Trust law is an important legal discipline in its own right; however, as trusts can appear in other areas of law, including family law, corporate law, real estate, and estate planning and litigation, having a foundational knowledge of trusts can be of assistance to a lawyer no matter what area of law they practice. This course seeks to provide an understanding not only of what a trust is and how a trust is created, but also explore the legal relationship between the trustee, the beneficiary, and the property that is held in trust. The topics to be covered include the legal nature of trusts and how they are created, the reasons why trusts are created or come into existence by operation of law, the various kinds of trusts, including express trusts, purpose trusts, constructive trusts, and resulting trusts, as well as the legal relationship between the trustee and the beneficiaries, and the corresponding duties of the trustee and the rights the beneficiaries may exercise. The real-world use of trusts, and the implications and intersectionality of trusts with other areas of law, will be covered if time permits.
Course or Seminar Category: Property Law
Administration of Civil Justice: Estate Litigation
This seminar will examine the substantive, procedural, and practical issues surrounding litigating certain claims by and against estates. Topics may include, depending upon available time, a detailed review of will challenges, dependant support claims, appointment and removal of estate trustees, passing of accounts, quantum meruit claims, and solicitor’s negligence in drafting wills. We will also examine the role of mandatory mediation and other negotiation techniques in resolving estate litigation. Students will also participate in a mock mediation exercise.
For each of these topics, we will explore how a client’s case is developed through the interaction of the case law, the Rules of Civil Procedure, the applicable statutes, the rules of evidence, and the psychology of the family unit.
Comparative Law: Indigenous Legal Traditions
This seminar will introduce students to non-state Indigenous legal orders. Using a transsystemic pedagogical model and a wide range of reading materials (legal cases, methodology, pedagogy, anthropology, theory) students will critically explore the theories and practices of indigenous legal traditions through analysis and substantive treatment of: indigenous sources of law; oral histories and traditions (as legal archive); legal cases and precedent; modes of reasoning and interpretation; and authority and legitimacy.
Trusts
A trust is a relationship in which one person (the trustee) holds property for the benefit of another person(s) (the beneficiary(ies)) or for a charitable purpose. Trusts arise in a wide variety of contexts including corporate / commercial transactions, estate planning (gifting property on death or prior to death), social justice pursuits through charitable trusts and litigation involving property disputes. This course will provide a survey of key issues relating to trusts and trustees. The topics to be covered include: the juridical nature of the trust as a distinctive legal relationship, the reasons for which trusts are established (or come into existence by operation of law), the means by which trusts are established, the different species of trusts, including express trusts, purpose trusts, constructive trusts and resulting trusts, and issues relating to trustee duties.
The material for this course will be delivered in an lecture format. All assigned readings will be supplemented by detailed PowerPoint materials. These materials are not cryptic bullet point summaries of the readings. Instead, they are carefully prepared to bring greater context, organization and coherent explanation to assigned readings. All PowerPoint materials follow a disciplined, consistent and orderly format, breaking materials down by topic and sub-topic. The verbally delivered lecture content tracks very closely with the PowerPoint materials, adding further explanation, context and debate to these materials. If students scrutinize the readings, digest the supplementary PowerPoint materials and participate in lectures, they will be equipped to succeed in the course.
Real Estate Transactions
This course will use the standard Ontario Agreement of Purchase and Sale as a baseline to examine the leading academic issues and legal questions regarding real estate transactions in Ontario. We will focus on understanding how a real estate transaction works, the rights and obligations of the buyer and the seller of real estate, and the roles and obligations of the professionals involved in these transactions: the realtors, lawyers and mortgage brokers.
Securities Regulation
This is a four hour course that attempts foundational and detailed coverage of the Ontario Securities Act, with the goals of both ensuring good understanding of the most important requirements of securities law, as well as the underlying policy objectives that those rules are intended to achieve. There will be reference to other provincial or international regulation where appropriate for comparison. Included in the detailed coverage are the definitions of key securities regulatory concepts such as “security”, “trade”, and “distribution”; requirements for primary and secondary distribution of securities; prospectus disclosure; exemptions and resale rules as well as recent changes here; continuous and timely disclosure obligations with particular reference to prohibitions on insider trading; mergers and acquisitions with particular reference to takeover bid legislation; primary and secondary market civil liability; enforcement law and policy.
Law & Social Change: Construction Law
Construction is one of the largest industries in Canada, contributing 7.5% to Canada’s GDP annually, and employing more than 1.4 million people. The construction industry is broad and multi-faceted. From residential construction including houses and condominiums to commercial construction, such as office towers and hotels to industrial and infrastructure development including hospitals, schools, roads, and transportation systems. In Toronto alone, the scale of current construction projects is evident from a simple look at the skyline. With recent changes to the Ontario legislation and large amounts of government funding being directed towards revitalizing provincial and federal infrastructure, now is the perfect time to study this area. Construction law is a rapidly growing specialized field which has developed into its own distinctive area of law. Not only does construction law have a rich jurisprudential history in Canada, it is also at the forefront of emerging alternative dispute resolution processes such as Dispute Review Boards and Adjudication. The industry is ordered by a complex web of private contracts, public laws and regulations, and a set of common law duties, unique to the industry in some instances. In this course, we will survey and examine the legal relationships between all stakeholders and the respective legal rights and remedies. The course will canvass the private law of contract, tort, real property, debtor-creditor, agency, administrative law and trusts. In addition, we will cover related topics concerning public law and legislation relating to sale of goods, personal property security, liens, trusts, and adjudication. This course will allow students to analyze construction law issues and apply these principles of law in a construction setting. Guest speakers will be invited to contribute to some discussions.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
This substantive law course will explore the interactions between Canadian common law and Indigenous law, primarily Anishinaabe law. The content will be viewed through the lens of Indigenous worldviews. Topics will include, but are not limited to: Indigenous sources of law; historical context and constitutional framework re: Indigenous Peoples; Aboriginal Rights, Title and the Doctrine of Discovery; treaties; resource rights and consultation; and the Indian Act and Identity. The course will be presented from a practitioner’s perspective working within Anishinaabe communities, with attention to practical intersections between the various topics. This course fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.
Family Law I
The course is intended to offer an overview of family law and to provide a foundation for later, more specialized seminars or research projects. It provides an introduction to some of the issues and problems relating to law and the family, focusing on three contexts: the creation of the family unit, the regulation of the ongoing family, and issues arising at family breakdown. Topics to be explored include marriage, reproduction, adoption, child care, family violence, child protection, divorce, property, support, domestic contracts, custody and access, and dispute resolution.
The course is taught from practical and a critical and policy-oriented perspective. The objective of the course is to learn how family law works in Ontario, and to under the social, political and economic context within which legislative policies and judicial approaches can be understood and assessed.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
This course provides a critical survey of state law as it relates to Indigenous peoples and lands in what is now known as Canada.
Topics may include but are not limited to: historical context and constitutional framework; the laws of Indigenous peoples, especially as they interact with Canadian law; Aboriginal rights and title; self-government; treaties and treaty rights; the Indian Act; the obligations of the federal and provincial governments; and Indigenous belonging and identity.
This course fulfills the prerequisite requirement for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments. This course also satisfies the Indigenous and Aboriginal Law Requirement.