Dr Remus Valsan's doctoral dissertation wins 2012-2013 Comparative Law Competition
Fri 23 May 2014
Remus' dissertation, written under the supervision of Professor Lionel Smith at McGill University, was awarded the prize for best contribution to comparative law by a work at post-graduate level. The prestigious annual competition is open to undergraduate and post-graduate comparative law scholars enrolled in a program of study in a Quebec university or in the civil law department of the University of Ottawa. The winning work is selected by an independent panel of established comparative law scholars.
Remus' dissertation is a trans-systemic study of the concept of fiduciary duties in private law relations. The dissertation argues that a cogent justification of the strict no-conflict and no-profit rules to which fiduciaries are subjected in various jurisdictions must be based on a proper understanding of the notion of conflict of interest. Drawing on inter-disciplinary literature on cognitive and motivational biases in decision-making, the research argues that fiduciaries are prohibited from deciding in a situation of conflict of interest because personal or other extraneous interests affect the reliability of a fiduciary's professional judgment in ways that cannot be measured or discounted. The strict no-conflict and no-profit rules aim to protect a fiduciary's core duty to exercise proper judgment over the beneficiaries' interests.
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