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 languished in the shadow

of its 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 largely 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 civil procedure, Professors Lorne 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 also one worthy of inquisitive

scholarly attention.

This book presents 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 litigation, 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 purposes of the rules

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

way that will serve the needs of students and pique the interest of sea-

soned practitioners. Bringing to bear a healthy comparative perspec-