‖‖ Reviews / Recensions
Edited by Kim Clarke, Elizabeth Bruton, and Dominique Garingan
An Introduction to the Canadian Law of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment. By John D. McCamus. Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2020. xxxi, 223 p. ISBN 9780779892020 (softcover) $119.00. Those working in contract and commercial law are undoubtedly familiar with the work of John D. McCamus, former dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. McCamus is the author of three editions of The Law of Contracts, published by Irwin Law in 2005, 2012, and 2020, and co-author of The Law of Restitution, 2nd edition, published by Canada Law Book in 2004, as well as numerous scholarly articles on the law of restitution. Restitution is defined as “a body of substantive law in which liability is based not on tort or contract but on the defendant’s unjust enrichment.”1 The law of restitution has received less attention in terms of scholarly publications and law school curricula than torts or contract law. However, the author states that understanding this branch of law “forces one to think more carefully about the nature of proprietary interests … [R]estitutionary liabilities arise in a broad range of situations that may well be unfamiliar to one who has studied only” contract, tort, and property law (p. vi). With this book, the author’s stated goal is to provide a concise and accessible account of the Canadian law of restitution that can be consumed by a professional reader in a few evenings and constitute, hopefully, a satisfactory introduction … 1 2
that will equip a reader, previously untutored in the subject, to recognize a restitution issue when it arises and seek an appropriate solution. (p. v) The book is divided into four parts and 19 chapters and includes a table of cases and an index. Part 1, Introduction, traces the origins of the law of restitution as an American invention that dates back to the late 1800s and was later articulated as a new branch of American private law in the Restatement of Restitution published in 1937 by the American Law Institute. The author discusses how the central features of the Restatement of Restitution were adopted and incorporated into Canadian law, notably in what he describes as a breakthrough decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in Deglman v Guaranty Trust Co of Canada (1954). This case revolved around an oral promise to confer land by will for services rendered by the plaintiff to the defendant. The court deemed that “it would be inequitable to allow the promissor to keep both the land and the money and the other party to the bargain is entitled to recover what he has paid. Similarly is it in the case of services given.”2 The introduction also covers principles, controversies in the use of basic terminology, and the scope of restitution law as a third branch of common law alongside contract and tort law. In Part 2, The Substantive Groups for Recovery, the author discusses several areas where restitution may apply, including ineffective transactions, “the law relating to
Bryan A Garner, ed, Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th ed (St. Paul, Minn: Thomson West, 2019) sub verbo “restitution.”
Deglman v Guaranty Trust Co of Canada, [1954] SCR 725 at para 7.
2021 Canadian Law Library Review/Revue canadienne des bibliothèques de droit, Volume/Tome 46, No. 1
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