The legal concept of property is fluid and dynamic. It evolves over time in relation to “changes in the purposes which society or the dominant classes in society expect the institution of property to serve” [CB Macpherson in Mary Jane Mossman & William F Flanagan, eds, Property Law Cases and Commentary (Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications) [...]

Last Friday, the SCC released a decision that may prove to be the big catch the Canadian fishing industry was waiting for. In Saulnier v. Royal Bank of Canada, 2008 SCC 58, fishing licenses were held to be ‘property’ for the purposes of the federal Banking and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) and Nova Scotia’s Personal Property [...]

On January 23, 2008, the SCC heard the case Royal Bank of Canada v. Saulnier, on appeal from the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. This bankruptcy law case (which has been discussed by Brad Caldwell at TheCourt.ca on January 23, 2008 in a post entitled, “Fishing Licenses as Security for Loans – An Incremental Step [...]

Editor’s note: Today, the SCC hears its appeal in Royal Bank of Canada v. Saulnier (31622). Reproduced below, with permission, is an article that first appeared in the April 2006 edition of Mariner Life which discusses the trial level decision of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court when it was released. While the case has been [...]