The Alberta Personal Property Security Act [PPSA] came into force in 1990 and produced a significant improvement in secured transactions in Alberta by removing many of the restrictions and limitations that prevented the use of secured credit. Our executive summary outlines our project, the need for reform, and our preliminary recommendations for Alberta's Personal Property Security Act.
The Alberta Personal Property Security Act [PPSA] came into force in 1990 and produced a significant improvement in secured transactions in Alberta by removing many of the restrictions and limitations that prevented the use of secured credit. Since 1990, it has become clear that several areas of the law are in need of reform. Online banking and ecommerce as well ambiguities in the law contribute to the need for reform. The PPSA also did not [...]
The Alberta Law Reform Institute proposed the legislation that became the Matrimonial Property Act (MPA) more than 30 years ago and there has been no substantive amendment to the MPA since then. ALRI has received suggestions that the legislation is in need of revision but there was little consensus as to which areas were in need of review. In order to advance the research, ALRI financed the work of Annie Voss-Altman, a student at the [...]
Arbitration is a process where a tribunal other than a court resolves a dispute between two or more parties. This issue paper discusses the current arbitration law (as of the time of publication), and potential beneficial changes to that law. The report first considers whether arbitration law in Alberta should be based on either the UNCITRAL Model Law or the BC Act, and the effects this could have on the uniformity of law. It then [...]
Although at the time of the publication of this report, many aspects of legal marriages were regulated by both statute and the common law, cohabitation between unmarried couples was not. This paper addresses the issue of the law as related to heterosexual cohabiting couples (homosexual couples and purely economic relationships were not addressed) by reviewing the (then-current) law in Alberta, as well as raising several legal issues that needed to be considered regarding cohabiting couples. [...]
The Public Inquiries Act, RSA 1980, c P-29, invested the Lieutenant Governor in Council with the power to create public inquiries, when he or she deemed it expedient so to do, on any matter within the jurisdiction of the Province which was connected with its good government or public business. Aside from its function in regulating public inquiries (and their especially the commissioners), the Act is often used as a reference to describe the powers given [...]
At the time of this paper's publication, certain types of professionals (namely, accountants, lawyers, and certain health care professionals) were required to work in a setting of "unlimited liability," meaning that the individual professionals could be held liable for debts and other liabilities incurred by the company for which they worked. This paper addresses the issue of that unlimited liability, and suggests that there was a "liability crisis" at the time, and therefore an urgent [...]
