California Law Revision Commission makes tentative recommendations on builders liens and strata properties

As noted earlier this spring, the California Law Revision Commission is carrying out work on legal issues that arise from the intersection of builders-lien law and strata properties. The commission has just released its tentative recommendations for reform (PDF) of what California law calls mechanics liens in common-interest developments. At bottom, the legal issues for this topic flow from one of the distinctive aspects of the strata-property ownership model. In British Columbia, this quality can be seen Read more…

Ontario Superior Court considers cost sharing and responsibility for repairs in a mixed-use strata

In Middlesex Condominium Corp No 195 v Sunbelt, 2016 ONSC 1528, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice examined three issues that have raised concerns in British Columbia strata-property law as well. These issues are: (1) allocation of common expenses between commercial and residential strata lots in a mixed-use strata; (2) application of the Limitation Act to strata-property disputes; and (3) responsibility to repair windows. Facts and background The case involved “a seven-storey mixed-use (residential and commercial) Read more…

Legal Pluralist Law Reform

BCLI has recently participated in a number of discussions about the measurement and evaluation of law reform impact. Thinking about impact raises questions about the very nature of law reform. What is law reform and what does it achieve? Where do you find it? What does it look like? As part of that reflective process, our research assistant, Sebastian Ennis, came across an article by Dr. Roderick Macdonald, a prominent legal scholar and former President Read more…

Law Commission for England and Wales publishes Interim Statement on Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty

Since 2014, the Law Commission for England and Wales has been carrying out a project on mental capacity and deprivation of liberty. The project is examining a specific piece of delegated legislation, called the deprivation of liberty safeguards (found in schedule A1 and schedule 1A to the Mental Capacity Act 2005), which “aim to protect people who lack mental capacity, but who need to be deprived of liberty so they can be given care and treatment in a hospital Read more…

BCLI Announces Re-Appointment of Thomas Spraggs to Board of Directors

The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) is pleased to announce that the Ministry of Justice has re-appointed Thomas Spraggs to our Board of Directors. Mr Spraggs is the owner and operator of Spraggs and Company Law Corporation, which specializes in personally injury law. He has served on the Board for the past four years. Since March 2014, Mr Spraggs has been Treasurer and Chair of the Audit, Risk, and Finance Committee. He is also a Read more…