There are two main types of professional associations. Those that exist on the basis of legislation and those that exist on some other basis. Usually there is a Society Act and series of bylaws that dictate internal conduct in the latter category of professional association.

Chaudhary v. The Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists, 2007 BCSC 467, gives a useful summary and analysis of the legal envelope regarding disciplinary proceeding in non-statutory type professional associations.

The action of such bodies are subject to a contractual analysis that borrows heavily on administrative law fairnes and procedural concepts. Judicial review in the context of a contract.

In this case, in particular, the Court held that the discipline body could not discipline former members on the basis of changes that the Society had made to the scope clauses of its bylaws.