Foreword

• Author: Janet Walker/Lorne Sossin
• Profession: Osgoode Hall Law School, York University/Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
• Pages: 15-16

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FOR E WOR D

As a scholarly discipline, civil procedure has lang uished in the shadow

of it s more fashionable academic cousins in the standard law school

curriculum. There has been a tendency for legal scholars to focus their

attention on substantive, rather than procedural, law. Yet as those who

work in the courts and in the f‌ield of dispute resolution know, the best

substantive rules will utterly fail to provide justice unless they are

matched with fair and eff‌icient procedures. The capacity of our legal

system to deliver accessible justice in civil, commercial, family, and

constitutional cases la rgely depends upon the strength and workability

of our rules of civil procedure.

In this highly readable study of the central issues of modern Can-

adian civi l procedure, Professors Lor ne Sossin and Janet Walker bring

the subject into to the light of day and demonstrate it to be not only an

important and interesting subject, but a lso one worthy of inquisitive

scholarly attention.

This book present s a refreshing approach to the subject of civil

procedure. The traditional matters of the structure of the courts, costs,

pleading, discovery, size and scope of l itigation, disposition without

trial, and pre-trial relief are examined from a rich range of perspectives.

The reader is provided with a remarkably accessible and sophisticated

analysis of the doctrinal issues. The underlying pur poses of the r ules

are identif‌ied and used to explain the rules’ content and operation in a

way that wil l serve the needs of students and pique the interest of se a-

soned practitioners. Bringing to bear a healthy comparative perspec-