Dr. Maharaj is uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person, nonetheless, he is required to do so as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba. His research and teaching focus is the law of obligations, including specifically contracts, tort, equity and trusts, and civil remedies.
Beginning with his graduate work at the University of British Columbia, where he completed his Master’s and PhD, Dr. Maharaj has researched in depth the availability of “gain-based damages” for breach of contract, and the basis for and proper application of the doctrine of mitigation in the assessment of damages. His doctoral work is notable in particular for having pioneered a new perspective on mitigation that explains how the doctrine arises at the point of intersection between the law governing an obligation (i.e., contract and tort) on the one hand, and equity and the law of damages on the other. He has also published a number of articles on remedies in contract, and on the introduction and development of “good faith” obligations in Anglo-Canadian contract law. This work has drawn the attention of the academy, bench, and bar and to date has led to Dr. Maharaj being invited to speak at conferences, to contribute to the British Columbia Annual Review of Law & Practice, and to present to the National Judicial Institute at its Annual Civil Law Seminar. Dr. Maharaj’s work has also been quoted in submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada and cited by the Supreme Court itself.
He has been admitted to the bar in New Zealand, as well as British Columbia and Alberta, and his time in practice informs his practitioner focussed approach to legal research and teaching.
- Contracts
- Equity and trusts
- Civil remedies and damages
- Good faith in contractual relations
Peer-reviewed articles
- “Callow in More Ways Than One: The Supreme Court Causes More Confusion in Contract”
Ottawa Law Review
In press - “Good for Everyone or Not Good at All: Clarity and Commitment in Contractual Good Faith”
Supreme Court Law Review
(2020) 96 S.C.L.R. (2d) 107 - “The Trouble with Tort: Why Deception in Bhasin Cannot Presently be Deceit”
Journal of Commonwealth Law
(2019) 1:1 Journal of Commonwealth Law 119 - “An Action on The Equities: Re-characterizing Bhasin As Equitable Estoppel”
Alberta Law Review
(2017) 55:1 Alta L Rev 199 - “Limits on the Operation of Exclusion Clauses”
Alberta Law Review
March 2012
(2012) 49:3 Alta L Rev 635
Book chapters
- “Chapter 12 – Contracts” in The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia’s Annual Review of Law & Practice (2021) (with Professor Bruce MacDougall)
Book reviews
- Book Review – “Account of Profits by Peter Devonshire”
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
February 2014
(2013) 51:1 Osgoode Hall LJ 329-333
Conference papers
- “Does a Tort by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?: Recharacterising Bhasin as Post-Contractual Fraud”
Good Faith in Contract
Faculty of Law – University of Montreal - “To run in thin air – Why Bhasin v. Hrynew and ‘good faith obligations’ need a firmer footing”
The Ninth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations: Form and Substance in the Law of Obligations (“Obligations IX”)
Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne jointly hosted with The University of Oxford - “The Price of Pilfered Opportunities – When Gain Based Remedies Are an Appropriate Response to Breach of Contract"
6th Annual International Graduate Legal Research Conference
King's College, University of London