Introduction

• Author: James Muir
• Pages: 1-8

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Introduction

JamesMuir

Y   a piece of property. If you bought this book,

you can do what you want to with it: write notes in the margins, tear out

pages, lend it to someone, gift it to someone else, or sell it online or to a used

bookstore. But there are limits: Even though you may have bought the book,

you do not own the content. At least as it is expressed in the work, that re

mains the propert y of the authors (and their heirs) or the publishers for some

time. You cannot reprint the material and sell it to others without receiving

permission to do so. You probably know all of this already. That you know

these things intuitively is a sign of the ubiquity of property and property

law principles in modern life.

TheprinciplesandrulesofpropertylawinCanadandtheiroriginsin

the common law, statutes, and legal codes. In each case, the principles and

rules are often drawn from cour t cases or are given full meaning only when

interpreted by judges. This is a book of stories about historic property law

casesandaboutdisputesthatultimatelyledtoorreectuponsomeofthe

basic principles and rules of property law in Canada today. The authors of

the chapters that follow each trace one or more cases, explaining the back

groundincidentsandpersonalitiesthatledittobecomingalegalconict

intherstplacedescribingtheeventsatcourtsorhearingsandreect

ingonthelongtermeectsofthecasesManyofthechaptersthatfollow

deal with “leading cases”: cases already taught in Canadian law schools and

regularly referred to by lawyers and judges in making legal arg uments and