Preface to the first edition

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Pages: 19-21

xix

PR EFACE

To the First Edition

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

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

own awareness of the exi stence of a substantial b ody 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 trustee of the Chr istian

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

the law reports to learn something about how religious in stitutions in

Canada are regul ated. 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 rel igion within Can adian

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

into force of the Charter in 1982, and the increasing litigiousness within

religious communities, are but two of the more import ant. A wide variety

of both public and private law issues have been re-opened for debate by

courts, legislature s, and religious inst itutions, themselves, as a result.

These issues go to the fundamental pur poses of human li fe 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 subscr ibed, as it continues to be.

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

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

gion, and church administrators who are increasingly bumping into t he

common law while carr ying out their duties. Hav ing been consulted by