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w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 17 Let the experts help you to narrow your search and save you research time. Canadian Patent Reporter has been Canada's leading intellectual property law report since 1942. This renowned resource, available online and in print, includes precedent-setting intellectual property law judicial and board decisions from across Canada. This publication provides practitioners with the leading decisions on patent, industrial design, copyright and trade-mark law. Topical catchlines in bold print show the key issues involved in each decision. Expert case selection, editing and headnoting are a tradition with Canadian Patent Reporter. Weekly updates via email and in print, plus an annual cumulative index volume, ensure that this publication continues to be the prime reference source for intellectual property case law. Includes eReports (weekly electronic pdf version) Stay current as cases are issued with eReports emailed weekly to your desktop, with topically indexed case summaries linked to the full text judgments. Edited by Marcus Gallie, Ridout & Maybee LLP Fourth Series (Volumes 1 to 65): Edited by Glen Bloom, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP First, Second and Third Series: Edited by Gowling, Strathy & Henderson Founding Editor: Gordon F. Henderson, C.C., Q.C., LL.D. Canadian Patent Reporter Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order # A26520-65203 $523 Subscription price includes parts, bound volume and eReports Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 00227MK-A47900 sure if it would today, Lord Denning's been dead a long time — but I don't think it would apply to me, given how I earned my living for many years. My change of attitude once I left legal practice got me thinking about the relationship between trust and law. It's clearly inverse. The less we trust each other, the more we rely on rules. That's true in private law, regulating dealings between people, and it's true in public law, governing the relationship between citizens and the state. If I'm doing busi- ness with someone I don't trust, I want a comprehensive, ironclad, enforceable contract. If the state is suspicious of its citizens, it will increase surveillance and limit freedom of expression. It will legislate An Act to enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immi- gration and Refugee Protection Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other acts (to give Bill C-51 its full, and frightening, name). Obviously a complex society like Canada, containing people with diverse interests and ambitions, and different cultural backgrounds and aspirations, cannot run on trust alone. We must have a framework of private and public law to regulate and resolve inevitable conflict. And the relationship between trust and law is intricate. Fair rules, fair- ly applied, stimulate trust. Living in a law-abiding society, provided it has the right laws and there are not too many of them, is reassuring. Ronald Reagan was on to something when (in the context of strategic arms limitation negotiations), he said, "trust, but verify." The trick is to find the right balance between trust and verification, between trust and law. I think that society is better off erring on the trust side of the equation. The more it relies on trust, the healthier it is, and the healthier it will become. A handshake is better than a written agreement. Why do I say this? There is no set of neat arguments in favour of the proposition. They should not be necessary. The proposition is self-evident. It is a mistake always to be filling in perceived, and perhaps imagi- nary, gaps in the social structure with complicated law. The more legalistic society becomes, the less cohesive it is. Eventually it will collapse, topple over, from its own legal weight. For obvious reasons, many lawyers find this point of view hard to accept. Here is an ethical dilemma at the heart of the profession. A lawyer's job is to lay on the law. His job is to reduce prob- lems and disputes, some with deep and complex origins, to neat legal issues that can be resolved — maybe — by a pon- derous and expensive legal mechanism available only to the rich and near rich. He works for an individual, a person or a corporation, in an adversary system. But, arguably, none of this benefits the broader community; indeed, it may be damaging. It's a profoundly worrying thought for members of the legal pro- fession. Or should be. Philip Slayton's latest book is Mayors Gone Bad.

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