Legal Research

Where are the gaps in Canadian legal treatises?

By Ted Tjaden

In responding to a query the other day on recommending resources for someone researching guarantees, I immediately thought of Kevin McGuinness’s The Law of Guarantee, 2d ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 1996) but had to stop and think if there were any more recent treatises. Although there are a number of more recent banking law treatises, I could not think of anything more recent specific to the Canadian law of guarantees that would have helped on the particulars of the question being researched (the British Sweet & Maxwell title from 2007 may of course be relevant). And although one might argue that the law of guarantee has not changed that much, is there a need for a more recent Canadian treatise on this topic?

(In fairness to the already prolific Kevin McGuinness, there are many reasons why an author might not write a newer edition: lack of time, loss of interest, or low returns on investment in the time it takes to write a book. In addition, in some situations, the original author may have passed on [but this does not necessarily prevent newer editors/authors from doing a new edition]. By way of example, I hope to do a new edition of my Law of Independent Legal Advice (Carswell, 2000) to take into account some of the more recent law, including, for example, Miglin v. Miglin, 2003 SCC 24, but time is a huge factor).

What other topics need more recent treatment?

I could think of a couple of titles (please correct me if I am wrong):

- Mary Anne Waldron, The Law of Interest in Canada (Toronto: Carswell, 1992).

- John Barnes, Sports Law in Canada, 3d ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 1996) (although I realize there is the more recent, broader Entertainment Law in Canada looseleaf edited by Jacqueline King.

- And although there are more recent books on creditor-debtor law, I always liked Charles Dunlop’s Creditor-Debtor Law in Canada, 2d ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 1995).

I know that most publishers welcome proposals for new law-related books or treatises.

What other titles can you think of? Alternatively, if there are few gaps, what narrow or specific topics might warrant monographic treatment?

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on April 14, 2010 (boomark / email).