Professor Cantin Cumyn on legal powers

Madeleine Cantin Cumyn, Arnold Wainwright Professor of Civil Law, presented the Wainwright Lecture last night at the Faculty. Her elegant and rigorous paper examined the notion of legal powers (pouvoir juridique) as against that of legal rights (droit subjectif) in the civil law tradition.

Drawing on examples taken from across the spectrum of private law, and notably from the law relating to the administration of the property of others, Professor Cantin Cumyn offered the first comprehensive theory of legal powers in Quebec civil law.

Professors from law faculties across Quebec and members of the judiciary joined colleagues from McGill to toast her work afterwards at a cocktail reception in the Atrium.

Funded by a generous bequest from the late Arnold Wainwright, QC (1879-1967), BA 1899, BCL'02, DCL'63, a distinguished advocate and teacher, the Wainwright Trust promotes the scholarly study of the Civil Law of Quebec at McGill.