Mitchell McInnes, BA (Alberta), LLB (Alberta), LLM (Cambridge), PhD (Cambridge)

About

Professor Mitchell McInnes joined the Faculty of Law in 2005. He previously taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Melbourne, and Deakin University in Australia. He clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada and served as a Legal Research Officer with the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Professor McInnes’ research focuses on Unjust Enrichment, Restitution, Trusts, Torts, Contracts, and Remedies. He is the author of The Canadian Law of Unjust Enrichment and Restitution (2014), co-author of Managing the Law: The Legal Aspects of Doing Business (2002, 2006, 2010, 2013), Oosterhoff on Trusts: Text, Commentary and Cases on Trusts(2004, 2009), Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (2000, 2003, 2007, 2011), and Cases and Materials on the Law of Restitution(2004), and editor of Understanding Unjust Enrichment (2006) and Restitution: Developments in Unjust Enrichment (1996).

In addition, Professor McInnes has published more than one hundred articles, comments, and reviews in leading journals, including the Law Quarterly Review, the Cambridge Law Journal, the Canadian Bar Review, and the University of Toronto Law Journal. His work has been relied upon by a number of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the High Court of Australia, and the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

Professor McInnes has received the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the University of Alberta’s highest teaching award (2011), and the Tevie H Miller Teaching Excellence Award, the Faculty of Law’s highest teaching award (2008). While teaching at the University of Western Ontario, he received the University of Western Ontario’s Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Legal Society’s Professor of the Year, and the Edward G Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been recognized by McLean’s magazine as one of Canada’s leading university teachers.

Publications

Research

• Unjust Enrichment
• Tort Law
• Contract Law
• Trusts
• Wills
• Remedies

LAW 410A - Contracts

A discussion of the prerequisites to the creation of contractual obligation: offer and acceptance, intention and certainty, consideration, the requirements of writing and capacity. The effect of misrepresentations and terms of the contract, together with the problems of exclusion clauses and of standard form contracts. Questions of discharge from contractual obligation on the grounds of mistake, undue influence, duress, unconscionable transactions and frustration. Remedies for breach of contract.

LAW 410B - Contracts

A discussion of the prerequisites to the creation of contractual obligation: offer and acceptance, intention and certainty, consideration, the requirements of writing and capacity. The effect of misrepresentations and terms of the contract, together with the problems of exclusion clauses and of standard form contracts. Questions of discharge from contractual obligation on the grounds of mistake, undue influence, duress, unconscionable transactions and frustration. Remedies for breach of contract.

LAW 580 - Trusts

A brief survey of the historical development of the trust. Definition and classification of trusts. Creation of express trust; the three certainties. Completely and incompletely constituted trusts. Secret, protective, discretionary and illusory trusts. Charitable trust and the rule against perpetuities. Cy-pres doctrine. Non-charitable purpose trusts. Implied or resulting trusts. Constructive trusts. Revocation, termination and variation of trusts. The appointment, retirement and removal of trustees. Duties, discretion and powers of trustees. Breach of trust.

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