Towards Reform of the Law Relating to Cohabitation Outside Marriage, Issues Paper 2

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. […]

October 4, 1987

Matrimonial Property: Division of Pension Benefits Upon Marriage Breakdown, Final Report 48

This report recommends amendments to the Matrimonial Property Act to improve the division of the benefits of a pension plan upon marriage breakdown. It covers all pension plans that fall under provincial jurisdiction or that can be reached by Alberta court orders. Recommendations are designed to achieve fairness, minimize the future entanglement of spouses’ financial affairs, encourage settlements, minimize financial and emotional costs, and protect the interests of the employers and other employees in pension plans and […]

August 2, 1986

Status of Children: Revised Report, Final Report 45

This report is a reissue and update from of Report 20, Status of Children, June 1976. The report provided detailed reasons and recommends that there will be one status for all children; that the legal relationship of child and parent be dependent on their biological relationship; that with the exception of parental guardianship, all rights and obligations of the child born out of wedlock, of a parent, or of any other person be determined in […]

November 1, 1985

Matrimonial Property: Division of Pension Benefits upon Marriage Breakdown, Report for Discussion 2

The Attorney General asked the Institute to study the division of pensions in the event of marriage breakdown with a view to proposing statutory guidelines to be used by the Court. This report provides tentative proposals that were followed up and solidified in the final report relating to pension plans registered under the Pension Benefits Act (Alberta), a number of Alberta public sector pension plans, and non-Alberta pension plans under which Alberta law will be applied to […]

May 2, 1985

Survey of Adult Living Arrangements: A Technical Report, Research Paper 15

This paper is a survey of issues related to couples living together outside of marriage. It addresses the attitudes of non-maritally cohabitants toward relevant legal issues, the reasons that the couples chose to nonmaritally cohabitate, and the reasons that they chose to continue living that way. The survey also addresses the socio-economic characteristics of non-married and married cohabitants, as well as the characteristics of their family life.

November 3, 1984

Protection of Children’s Interests in Custody Disputes, Final Report 43

The amicus curiae procedure, describes a lawyer who is appointed to ensure that the Judge receives all necessary information so that he may decide who should have custody of a child or children involved in a custody dispute. The amicus curiae arranges for expert professionals to investigate the circumstances of the child and child’s family and to form opinions as to where the child’s best interests lie. A majority of cases utilizing an amicus curiae […]

October 1, 1984

Conference Materials, International Invitational Conference on Matrimonial and Child Support, 27-30 May 1981, Research Paper 14

This report is a summary of a conference held to discuss the results of Research Paper #13, Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles and Perceptions of Individuals Involved. The report includes four speeches given at that conference, viz.: “Paying of Maintenance in Sweden,” by Anders Agell; “Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles, and Perceptions of Individuals Involved, a Commentary,” by Judith Cassetty; “Maintenance in Britain,” by Colin Gibson; and “The Economics of Divorce: Social and Economic Consequences […]

October 3, 1982

Income Support Systems for Family Dependants on Marriage Breakdown: An Examination of Fundamental Policy Questions

August 1, 1982

Income Support Systems for Family Dependants on Marriage Breakdown: An Examination of Fundamental Policy Questions

Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles and Perceptions of Individuals Involved: Volume 1 Summary Report, Volume 2 Technical Reports, Research Paper 13

This report was created in order to aid the reform of the matrimonial and child support system in Alberta. Before its publication, there was little data regarding the reasons for failure in the (then) extant system. The report analyzes data from the Supreme Court (now Court of Queen’s Bench) in Edmonton and Calgary, the Family Courts in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, and Grande Prairie, door-to-door surveys of those involved with maintenance orders, and a study of […]

March 3, 1981