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Canadian Courts And Uniform Interpretation - An Empirical Reality Check, Joshua D H Karton, Samantha Wynne

Joshua Karton

The uniform interpretation of uniform law instruments is justifiably a preoccupation of the international uniform law community. However, despite the issue’s importance to the success of legal harmonisation efforts, remarkably little is known about how national courts actually interpret international uniform laws. The literature remains almost entirely anecdotal; no systematic study has been made of the courts of even one state or region to determine whether, as a group, they do or do not interpret international uniform law instruments with an eye to the international legal context.

This article describes an empirical study of Canadian courts’ interpretations of five representative …