a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision. . . . Alberta Premier Ralph Klein suggested his province might use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to override any similar decision affecting Alberta."
- "The emergency legislation stopped short of leaving the convention and does not include “notwithstanding clauses” which would allow ministers to ignore the ECHR and other international treaties in the area of asylum."