Gib van Ert has a broad civil litigation practice including commercial, real estate, environmental, administrative and public law matters. He has also advised a variety of public bodies including professional regulators, administrative tribunals and Crown corporations. He is a former law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for British Columbia. He has been a visiting scholar at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, England and a visiting professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.

Gib is the author of Using International Law in Canadian Courts, 2nd ed. (Irwin Law, 2008) and other works on international and constitutional law issues. He is a regular contributor to the Canadian Yearbook of International Law and a frequent speaker on international law topics at academic and professional conferences around the country.

Education  
B.A. (Hons.) in History, McGill University, 1995 
B.A. (Hons.) in Law, University of Cambridge, 1998 
LL.M., University of Toronto, 2000 
 
Clerkships 
British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2001-2002
Supreme Court of Canada, January-December 2003

Bar Admission 
British Columbia, 2004

Selected Cases

Gulston v. Aldred 2010 BCSC 241, 2011 BCCA 147: This was a dispute between the buyer and seller of a residential property which had been contaminated by a leaking underground oil storage tank. Gib successfully represented the seller at the trial court and in the Court of Appeal.

Aldred v. Colbeck 2010 BCSC 57: Gib successfully represented a homeowner who sued the previous owners of her property to recover losses caused by a leaking underground oil storage tank. The decision is one of the few successful claims under the Environmental Management Act and the first to permit a residential property-owner to recover remediation costs under it.

ASEAN Technology Partners Inc. v. National Research Council 2009 BCCA 126, 2007 BCSC 1539: Gib was counsel for the plaintiff at summary trial and on appeal in this claim against a federal Crown Corporation for breaches of three contracts. The trial court found the defendant liable. The Court of Appeal dismissed the defendant’s appeal.

Gogol v. British Columbia (Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal) 2008 BCSC 489: Gib was counsel for an injured worker in this judicial review of a decision concerning his eligibility for temporary disability benefits. The court found that the tribunal’s decision was patently unreasonable and remitted it to the tribunal for reconsideration.

Selected Publications

Chapter four, "Canada" in D. Sloss, ed., The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement: A Comparative Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Using International Law in Canadian Courts, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2008)

"What is reception law?" in O. Fitzgerald (ed), The Globalized Rule of Law: Relationships between International and Domestic Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006) 85

"Labour Conventions and Comprehensive Claim Agreements: A New Model for Subfederal Participation in Canadian International Treaty-Making" (with S. Matiation) in O. Fitzgerald (ed), The Globalized Rule of Law: Relationships between International and Domestic Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006)

"The Admissibility of International Legal Evidence" (2005) 84 Canadian Bar Review 31

International Human Rights Law (with M. Freeman) (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2004)

"The legal character of provincial agreements with foreign governments" (2001) 24 Les Cahiers de Droit 1093-1124

"Using treaties in Canadian courts” [2000"] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 3-87

"Nationality, State succession, and the right of option: the case of Quebec" [1998] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 151-180