Professional LLM in Financial Law

Credits: 3.0

This course will be a primer for non-lawyer students. It will provide non-lawyers with foundational legal knowledge on: banking law and banking regulation in Canada and bankruptcy and insolvency.

The course will teach students the fundamentals pertaining to the legal framework that governs banking in Canada, their operations and principal transactions. In addition, the course will teach students about the legal aspects of payments, financial instruments, and give students an overview of banking within the larger financial industry in Canada. On the lending side, the course will provide students with foundational knowledge on lending, security, bankruptcy and insolvency

It should be noted this introductory course will be a substantive law course. There is another mandatory course for non-lawyers across all the specializations, GS LAW 6149 – Introduction to Graduate Legal Studies, which will provide students with the basic research and analytical skills required for graduate legal study.

*Note: Students with a law degree and experience in financial services law may request exemption at enrolment from taking this course.

Credits: 3.0

This foundational course introduces students to banking and financial services fundamentals. It is designed to provide students with an overview as to the function of banking and the legal framework that governs banking institutions, their operations and principal transactions. The course explains the concept of banking in the broader context of financial intermediation, financial instruments including bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes; payment methods and trade financing techniques, the banking system in the broader context of the financial system in Canada; bank deposits, lending and security; insolvency in a broader debtor and creditor relationship context; corporations, corporate governance and securities, and real estate transactions. The purpose of the course is to set the stage for in-depth study of all such subjects in the more detailed courses on respective topics that follow.

Credits: 3.0

The focus of this course is the legal principles and practical aspects of the granting of credit and the taking of security by Canadian financial institutions, having regard to the security provisions in the Canadian Bank Act and the personal property security legislation in force in various provinces. The first half of the course deals with the creation, perfection, priorities and enforcement of security interests outside bankruptcy. The second half focuses on the treatment of security interests in bankruptcy, with particular attention paid to the secured creditor’s position in the reorganizations of insolvent businesses.

Credits: 3.0

This course will explore the law and policy of the American bankruptcy system as it relates to addressing problems of financially distressed corporations and their creditors and other stakeholders. As much as possible, this course will be comparative in nature.

Credits: 3.0

This course will take an in-depth look at anti-money laundering and other financial crimes (i.e. other fraud schemes, capital market manipulation, terrorist financing) within the financial services sector. The course will also examine the various domestic and international legal protections against such crimes.

Credits: 3.0

This course is concerned with the private law aspects governing banking, negotiable instruments, payment mechanisms, and securities transfers. It covers major selected aspects of:
(1) negotiable instruments (notes, bills and cheques under the Bills of Exchange Act),
(2) the bank and customer relationship (bank accounts and deposits, bank secrecy, bank’s liability, etc.),
(3) the payment system (including under Canadian Payments Association Act),
(4) payment cards,
(5) domestic and international electronic and paper based funds transfers (including under UCC Article 4A and UNCITRAL Model Law), (6) letters of credits (under the ICC Uniform Customs and Practices), and (7) transfer of securities in paper and paperless as well as in direct and indirect holding systems.

Credits: 3.0

This course will begin with an overview of behavioural economics and the primary decision-making biases that affect bankruptcy — time-inconsistent preferences and the status quo bias are two examples. We will take up the question of how creditors sometimes take advantage of these biases to lead some people into financial trouble. That discussion will then lead us to ask how regulation could be better designed to reduce overindebtedness. As part of that discussion, we will take up specific features of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act that either are informed by or should be informed by the tenets of behavioural economics.

Credits: 6.0

A new course focused on the various corporate governance and compliance functions within the financial services sector.

Credits: 3.0

Consumer bankruptcies in Canada greatly outnumber business bankruptcies. Paradoxically, however, consumer bankruptcies have continued at high levels while the economy is improving and interest rates have fallen significantly. This course will address the major issues that are presented by consumer bankruptcies and examine the economic and social reasons underlying the current level of consumer insolvencies and the various approaches that are available to deal with consumer bankruptcies. Is the Canadian system dealing fairly and effectively with consumer bankruptcies and, if not, why not? In examining approaches to dealing with consumer bankruptcies, we will focus on both community-based and legislative solutions from other jurisdictions.

Credits: 3.0

A new course which examines the role of insurance companies in the financial services sector, as well as the regulation of insurance companies and products.

Credits: 3.0

The point of departure of this course is the basic insolvency premise that creditors should be treated equally. The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and other legislative provisions, however, have created a significant list of exceptions to the premise and, in the non-statutory context, commercial transactions are often structured with a view to creating priority positions for non-debtor parties. What role do priority claims, and anti-preference rules, serve in the bankruptcy process? Are there better ways of achieving the goals that legislative priorities seek to achieve? While the focus of the course will be the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, we will also examine the constitutional issues which arise in respect of governmental priorities and the impact of bankruptcy on various types of claims.

Credits: 3.0

Secured lending and credit play an enormous role in Canada’s economy, and modern legislation expressly facilitates secured transactions. This course will analyze the growth and development of secured creditors in Canada. It will discuss the objects and purposes of secured credit and consider whether the current system meets them efficiently and effectively. Comparisons will be made with the experience of other major commercial economies.

This course will also deal with the remedies that are available to secured creditors in an insolvency, particularly the nature and extent of the receivership remedy and the contrasts between court and privately-appointed receivers. The course will review other remedies available to secured creditors, the responsibilities of secured creditors in enforcement situations, the rights of debtors and guarantors and the supervisory role of the courts over creditors and enforcement. It will also analyze the differing U.S. and U.K. systems governing the rights and remedies of secured creditors.

Credits: 6.0

This course examines the manner in which Canada regulates financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, securities dealers and investment fund managers. Among the topics that will be discussed will be the constitutional authority to regulate, the policy approach to regulation, limits on business powers, capital, governance, supervision and anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.

Credits: 3.0

One of the major issues that any insolvency system must address is the choice between preferring the liquidation of an enterprise, on the one hand, and its reorganization, on the other, and there is continuing debate about the economic efficiency of reorganization. An insolvency system must be responsive to the economic and credit considerations presented by the financial difficulties of businesses and individuals. This course will consider the tensions that exist in an insolvency system between liquidations and reorganizations and the manner in which Canada’s insolvency system attempts to achieve a legislatively-mandated balance between the two. Very few businesses have been untouched by some aspect of reorganization but the theory and practice of reorganizations and the contrasts between the CCAA and the BIA are not well known. This course will provide an in-depth review of reorganizational law and practice in Canada in comparison to the reorganizational systems of Canada’s major trading partners.

Credits: 3.0

Against the background of technological innovations, globalization and increased demand for social responsibility that have changed the face of the financial services industry, this course deals with selected legal aspects governing public interest issues. The course covers customer protection (particularly as to privacy), dispute resolution and competition in a paperless cross border environment. It will also examine moral and legal aspects of the social responsibilities of financial institutions.