Canadian Contract Law, 5th Edition

Click here for the student edition of Canadian Contract Law, 4th Edition.

First edition awarded 2007 Walter Owen Book Prize for excellence in legal writing
With the immense number of contracts cases out there today, busy practitioners need a practical, in-depth contracts text book that tells them what the important cases are, why they are important, and what the underlying principles are. This book fills that need.

Written by Angela Swan and Jakub Adamski who are equally at home in academia and the legal practice, Canadian Contract Law, 5th Edition helps lawyers advise clients, draft agreements, and recognize the pitfalls and dangers in resolving contract disputes by carefully explaining the actual approach courts have taken to solving contractual disputes.

All aspects of contract law are covered, so lawyers need not look elsewhere for an authoritative interpretation and practical guidance on Canadian contract law. Underpinning the new edition, as with the previous ones, is a focus on how individual cases illustrate and illuminate the attitude that a court is likely to take to the dispute before it.

Features of This Book

• Provides the reader with a framework for understanding contractual disputes by examining four central questions:
  • What exactly is the problem?
  • How do the rules deal with this problem?
  • What is the solution?
  • What other consequences and solutions may exist that the courts have not yet explored?
• Focuses on the problems of contractual relations as well as on those in transactions
• Helps readers understand the principles that underlie the Canadian law of contracts
• Offers a guide through the contracts cases, and illustrates how the principles that underlie the law are being developed by the courts

What's New In This Edition

• New and revised in depth analysis of the law of contracts over the past eight years
• Major developments in case law and legislation since the last edition published in 2018
• Discussion and analysis of recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions
• Reconsideration of several areas of the law by the authors:
  • The requirement for delivery of a contract
  • The order of the performance of contractual obligations
  • The control of fairness in contract, including though the novel doctrine of unconscionably
  • The pervasive problem of good faith
  • The perennial problems of damages
  • An extensive re-thinking of the process of interpretation of contracts, including the approaches that characterize the courts’ attitude to exemption clauses and the use of this interpretative process to control parties’ contractual undertakings

Who Should Read This Book

• Contract Lawyers – Gives practical explanations on how to deal with contractual problems which arise in day-to-day practice
• Government Lawyers – A great resource for those dealing with contracts generally – drafting, negotiation and interpretation
• In-house Counsel – Essential resource for those who regularly draft, review and negotiate contracts
• Litigation Lawyers – An excellent reference resource when litigating and negotiating settlements based on breach of contracts
• Judges – An authoritative treatise on Canadian contract law; provides insight as to how contract law is developing and evolving
• Law Schools – Provides an in-depth treatment on contract law; serves as an excellent addition to course materials on contract law
• Law Libraries – A reliable and comprehensive research tool on Canadian contracts law