Choice of Court Agreements in Common Law Canada

Abstract

This contribution canvasses the treatment of choice of court agreements in the law of the Canadian common law provinces. It outlines the statutory and common law sources relevant to the enforcement of such clauses by courts as well as some key judgments, including the 2017 Supreme Court decision in Douez v Facebook. The upshot is that Canadian courts largely enforce choice of court agreements but that the methodology used to assess the diverse types of clauses, including optional and exclusive clauses, is not always coherent or consistent. It concludes that reform would be useful to provide more direction to courts and predictability for parties.