Western Law faculty uphold Gerald Fridman’s legacy with seventh edition of contract law treatise
December 02, 2024
A team of Western Law faculty members are honouring the legacy of the late Professor Emeritus Gerald Fridman with the publication of Fridman's The Law of Contract in Canada, Seventh Edition. The seventh edition of this leading contract treatise was published in September 2024 by Thomson Reuters Canada. It is the first edition to be released since Fridman’s death in 2017 and has been renamed in his memory.
Fridman joined Western Law in 1975 and was associated with the faculty for more than 40 years. After becoming an emeritus professor in 1994, he maintained a strong collegial presence in the faculty’s scholarly activities. Fridman remains one of Canada’s most prolific authors of legal texts, articles and case notes in the field of private law. His work remains highly influential; it has been cited in more than 50 Supreme Court of Canada decisions and in hundreds of lower court decisions.
Six members of the authorial team for this revised edition have ties to Western Law. Professor Jason Neyers served as general editor and lead author while professors Joanna Langille and Manish Oza, former professors Carl MacArthur (Department of Finance) and Mitchell McInnes (Alberta) and law doctoral student Mary Ppasiou contributed as co-authors. They were joined by Samuel Beswick (UBC), Greg Bowley (UNB), Jennifer Nadler (Odgoode) and Stéphane Sérafin (Ottawa).
“Serving as the general editor on this project has been an honour,” said Professor Neyers. “I am delighted to keep the legacy of our renowned colleague, Gerald Fridman, alive; and to have done that with my colleagues at Western and other excellent private law scholars from across Canada.”
Canadian contract law has undergone significant changes since the previous edition was published 12 years ago, particularly in relation to the doctrines of good faith and unconscionability. The treatise has been updated to accurately describe these changes while retaining the core of Fridman’s perspective on the law of contract.
In Fridman’s view, contract is best understood as protecting the rights of the parties created through their contractual relation rather than as a means (or an obstacle) to the balancing of policies, morality, efficiency and expectations. In elucidating this traditional view of contract law, the seventh edition of Fridman’s The Law of Contract in Canada is an unparalleled asset of doctrinal scholarship in Canadian contract law that will continue to guide the development of the law by Canadian courts.
