Rand on Family Law: Wives and Mothers at Mid-Century. (Canadian Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand‪)‬

In Rand's oeuvre of nearly six hundred judgments, a mere twenty or so fall within the domain of family law. This is not surprising when one considers that the 1940s and 50s were not particularly active times for litigation, reform or evolution in Canadian family law. (1) Divorce required proof of adultery, support was determined less on the basis of need or ability to pay than on the basis of marital misconduct, and custody often went to the father despite development of the 'tender years' doctrine. (2) Family law decisions that Justice Rand did write dealt with a full range of issues including adoption, alimony, custody, divorce, marital property and the presumption of advancement; but almost none of these stand out as significant in shaping the family law regime of the nation as we know it in the twenty-first century. In roughly half of the family law decisions in the Supreme Court of Canada when he was a member, Justice Rand wrote separate reasons in support of the majority position. In a further third of the cases he simply concurred with the majority or the decisions were unanimous. In two cases he wrote dissenting judgments, and in two he wrote the majority reasons. Most of these decisions have disappeared into legal oblivion, with barely any mention in subsequent cases over the fitly-plus years since they were written. The clear exception is in the three adoption cases in which he wrote separate reasons. These are discussed in the second half of this article.