Conflict of laws, or private international law as it is sometimes called, takes on greater importance with each passing year. Globalization is eroding borders in commercial transactions and family relationships, yet much law remains highly territorial. Professors Pitel and Rafferty have written a highly readable and thoughtful treatise that explains and analyzes the rules of the conflict of laws in force in common law Canada in a clear and concise manner. Understanding the conflict of laws allows lawyers, judges, scholars, and students to better address any legal situation that crosses borders, whether international or interprovincial.

Stephen G.A. Pitel has a B.A. from Carleton University, an LL.B. from Dalhousie University, and an LL.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. He has co-authored, edited, or co-edited eight books since 2003 including Litigating Conspiracy: An Analysis of Competition Class Actions (2006) and Emerging Issues in Tort Law (2007). His teaching and research is focused on international commercial litigation, civil procedure, torts, unjust enrichment, and legal ethics. His articles on private international law have been published in the Canadian Bar Review, Canadian Business Law Journal, Journal of Private International Law, and Advocates’ Quarterly. In 2008 he received Western’s Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. A former commercial litigator, he has an extensive background in coaching trial and appellate advocacy.

Stephen G.A. Pitel's profile page

Nicholas S. Rafferty obtained an undergraduate and a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge and a further master’s degree from the University of Illinois. He started teaching at the University of Manitoba in 1975. He is currently a Professor of Law at the University of Calgary, where he has taught since 1977, and he is a member of the Alberta Bar. His teaching and research interests include Conflict of Laws, contracts, and torts. He has written extensively in those and other areas. He is presently the general editor of Private International Law in Common Law Canada: Cases, Text, and Materials (2d ed., 2003), a third edition of which is expected in 2010. He has received several awards for teaching and scholarship, including the University of Calgary President’s Circle Award for Achievement in Teaching Excellence in 2000 and the Distinguished Service Award from the Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association for distinguished service in legal scholarship in 2007.

Nicholas S. Rafferty's profile page

"It is a rare pleasure to have the opportunity to review a new Canadian text on the conflict of laws. Written by two well-known specialists in the field, Professors Stephen G.A. Pitel and Nicholas Rafferty of the Faculties of Law of the University of Western Ontario and the University of Calgary respectively, Conflict of Laws is a welcome to addition to the literature and to the Irwin Essentials series. It fills an important need for a clear and concise discussion on the subject that is highly readable and thoughtful, and it admirably fulfils the mandate of the Irwin Essentials series to "offer serious but succinct treatments of the subjects that make up today's legal environment. . . . From the outset, Professors Pitel and Rafferty make their mark on the subject with a structure for the work of their own devising. Having identified the "three central questions" (jurisdiction, applicable law, judgments), they go on to note that three particular topics (domicile/residence, exclusion of foreign law, foreign currency obligations) "are relevant, in differing ways, to each question" and so should be treated first. Later on, in moving directly from the question of jurisdiction to that of judgments, they observe that since these topics "have more in common with each other than either does with the second central question, choice of law[,]. . . it makes sense to examine these topics in order. . . . All in all, they strike a good balance between traditional and topical concerns, between a comprehensive narrative and a focus on issues of particular significance, and between current developments in Canada and abroad; and they do so with considerable fluidity. The authors are to be congratulated for making what has often thought to be a difficult subject seem easy. And for a subject that they rightly note "takes on greater importance with each passing year," this is an especially welcome achievement."

Janet Walker, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School in Volume 49 of the Canadian Business Law Journal