The Law of the Land: The Advent of the Torrens System in Canada by Greg Taylor

Authors

  • Marie-Ann Bowden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/alr180

Abstract

As a former history student and erstwhile professor of first-year property, The Law of the Land: The Advent of the Torrens System in Canada by Greg Taylor offered me an opportunity to engage in academic reading with just a hint of “night table book” indulgence. As the title suggests, the author carefully traces the development of the Torrens registration system in Australia and its subsequent reception within Canada — an undertaking that even those within the legal profession may find as dry as the dust on the land titles records. However laborious the research, the book itself manages to bring history to life; chasing clues from Adelaide to the United Kingdom National Archives to the records of the Toronto Globe in an attempt to divine the motives and influences of the Torrens prophets and their opponents. The result is an original and interesting account incorporating law and politics spanning some 150 years of Canadian history.

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Published

2010-06-01

Issue

Vol 47, No 4

Section

Book Reviews

License

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