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McGill.CA / Faculty of Law / Faculty Members

Yaëll Emerich

Full Professor
Canada Research Chair in Transsystemic Property and Sustainable Communities

3674 Peel Street
Room 303
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9

514-398-8638 [Office]
yaell.emerich [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Website: Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law.

Publications on SSRN:

Biography

Yaëll Emerich is a full professor at the McGill Faculty of Law and holds the (Tier 1)

Her interests include all facets of private and comparative law, legal theory, and the relationship between law and language. As a specialist in comparative and transsystemic property law, she teaches mainly Property Law and Secured Transactions, and is especially interested in the interplay between property law and major social issues, including environmental issues. She studies the relationship between property law and other major areas of law (property and environmental law, property and contract law, property and secured transactions, property and trusts, property and public law). She is always interested in supervising postgraduate research in these fields.

Professor Emerich is a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. She was the Director of the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law from 2016 to 2018, having been its Interim Director (2013) and continues to be a permanent Titular Member. She is also a member of the Québec Society of Comparative Law, the Henri-Capitant Association and the Québec Law Professors’ Association. Doctor in Private Law from Quebec and French Universities, she holds a post-doctorate from McGill, a master’s degree in Private Law from Paris II, a D.E.A. in Philosophy of Law from Paris II and a D.E.A in Private Law from Lyon 3, where she was a research fellow.

Professor Emerich’s monograph, entitled Conceptualising Property Law : Integrating Common law and Civil Law Traditions (Droit commun des biens : perspective transsystĂ©mique (Elgar,Ěý 2018) won the Walter Owen Book Prize, It also received a prize in the Legal Competition of the QuĂ©bec Bar Foundation and an honourable mention from the International Academy of Comparative Law. In 2022 sheĚýreceived the Germain Brière Prize (Senior Category) for her article “La rĂ©surgence des communs en droit des biens contemporain : Ă©tude sur les cohabitats Ă©cologiques et les ruelles vertes,” co-authored with François Peter-Edmond Rivard, BCL/JD’20.Ěý

Professor Emerich is the author of the monograph entitled The Ownership of Claims: A Comparative Approach (La propriété des créances : approche comparative, published by LGDJ (Paris) and les Éditions Yvon Blais in 2007), which won several prizes (Prix Minerve and the Quebec Law Professors’ Association Prize). In addition, she is the co-author of Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons-Property Law | Dictionnaire de droit privé et lexiques bilingues - Les biens (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2012) and Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons - Obligations | Dictionnaire de droit privé et lexiques bilingues - Les obligations (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2003). She was a contributing author for Dictionnaire des biens communs, edited by Marie Cornu, Fabienne Orsi & Judith Rochfeld (Presses Universitaires de France, 2017).

FInally, she has co-edited several books, including Coder-décoder : linguistique et concepts juridiques (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2020); Le public en droit privé (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2019); Repenser les paradigmes: approches transsystémiques du droit (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2018); and Access to Land and Social Issues | Accès à la terre et enjeux sociaux (Éditions Thémis, 2018).

Employment

  • Full Professor, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, Faculty of Law, 2020-
  • Visiting Professor, Sciences Po Paris, 2020
  • Director, Paul-AndrĂ© CrĂ©peau Center for Private and Comparative Law, 2016-2018
  • Acting Director, Paul-AndrĂ© CrĂ©peau Center for Private and Comparative Law, January 2013–June 2013
  • MacCormick Fellow, Edinburgh University, 2013
  • Visiting Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, 2013
  • Associate Professor, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, Faculty of Law, 2012–
  • Assistant Professor, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, Faculty of Law, 2006–2012
  • Advising Editor, LexisNexis, Jurisclasseur : Droit des sĂ»retĂ©s, 2010–2011
  • Visiting Professor, UniversitĂ© de Lyon, Faculty of Law, 2007
  • Legal Consultant on standardization of French vocabulary of the common law in Canada, Centre de traduction et terminologie juridiques, University of Moncton, 2006–
  • Project Director, Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, 2003–2006

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, 2006
  • Doctorate in Law (Ph.D.), UniversitĂ© de Lyon, 2004
  • Doctorate in Law (Ph.D.), UniversitĂ© de MontrĂ©al, 2004
  • D.E.A. (Master of Advanced Studies) in Private Law, UniversitĂ© de Lyon, 1997
  • D.E.A. (Master of Advanced Studies) in Philosophy of Law, UniversitĂ© PanthĂ©on-Assas (Paris II), 1996
  • Master’s in Private Law (LL.M.), UniversitĂ© PanthĂ©on-Assas (Paris II), 1995

Areas of Interest

Property law, Comparative law, Secured transactions, Environmental law, Legal theory, Jurilinguistics, Law and Literature.

Selected Publications

Books and Monographs

  • Conceptualising Property Law: Integrating Common Law and Civil Law Traditions, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018 (352 pages).
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, Droit commun des biens : perspective transsystĂ©mique (Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2017) 518 pages.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, La propriĂ©tĂ© des crĂ©ances. Approche comparative. Preface by FrĂ©dĂ©ric Zenati, collection Bibliothèque de droit privĂ©, tome 469 (Paris: LGDJ, 2007 / Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2006), 597 pages.
  • Publication collective, Dictionnaire des biens communs, Marie Cornu, Fabienne Orsi, Judith Rochfeld (dir.), Paris, Presses Universitaires de France (P.U.F.), 2017.
  • Dictionnaire de droit privĂ© et lexiques bilingues – Les biens (co-author), Quebec Centre for Private and Comparative Law (Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2012), approx. 300 pages.
  • Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons – Property Law (co-author), Quebec Centre for Private and Comparative Law (Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2012) approx. 300 pages.
  • Dictionnaire de droit privĂ© et lexiques bilingues – Les obligations (co-author with France Allard, Marie-France Bich, Jean-Maurice Brisson, Elise Charpentier, Paul-AndrĂ© CrĂ©peau, Mathieu Devinat, Patrick Forget et Nicholas Kasirer), Quebec Centre for Private and Comparative Law (Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2003), 467 pages.
  • Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons – Obligations (co-author with France Allard, Marie-France Bich, Jean-Maurice Brisson, Elise Charpentier, Paul-AndrĂ© CrĂ©peau, Mathieu Devinat, Patrick Forget et Nicholas Kasirer), Quebec Centre for Private and Comparative Law (Cowansville: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2003), 414 pages.

Edited Collections

  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, Anne-Sophie Hulin et Sandy Lamalle (eds.), Coder-dĂ©coder: linguistique et concepts juridiques, Editions Yvon Blais, 2020 (170 pages).
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich et Laurence Saint-Pierre Harvey (eds.), Le public en droit privĂ©, Editions Yvon Blais, 2019.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich et Marie-AndrĂ©e Plante (eds.), Droit(s), langue(s) et sociĂ©tĂ©(s)/Law(s), Languages & Society(ies), numĂ©ro spĂ©cial R.D.U.S., 2019.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich and Marie-AndrĂ©e Plante (eds.), Repenser les paradigmes : approches transsystĂ©miques du droit, Editions Yvon Blais, 2018.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich et Laurence Saint-Pierre Harvey (ed.), Accès Ă  la terre et enjeux sociaux/Access to Land and Social Issues, Editions ThĂ©mis, 2018.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich and Lionel Smith (eds.), Terminologie et modèles propriĂ©taires au XXIe ˛őľ±Ă¨ł¦±ô±đ, (2008) 38 Revue gĂ©nĂ©rale de droit 229.

Articles in Refereed Journals

  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “Property for Nature”, Cambridge University Press, 2021 (accepted, forthcoming).
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich et François Rivard, « Discussing Values: Retrieving Use Value in Housing Contexts”, European Property Law Journal, 2020
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « Regard comparatif sur le numerus clausus des droits rĂ©els: une perspective canadienne », Revue critique de lĂ©gislation et de jurisprudence, (2020), n° 5.
  • “YaĂ«ll Emerich, (avec la collaboration de François Rivard), « La rĂ©surgence des communs en droit des biens contemporain : Ă©tude sur les cohabitats Ă©cologiques et les ruelles vertes », (2020) 50 Revue GĂ©nĂ©rale de Droit 1
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « Les biens et l’immatĂ©rialitĂ© en droit civil et en common law », (2018) 59 Les Cahiers de droit 389.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “Concepts and Words: A Transsystemic Approach to the Study of Law between Law and Language”, (2017) 51 R.J.T.U.M. 591.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « Vers une reconceptualisation du droit des biens face aux dĂ©fis environnementaux », (2017) 119 Revue du Notariat 321, p. 321-356.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich et Alexis Hudon, « Les assises conceptuelles du droit de l’environnement en droit des biens : entre patrimoine collectif et relation fiduciaire », (2017) 47 Revue GĂ©nĂ©rale de Droit 519-561.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “La destinĂ©e perpĂ©tuelle de la propriĂ©tĂ© entre symbolisme et alĂ©as ”, (2015) 45 Revue GĂ©nĂ©rale de Droit 501-530.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “Comparative overview on the transformative effect of Acquisitive prescription and adverse possession: morality, legitimacy, justice”, Revue Internationale de droit comparĂ© (2015), p. 459-496.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « La destinĂ©e perpĂ©tuelle de la propriĂ©tĂ© entre symbolisme et alĂ©as », (2015) 45 Revue GĂ©nĂ©rale de Droit 501-530.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « Les nouvelles frontières de l’expropriation: vers une expropriation pour cause d’utilitĂ© privĂ©e ? », (2014) 48 : 3 Revue juridique ThĂ©mis, p. 693-634.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « Étude sur la protection possessoire », (2013) 115 :3 Revue du Notariat p. 483-514.
  • “La fiducie civiliste : modalitĂ© de la propriĂ©tĂ© ou intermède Ă  la propriĂ©tĂ©?” (2013) 58:3 McGill Law Journal 1.
  • “La conversion d’immeubles locatifs en copropriĂ©tĂ© indivise” (2013) Revue trimestrielle de droit immobilier, « Nouvelles de l’étranger », chronique n° 1.
  • “Le dialogue entre lĂ©gislation fĂ©dĂ©rale et provinciale en matière d’hypothèque lĂ©gale rĂ©sultant d’un jugement : l’affaire QuĂ©bec inc c. Mickeck Jacyno” (2012) 90 Revue du barreau canadien 107.
  • “De quelques invariables de la possession : la possession transsystĂ©mique” (2011) 113 Revue du Notariat 1.
  • “Contribution Ă  une Ă©tude des troubles de voisinage et de la nuisance : la notion de devoirs de la propriĂ©té” (2011) 52 Les Cahiers de Droit 3.
  • “La nature juridique des sĂ»retĂ©s rĂ©elles en droit civil et en common law : une question de tradition juridique ?” (2010) 44 Revue juridique ThĂ©mis 95.
  • “Les fondements conceptuels de la fiducie française face au trust de la common law : entre droit des contrats et droit des biens” (2009) 1 Revue internationale de droit comparĂ© 49.
  • “PropriĂ©tĂ© relation et exclusivitĂ© : Ă©tude de droit comparé” (2009) 4 Revue de la Recherche Juridique/Droit prospectif 1841.
  • “L’hypothèque mobilière universelle : entre impĂ©ratifs Ă©conomiques et protection du dĂ©biteur” (2009) 111 Revue du notariat 463.
  • “Regard civiliste sur le droit des biens de la common law : pour une conception transsystĂ©mique de la propriĂ©té” (2008) 38 Revue gĂ©nĂ©rale de droit 339.
  • “Faut-il condamner la propriĂ©tĂ© des biens incorporels? RĂ©flexions autour de la propriĂ©tĂ© des crĂ©ances” (2005) 46 Les Cahiers de droit 793.

Book Chapters and Articles in Collections

  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “Property for Nature,” Cambridge University Press, 2020 [forthcoming].
  • Possession” in Lionel Smith & Alexandra Popovici, eds, The McGill Companion to Law [available on the website of Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, Faculty of Law, forthcoming in print McGill Law Journal, 2020].
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, « La fonction sociale de la propriĂ©tĂ© et le mythe de la propriĂ©tĂ© absolue », dans Arnaud Tellier-Marcil et alii, Les prochains dĂ©fis de la pensĂ©e civiliste – Les conceptions classiques soumises Ă  l’épreuve du temps, Les Editions ThĂ©mis, 2020, p. 81-114.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, avec la collaboration de Brendan Cooke, « Quelques enjeux comparatifs sur l’accès Ă  la terre en Asie du Sud-Est : statut de la terre et accès au crĂ©dit », dans Y. Emerich et Laurence Saint-Pierre Harvey, Accès Ă  la terre et enjeux sociaux/Access to Land and Social Issues, Editions ThĂ©mis, 2018.
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, “Doctrines de l’exclusivisme ”, in M. Cornu, F. Orsi, J. Rochfeld (eds.) Dictionnaire des Communs, Paris, P.U.F., 2017
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich, chapter “Ownership”, in Robert Leckey and Daniel Jutras (eds), Quebec Civil Law: An Introduction to Quebec Private Law, 2e Ă©d., Toronto : Emond Montgomery [forthcoming].
  • YaĂ«ll Emerich and Catherine Walsh, chapter “Security on Property ”, in Robert Leckey and Daniel Jutras et (eds), Quebec Civil Law: An Introduction to Quebec Private Law, 2e Ă©d., Toronto : Emond Montgomery [forthcoming].
  • “Possession”, chapter in Michele Grazdei & Lionel Smith, eds, (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017)
  • “Les biens”, chapter in B. Moore (dir.), . Bibliothèque de l’Association Henri Capitant, Editions Lextenso, 2016.
  • Contributor to Daniel Jutras & Roderick A Macdonald, eds, Quebec Civil Law: An Introduction to Quebec Private Law, 2d ed (Toronto: Emond Montgomery) [forthcoming].
  • “Why protect possession?” in Eric Descheemaeker, ed, The Consequences of Possession (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014)
  • “The Civil Law Trust: a Modality of Ownership or an Interlude to Ownership?” in Lionel Smith, ed, The Worlds of the Trust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
  • “Possession” in Lionel Smith & Alexandra Popovici, eds, The McGill Companion to Law [available on the website of Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, Faculty of Law, forthcoming in print].
  • “Introduction au droit des sĂ»retĂ©s”, fascicule 1 in P-C Lafond, ed, JurisClasseur QuĂ©bec, Droit des sĂ»retĂ©s (MontrĂ©al: Lexis-Nexis, 2011), revised in 2019.
  • “Caractères et Ă©tendue du droit de propriĂ©té”, fascicule 7 (p. 1–35) in JurisClasseur QuĂ©bec, Droit des biens (Editions LexisNexis, 2009), revised in 2016.

Further Publications, Commentary and Reports

  • “Louisiana Property Law” “book review”, in Journal of Civil Law Studies 2016
  • "Rapport quĂ©bĂ©cois sur le contrat de transaction” in B Mallet-Bricout & W Dross, Le contrat de transaction (Ministry of Justice (France), Mission Droit et Justice, 2014).
  • “A propos de la servitude personnelle – commentaire de l’affaire Therrien c. Therrien” (September 2012) ¸é±đ±čè°ů±đ˛ő, La RĂ©fĂ©rence Droit civil, EYB2012REP1239.
  • “Droit privĂ© comparĂ© : note bibliographique” (2008) 38 RDUS 599.
  • With Lionel Smith, “Terminologie et modèles propriĂ©taires au XXIe ˛őľ±Ă¨ł¦±ô±đ: propos introductif” (2008) 38 Revue gĂ©nĂ©rale de droit 229.
  • “Quelques rĂ©flexions sur l’élaboration d’un dictionnaire juridique”, report for the Franco-Khmer Legal Dictionary research team, under the direction of Dean Fulchiron and Professor Kan-Balivet, UniversitĂ© Lyon 3, 2007.
  • Claude Garcin & NacĂ©ra Mezzerreb, eds, L’entraide judiciaire internationale en matière pĂ©nale, (Lyon: Minister of Justice, 2000) [approximately 300 pages].
  • “La conception de la justice et de la loi chez les sophistes”, mĂ©moire de D.E.A., UniversitĂ© PanthĂ©on-Assas (Paris 2), 1996.
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