Preface to the first edition

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Pages: 21-23

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PREFACE

To the First Edition

I believe this to be the only book of its kind in Canada: the f‌irst compre-

hensive legal textbook on the law relating to religious institutions. My

own awareness of the existence of a substantial body of law relating to re-

ligion and to religious inst itutions dates from 1980 when I wondered what

it was I was supposed to do, when I was elected a tru stee of the Christ ian

congregation to which I then belonged. A born legal pedant, I turned to

the law reports to learn something about how religious institutions in

Canada are regulated. A compulsive legal scribbler, I ended by writing a

guidebook for the use of future trustees within that congregation.

Since then, interactions between law and religion within Canadian

society have accelerated for a variety of reasons, of which the coming

into force of the Charter in 1982, and the increasing litigiousness w ithin

religious communities, are but two of the more important. A wide var-

iety of both public and private law issues h ave been re-opened for debate

by courts, legislatures, and religious institutions, themselves, as a result.

These issues go to the fundamental purposes of human life and of life in

society, particularly Canadian society, and show no signs of abating in

the foreseeable future. When I began in 1989, what I believe to be the

f‌irst course in a Canadian university law programme on the subject, I

was surprised to f‌ind it to be fully subscribed, as it continues to be.

Perhaps foolishly, I have written this book with two potential audi-

ences in mind, lawyers who are asked to act in matters relating to reli-

gion, and church administrators who are increasingly bumping into the

common law while carrying out their duties. Having been consulted by