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Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

Journal

2016

Land

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

High Freshets And Low-Lying Farms: Property Law And St. John River Flooding In Colonial New Brunswick, Jason Hall Apr 2016

High Freshets And Low-Lying Farms: Property Law And St. John River Flooding In Colonial New Brunswick, Jason Hall

Dalhousie Law Journal

Although New Brunswick was founded on private land ownership, colonists who settled low-lying land along the St. John River found that the waterway's erratic flood cycle and ever-changing nature threatened their lives and farms, and thwarted their efforts to divide riverbanks and islands into fixed parcels of private property. This article draws upon colonial petitions, sessional court records, and colonial legislation in analyzing the response of the colonial legislature and of local governance to the challenge that the St. John River created for property rights and a private land management system dependent on static boundaries and fixed fences. In examining …


Death To Semelhago!, Bruce Ziff Apr 2016

Death To Semelhago!, Bruce Ziff

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the 1996 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Semelhago v. Paramadevan, Justice John Sopinka stated that it is no longer appropriate to assume that specific performance will issue as a matter of course to enforce a contract for the sale of land. Before performance will be ordered, it must be proven (and not assumed) that common law damages for breach of contract will not suffice to do justice. In this article, Semel hago and the case law generated in its aftermath will be reviewed, and the policy arguments pertaining to the current law addressed. In short, it …