Monthly Archives: October, 2026
Noel Semple, ‘The Fat Columns Problem: Disproportionality in Civil Litigation’
ABSTRACT This article seeks to define procedural disproportionality and understand its causes, using Ontario as a case study. The essential problem is that too many resources are spent on civil disputes that do not merit the expenditure. The first Part of this paper introduces ID Inc v Toronto Wholesale Produce Association, an Ontario civil action […]
Ruifeng Song, ‘Information Fiduciaries’ Duty of Disclosure’
ABSTRACT The information fiduciary theory has emerged as one of the most influential proposals in contemporary privacy law, arguing that digital platforms owe users duties of loyalty and care analogous to those owed by traditional fiduciaries. Yet the framework suffers from a structural gap: it proposes duties whose enforcement depends on transparency into platform data […]
Adebayo and Bolanta, ‘The Ghost in Contract: Artificial Intelligence, Misrepresentation and the Allocation of Contractual Liability’
ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence is moving from the background of commercial life into the conversation itself. Today, companies make use of generative and agentic systems to answer customers’ questions, draft contract terms, negotiate prices, recommend products and, in certain cases, carry out transactions with almost no human involvement. Problems arise, however, when the machine produces something […]
Kneller, Papadakis and Wu, ‘IP Enforcement Costs and International Trade’
ABSTRACT We study how legal institutions affect international trade. Intellectual property enforcement applies to all firms serving a market, regardless of where production occurs, implying that changes in enforcement create destination-specific litigation trade costs. We identify these effects using reforms to the UK intellectual property court system between the end of 2010 and 2013 that […]
Ben Nichols, ‘The Business of Purpose Trusts’
ABSTRACT In an age of increased awareness around climate change, wealth inequality and employee well-being, many private business owners are rethinking the fundamentals of corporate ownership. This has prompted a rise in the popularity of long-term ‘purpose’ trusts as an alternative ownership strategy, particularly in the US. The recent decision in Fletcher’s Fields Ltd v […]
Chiodo, Kennedy and King, ‘Hryniak’s Erosion: Summary Judgment in Ontario’
ABSTRACT Access to civil justice has long been in crisis in Ontario, and the 2010 reforms to the Rules of Civil Procedure broadened the scope of summary judgment under Rule 20 in part to tackle cost and delay. The Supreme Court of Canada also encouraged the use of summary judgment as an adjudicative alternative to […]
Anson Lee, ‘Contingency Fee by Another Name? Construction and Coherence in Kain v R&B Investments Pty Ltd’
ABSTRACT In Kain v R&B Investments Pty Ltd, the High Court of Australia unanimously held that the Federal Court of Australia cannot make orders awarding solicitors regulated by the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) (‘LPUL’) a percentage of a class action settlement or judgment. Although united in result, the Court divided on why such orders […]
Jani McCutcheon, ‘Are AI Models Infringing Imported “Articles” Under Copyright Law?’
ABSTRACT In this article I consider whether a generative AI (‘GenAI’) model could be an infringing imported article under the secondary infringement provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (‘Copyright Act’). Australian copyright owners have joined the global challenge to the widespread scraping of copyright works in the development and training of GenAI models. […]
‘Law Commission proposes major overhaul of product liability law for the digital age’
The Law Commission has launched a consultation on major reform to product liability law to ensure that it remains effective in a world increasingly shaped by digital technologies. A summary of the full paper is attached. The law governing defective products was introduced almost 40 years ago, before smartphones, apps, social media and artificial intelligence. […]
Albert Tan, ‘Charitable Property and the Accountability of Private Power’
ABSTRACT An irrevocable gift can leave its donor with extensive power over the institutions spending it. Once a recipient has recruited staff or committed funds of its own, withdrawal becomes expensive. The grant agreement determines who bears that expense. Drawing on United States nonprofit and tax law, this article argues for enforceable obligations attached to […]