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- Condominium (6)
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- British Columbia; Land Title Act; Property; Title Registration; Torrens system; Indefeasible title; Mortgages; Risk; Title Insurance (1)
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- Ownership; property; land; condominium; strata title; freehold; housing; anti-social behaviour; spatial organization; eviction; sale; contempt of court; mental disorder; Ontario; British Columbia (1)
- Personal Property Security; Marshalling; Secured Creditors; Priority (1)
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- Property; condominium; ownership; land; anti-social behaviour; short-term rental; collective sales (1)
- Property; land; title registration; Torrens; notice; equity; fraud; security; risk; British Columbia; Canada; Australia; New Zealand; United Kingdom (1)
- Property; law; land; intellectual property; legal history; United States (1)
- Property; regulatory taking; constructive taking; de facto expropriation; constitutional rights; courts; Vancouver; railway; city (1)
- Property; sovereignty; Indian reserves; cities; Canada (1)
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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Law
Tending Gardens, Ploughing Fields, And The Unexamined Drift To Constructive Takings At Common Law, Douglas C. Harris
Tending Gardens, Ploughing Fields, And The Unexamined Drift To Constructive Takings At Common Law, Douglas C. Harris
All Faculty Publications
Expropriation law in Canada has operated on the basis of two presumptions at common law: that compensation is owing for the compulsory acquisition of property unless specifically indicated otherwise by statute; and, that no compensation is owing for land use regulation unless specifically provided for by statute. In its decision in Annapolis Group Inc. v Halifax Regional Municipality, the Supreme Court of Canada abandoned the second presumption that compensation for land use regulation required a statutory foundation. The majority and dissent proceed on the unexamined foundation that there is a common law basis for compensation in claims for constructive takings …
A Liberal Theory Of Property In Condominium, Douglas C. Harris
A Liberal Theory Of Property In Condominium, Douglas C. Harris
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The building engineer’s report on the low-rise condominium apartment building details the scope of work required. The roof is leaking, the elevator requires seismic upgrading, the windows and exterior siding are failing, and the heating system needs rebuilding. Although the owners of the individual apartments have been paying monthly fees in anticipation of these common property expenses, each owner faces a substantial special levy to cover the expected costs. The land developer’s offer to purchase the complex is eye-popping. Anticipating that the city will permit it to demolish the existing building and construct a high-rise condominium apartment tower on the …
A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions, And Commentary, 5th Ed., Preface And Table Of Contents, Douglas C. Harris, Jeremy De Beer, Tenille E. Brown, Patricia L. Farnese
A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions, And Commentary, 5th Ed., Preface And Table Of Contents, Douglas C. Harris, Jeremy De Beer, Tenille E. Brown, Patricia L. Farnese
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Nobody has been more influential over the past generation in the teaching of property law in Canada than Bruce Ziff. His Principles of Property Law is the foundational textbook on the subject. A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions, and Commentary, which he first published as a sole author in 2004, has become, over three subsequent editions, the most widely used teaching material for property law in the country. Bruce retired from teaching property law in 2019. His retirement left major holes not only at the University of Alberta, where he taught for decades, but also throughout Canada in terms of …
Condominium: A Transformative Innovation In Property And Local Government, Douglas C. Harris
Condominium: A Transformative Innovation In Property And Local Government, Douglas C. Harris
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Condominium is a form of ownership that produces separate parcels of land and a structure of local government within multi-unit developments. As one form of common interest community, condominium packages private property with a co-ownership interest in common property and rights to participate in the governing organisation. A statutory innovation, the condominium form has been adopted in jurisdictions around the world and has quickly become the dominant form of land ownership for new-build housing in many cities. As an increasingly prominent feature of urban real estate, condominium is changing the nature of ownership and of local government, and is one …
Embedded Property, Douglas C. Harris
Embedded Property, Douglas C. Harris
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The institution of property arises in the tension between autonomy and community. It serves not simply to demarcate spaces of individual control and authority, but also to balance individual with collective interests. Private property and common property emphasize individual and collective interests, respectively, but the bifurcation may not be as stark as it appears. Condominium constructs separate titles to individual units, and these private interests are carefully mapped in a constituting plan that marks their boundaries. Democratic rights, usually conveyed in the form of shares in a condominium corporation, are the third element of ownership within condominium. The analysis reveals …
Condominium Government And The Right To Live In The City, Douglas C. Harris
Condominium Government And The Right To Live In The City, Douglas C. Harris
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Condominium is an architecture of land ownership that produces separate, privately owned units within multi-unit developments. Condominium also constructs a form of private, democratic government, described as a fourth order of government, that acts beneath federal and provincial governments, and alongside municipal government, to govern owners and their property. This article considers a conflict between residential-unit owners and a commercial-unit owner within a condominium development in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Drawing from material produced in litigation, the article situates the dispute within its property and urban contexts to argue that condominium government requires attention, and not just for its impact on …
Regulating Short-Term Accommodation Within Condominium, Douglas C. Harris
Regulating Short-Term Accommodation Within Condominium, Douglas C. Harris
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Owning land within condominium, or strata property as it is known in British Columbia, includes holding an individual strata lot, a share of the common property, and the right to participate in governing the uses of the private and common property. Owners participate in governing through membership and voting rights in a strata corporation which has the responsibility to maintain the common property and the authority to establish bylaws that restrict the use of the common and private property. The corollary of membership and a voice in the affairs of the strata corporation is a duty to accept its governing …
An Error Of Law And The Credibility Of The Civil Resolution Tribunal, Douglas C. Harris, Sophie Marshall
An Error Of Law And The Credibility Of The Civil Resolution Tribunal, Douglas C. Harris, Sophie Marshall
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No abstract provided.
When Deciding Whether To Allow A Taking Of Property We Need To Ask What We Want Property Rights To Do, Douglas C. Harris
When Deciding Whether To Allow A Taking Of Property We Need To Ask What We Want Property Rights To Do, Douglas C. Harris
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In recognition of the dangers inherent to a regime that enables a majority of owners to terminate the individual property interests of a dissenting minority, the Strata Property Act requires that strata corporations secure court confirmation of dissolution votes. Not surprisingly, the shift to a lower dissolution threshold, the rapidly rising land values in British Columbia’s urban centres, and the increased costs of maintaining aging buildings, have precipitated a growing number of dissolution votes and a steady flow of applications to the British Columbia Supreme Court (BCSC) to confirm the votes.
Property In The City: Special Edition Introduction, Douglas C. Harris, Graham Reynolds
Property In The City: Special Edition Introduction, Douglas C. Harris, Graham Reynolds
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Cities concern themselves with the organization of space. Their principal work involves the mapping, zoning, regulating, taxing, developing, owning, protecting, patrolling, and servicing of land. As a result, cities exert considerable control over the rights of use that property owners enjoy, but they also make many uses possible through the building of infrastructure and the provision of services. However, the effects are not unidirectional; the institution of property is not simply inert clay in the hands of a city. Cities govern the actions of owners and, by extension, shape the institution of property, but this multidimensional institution is, in turn, …
Property And Sovereignty: An Indian Reserve And A Canadian City, Douglas C. Harris
Property And Sovereignty: An Indian Reserve And A Canadian City, Douglas C. Harris
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Property rights, wrote Morris Cohen in 1927, are delegations of sovereign power. They are created by the state and operate to establish limits on its power. As such, the allocation of property rights is an exercise of sovereignty and a limited delegation of it. Sixty years later, Joseph Singer used Cohen’s conceptual framing in a critical review of developments in American Indian law. Where the US Supreme Court had the opportunity to label an American Indian interest as either a sovereign interest or a property interest, he argued, it invariably chose to the disadvantage of the Indians. Within Canada, Indigenous …
Owning And Dissolving Strata Property, Douglas C. Harris
Owning And Dissolving Strata Property, Douglas C. Harris
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Strata or condominium property creates multiple privately owned lots or units within an association of owners. Dissolving strata property involves winding-up the association and terminating the private interests. As a result, the non-consensual dissolution of strata property involves the taking of property from those owners who oppose dissolution. The owners of individual lots become co-owners of the land formerly within the association, but the non-consenting owners have their property interests in separate lots taken from them. Beginning with the observation that non-consensual dissolution of strata property results in a taking of property, this article analyzes British Columbia’s move to facilitate …
Anti-Social Behaviour, Expulsion From Condominium, And The Reconstruction Of Ownership, Douglas C. Harris
Anti-Social Behaviour, Expulsion From Condominium, And The Reconstruction Of Ownership, Douglas C. Harris
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Statutory condominium regimes facilitate massive increases in the density of owners. The courts are responding to this spatial reorganization of ownership by reconstructing what it means to be the owner of an interest in land. This article analyzes the ten cases over eight years (2008-2015) in which Canadian courts grant eviction and sale orders against owners within condominium for anti-social behaviour. The expulsion orders are new. Until these cases, ownership within condominium in Canadian common law jurisdictions was thought to be as robust as ownership outside condominium such that owners could not be evicted from and forced to sell their …
Enforcing Takings Clauses In China, Jie Cheng
Enforcing Takings Clauses In China, Jie Cheng
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Property rights are considered fundamental in constitutional jurisprudence and essential for economic development. However, China’s economic growth over the past 30 years has posed a special paradox to many theorists: for some, it is a mysterious phenomenon that China could continue rapid growth for a few decades without proper contract law until 1999 and without constitutional private property rights until after 2004. For others, the lack of property rights explains the social unrests arising from land-taking and the potential risk of non-sustainability of further development. This does not mean that there is no property protection in China; both the Constitution …
Title Registration And The Abolition Of Notice In British Columbia, Douglas C. Harris, May Au
Title Registration And The Abolition Of Notice In British Columbia, Douglas C. Harris, May Au
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Systems of land law must balance competing goals of securing title for existing interests in land with facilitating their transfer. Title registration systems operate to facilitate transfers of interests in land. They reflect a choice to enhance the security of transfers of interests, providing what has been characterized as dynamic security at the expense of the static security of existing interests. One of the cardinal principles of title registration is the abolition of the doctrine of notice. In equity, if purchasers of a legal interest have notice of a prior equitable interest, then they take their interest subject to that …
Finding Nemo Dat In The Land Title Act: A Comment On Gill V. Bucholtz, Douglas C. Harris, Karin Mickelson
Finding Nemo Dat In The Land Title Act: A Comment On Gill V. Bucholtz, Douglas C. Harris, Karin Mickelson
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This comment reviews the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Gill v. Bucholtz and explores the implications for the allocation of risk in the province’s title registration system. The case involved a rogue who forged the transfer of a fee simple and registered that transfer. The person on title, also a party to the fraud, then transferred two mortgages to bona fide purchasers. The purchasers of these charges held title insurance. The question before the court was whether the title registration system’s assurance fund would compensate the original holder of the fee simple interest for the mortgages …
A Railway, A City, And The Public Regulation Of Private Property: Cpr V. City Of Vancouver, Douglas C. Harris
A Railway, A City, And The Public Regulation Of Private Property: Cpr V. City Of Vancouver, Douglas C. Harris
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The doctrine of regulatory or constructive taking establishes limits on the public regulation of private property in much of the common law world. When public regulation becomes unduly onerous — so as, in effect, to take a property interest from a private owner — the public will be required to compensate the owner for its loss. In 2000, the City of Vancouver passed a by-law that limited the use of a century-old rail line to a public thoroughfare. The Canadian Pacific Railway, which owned the line, claimed the regulation amounted to a taking of its property for which the city …
Book Review Of American Property: A History Of How, Why, And What We Own, By Stuart Banner, Douglas C. Harris
Book Review Of American Property: A History Of How, Why, And What We Own, By Stuart Banner, Douglas C. Harris
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Property Law is about things, but only secondarily. It is primarily about relationships between people as they pertain to things. As a result, although we commonly identify material and immaterial things as private, common, or state property, property law deals with the subset of human relationships that determines rights and responsibilities with respect to things. The institution of property law — the rules that define this subset of human relationships — arises in the context of scarcity. When things are scarce and accordingly hold exchange value, humans construct ideas of ownership. We have been doing so for millennia, or at …
Book Review Of The Law Of The Land: The Advent Of The Torrens System In Canada, By Greg Taylor (Toronto: Osgoode Society For Canadian Legal History, 2008), Douglas C. Harris
Book Review Of The Law Of The Land: The Advent Of The Torrens System In Canada, By Greg Taylor (Toronto: Osgoode Society For Canadian Legal History, 2008), Douglas C. Harris
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Systems for recording interests in land are not the subject of much public interest or concern in Canada. Occasionally a sympathetic victim of egregious fraud receives some media attention, but generally the land system operates quietly in the background. This has not always been so, and Greg Taylor's history of Torrens or title registration in Canada reveals a nineteenth century during which the merits and limitations of the common law, deeds registration, and title registration systems were vigorously and publicly debated. Eventually, title registration based on a model first developed in South Australia would prevail in the provinces and territories …
Power Without Property, Still: Unger, Berle, And The Derivatives Revolution, Cristie Ford, Carol Liao
Power Without Property, Still: Unger, Berle, And The Derivatives Revolution, Cristie Ford, Carol Liao
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This paper was produced for “In Berle’s Footsteps,” a symposium marking the launch of the Adolf A. Berle, Jr. Center on Corporations, Law and Society at the University of Seattle School of Law. It considers the light that the “derivatives revolution” sheds on the theoretical perspectives of Roberto Unger and Adolf Berle. While an unlikely pair, both Unger and Berle focused, in different ways, on the same issues: property, the power associated with property, and the impact of “smashing the atom” of traditional property rights. For Unger, breaking down consolidated property holding at the societal level was a pro-democratic move. …
Indefeasible Title In British Columbia: A Comment On The November 2005 Amendments To The Land Title Act, Douglas C. Harris
Indefeasible Title In British Columbia: A Comment On The November 2005 Amendments To The Land Title Act, Douglas C. Harris
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In November 2005, as part of an omnibus statute amending 11 different acts, the British Columbia government made several significant changes to BC's Land Title Act. The government announced that the changes to the title registration system would 'ensure immediate legal certainty of land title for a person acting in good faith, who unknowingly acquired a fee simple interest in the property through a forged transfer, provided the individual did not participate in the fraud'. In an effort to assuage fears of those who had acquired interests in a system that, if it needed to be fixed, had been somewhat …
Private Property And Tax Policy In A Libertarian World: A Critical Review, David G. Duff
Private Property And Tax Policy In A Libertarian World: A Critical Review, David G. Duff
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The idea that taxes involve the confiscation of private property is widely held in popular thinking and scholarly writing. This article challenges the libertarian foundations of this assumption by critically examining libertarian theories of private property and their implications for tax policy. Part II summarizes the leading libertarian theories of private property, reviewing John Locke's argument in the Second Treatise of Government and Robert Nozick's account in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Part III examines the implications of these libertarian theories for tax policy, considering libertarian prescriptions for substantive tax measures as well as institutional arrangements that affect tax policy outcomes. …
Marshalling And The Personal Property Security Acts: Doing Unto Others…, Bruce Macdougall
Marshalling And The Personal Property Security Acts: Doing Unto Others…, Bruce Macdougall
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Where a senior creditor has access to two funds from the same debtor to satisfy its claims and the junior creditor has access to only one of these funds, it could be equitable to expect that the senior creditor satisfy itself out of the fund in which the junior creditor does not have an interest. Where a court makes an order based on this principle, it has invoked the doctrine of marshalling, sometimes called the two-fund rule.' Marshalling is an equitable doctrine and therein lies its strengths and weaknesses. Equity gives it its flexibility, adaptibility and utility. Equity also gives …