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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Harry Arthurs interviewed by Philip Girard on podcast 4 Questions For..



h/t Osgoode Hall Law School

Professor Philip Girard interviewing Harry Arthurs


Harry Arthurs Featured on 4 Questions For

Professor Emeritus Harry Arthurs discusses his memoir,
Connecting the Dots – The Life of an Academic Lawyer
, with Professor Philip Girard.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

New from McGill-Queen's: Cahill, Professional Autonomy and the Public Interest The Barristers' Society and Nova Scotia's Lawyers, 1825–2005



Publisher's blurb: In this institutional history of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society from its inception to the Legal Profession Act of 2005, Barry Cahill provides a chronological exploration of the profession's regulation in Nova Scotia and the critical role of the 
society. Based on extensive research conducted on internal documents, legislative records, and legal and general-interest periodicals and newspapers, Professional Autonomy and the Public Interest demonstrates that the inauguration of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society was the first giant step on the long road to self-regulation. Highlighting the inherent tensions between protection of professional self-interest and protection of the larger public interest, Cahill explains that while this radical innovation was opposed by both lawyers and judges, it was ultimately imposed by the Liberal government in 1899. In light of emerging models of regulation in the twenty-first century, Professional Autonomy and the Public Interest is a timely look back at the origins of professional regulatory bodies and the evolution of law affecting the legal profession in Atlantic Canada.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Reminder: Book Launch today (November 7, 2019) at Osgoode Hall


ANNUAL BOOK LAUNCH
Join us for the Osgoode Society’s Annual Book Launch on November 7 from 5:00 to 7:30 in Convocation Hall at Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West.
We are celebrating the publication of two fine works of legal history:
Please RSVP to Amanda Campbell via email or by telephone at 416-947-3321.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Final legal history for legal professionals evening for 2019, Monday November 25th


Our final legal history for legal professionals evening will take place on Monday, November 25th at Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen St. West, Toronto.

Come to hear our R. Roy McMurtry Fellows discuss the fascinating research in the history of Canadian law and the legal profession that won them this award! Please RSVP to Amanda Campbell at amanda@osgoodesociety.ca.

This event is free to members of the society. Visit our membership page for details on becoming a member or renewing your membership. https://www.osgoodesociety.ca/membership/


Anna Jarvis,, PHD candidate in history at York University will speak on Patronage and the Canadian Colonial Judiciary: Edward Jarvis of Prince Edward Island."
This presentation will look at the role patronage played in the life and career of Edward James Jarvis, who was Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island from 1828-1852. Jarvis was part of a second generation of Loyalist families whose fathers sought to further their son's careers by drawing on professional, community, and family ties, networks those sons in turn drew on for their own sons. Jarvis sought the patronage of fellow attorneys, judges, colonial officials, and other prominent figures to further his legal career, illustrating the ways in which the patronage system functioned to maintain social, economic, and political divisions and hierarchies within colonial society.


Filippo Sposini, PHD candidate at the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, will speak on 'Just the Basic Facts: The Certification of Insanity in Ontario (1870s-1890s)"
The certification of insanity was a medico-legal procedure regulating admission into psychiatric institutions. My presentation will focus on the certification procedure developed during the second half of the nineteenth-century in Ontario. Taking the Toronto Lunatic Asylum as a case study, I will explore the introduction of certificates of insanity, examination practices, and people involved in the process. I will show that certification in Ontario was a consensus-based procedure shielding medical practitioners from potential legal actions.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Friday, October 18--Justice Sharpe on the Persons Case


On the 90th anniversary of the Persons case decision, Justice Robert Sharpe will present a lecture based on his book, The Persons Case, which he co-authored with Patricia McMahon

The 1929 Persons Case, declaring women to be legal "persons" and thus eligible for appointment to Canada's Senate, is one of the most important constitutional decisions in Canadian history.

This lecture will consider the case in its political and social context and examines the lives and views of the people behind it - Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung and the other members of the "famous five," the politicians who barred women from the Senate, the lawyers who argued the case, and the judges who decided it.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and presented by Yorkminster Speaker Series. Please visit the speaker series website for more information.        

Friday, October 4, 2019

McNeil, Flawed Precedent: The St. Catharine's Case and Aboriginal Title


Via the Legal History Blog (which always gets notifications before I do :(
Kent McNeil (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University) has published Flawed Precedent: The St. Catherine's Case and Aboriginal Title in UBC Press' Landmark Cases in Canadian Law series. From the publisher:
Flawed Precedent
In 1888, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London ruled in St. Catherine’s Milling and Lumber Company v. The Queen, a case involving the Saulteaux people’s land rights in Ontario. This precedent-setting case would define the legal contours of Aboriginal title in Canada for almost a hundred years, despite the racist assumptions about Indigenous peoples at the heart of the case.
In Flawed Precedent, preeminent legal scholar Kent McNeil thoroughly investigates this contentious case. He begins by delving into the historical and ideological context of the 1880s. He then examines the trial in detail, demonstrating how prejudicial attitudes towards Indigenous peoples and their use of the land influenced the decision. He also discusses the effects that St. Catherine’s had on Canadian law and policy until the 1970s when its authority was finally questioned by the Supreme Court in Calder, then in Delgamuukw, Marshall/Bernard, Tsilhqot’in, and other key rulings.
McNeil has written a compelling and illuminating account of a landmark case that influenced law and policy on Indigenous land rights for almost a century. He also provides an informative analysis of the current judicial understanding of Aboriginal title in Canada, now driven by evidence of Indigenous law and land use rather than by the discarded prejudicial assumptions of a bygone era.

Legal History Evening 28 October now accredited for 1 hour professionalism AND EDI


Really good news--the Law Society has accredited our October 28, 2019 legal history evening programme for one hour professionalism and EDI!
This evening is open to, and free for, Osgoode Society members. Join today!
osgoodesociety.com/membership.

The LSO says:

Professionalism Hours Accredited

Your “No Thought of Reconciliation: The New Dominion and the Indian Acts, 1867-1914” program to be held on October 28, 2019 has been accredited for 1 hour of Professionalism Content.

The Professionalism Hours have been allocated as follows:

Session Title

Approved Professionalism Hours

Approved EDI Professionalism Hours
Prof. Phillips’ Lecture followed by Audience Question and Answer Period
n/a
1 hour

Substantive Hours

Only Professionalism Hours must be accredited by the Law Society. Lawyers and paralegals must determine for themselves whether an activity is an eligible educational activity for CPD and qualifies for Substantive Hours. For more information about Substantive Hours, please see CPD Requirement<https://lso.ca/lawyers/enhancing-competence/continuing-professional-development-requirement>.

Advertising Guidelines

The accreditation of Professionalism Hours may be advertised or indicated as follows:

This program contains 1 hour of EDI Professionalism Content.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Letter from Jim Phillips to legal history workshop distribution list

Osgoode Society editor-in-chief Jim Phillips sent this email this morning to people on the Osgoode Society legal history workshop distribution list--reproduced here for those not on the list (in order to be added to the list to get info on our workshop and copies of papers being presented please email Jim at j.phillips@utoronto.ca.) It's true--Osgoode Society membership is a good deal, especially for students.

Dear Friends. I know that many of you on this list are members of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. For those of you who are not, or who were in the past but forgot to renew your membership this year, I urge you to consider joining the Society. It is Canada’s leading legal historical organization, and one of the preeminent such societies in the world. We are a membership organization, with lawyers, judges, academics, students in law and history, and others who think history matters. Since 1981 we have published over 100 books on Canadian legal history, and there are many more in the pipeline. We publish mainly with the University of Toronto Press, although we also work with McGill-Queen’s, UBC Press, and others.

The Society also runs one of the largest oral history programmes in the legal historical world, amassing an archive of current participants in legal developments that will be of great utility to future historians.

And – what a bargain membership is! Regular memberships are just $60,  and with membership you receive the annual members book. Student memberships are $25, and with membership you also receive the annual members book. We put out regular newsletters, hold legal history events, and run a small research grants programme. Not the least important, the Society pays the expenses associated with running this workshop.

To find out more about us, and to join, please go to www.osgoodesociety.ca. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Jim

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Posted on SSRN: W. Wesley Pue (1954-2019) A Personal Appreciation by David Sugarman

Posted on SSRN, Newsletter of the Research Committee of the Sociology of Law (2019)
A personal appreciation of Wes Pue by David Sugarman of Lancaster University Law School

Abstract:

A personal appreciation of Wes Pue (1954-2019), a leading light of Canadian legal history, who is best known for his richly detailed, ground-breaking research which unravelled the ways in which lawyers and legal education shaped culture, cultural authority, identity, politics and the British empire in England and its Empire from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Legal history evening for professionals (updated with accreditation info)



*This program contains 1 hour of EDI Professionalism Content*


THE OSGOODE SOCIETY FOR CANADIAN LEGAL HISTORY
Established in 1979, the Osgoode Society publishes books on Canadian legal history and maintains an oral history archive.  

An Evening of Canadian Legal History

Join us for an Evening Session of Legal History for Legal Professionals

On October 28th Professor Jim Phillips, Osgoode Society Editor-in-Chief,  will present the next lecture in our Canadian legal history lecture series. 

No Thought of Reconciliation:
The New Dominion and the Indian Acts,1867-1914
 
Monday October 28th at 5:30 p.m
WeirFoulds LLP 
66 Wellington St.W. - 41st Floor 
 


At Confederation there was very little colonial legislation about indigenous peoples. The first federal legislation on the subject was passed in 1868, and Parliament augmented that more than two dozen times between then and 1914. The major statute was the Indian Act of 1876, but it was continually amended over the ensuing decades. Professor Phillips will discuss the major policy goals of this legislative output, which was principally aimed at assimilating indigenous peoples into settler ways of life and culture. He will also sketch out the reactions of the indigenous people themselves to these legislative efforts to undermine and eventually destroy indigenous culture. 


Professor Jim Phillips, Osgoode Society Editor-in-Chief

* approval pending for 60 minutes EDI Professionalism Credit from the Law Society for Ontario.


SPACE IS LIMITED, SO PLEASE REGISTER BY OCTOBER 21.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT IS FOR OSGOODE SOCIETY MEMBERS ONLY. IF YOU HAVE NOT RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP, YOU WILL NEED TO DO SO BEFORE YOU CAN REGISTER. 

REGISTER HERE

YOU CAN ALSO REGISTER BY PHONE AT 416-947-3321 OR VIA E-MAIL


Benefits of Membership:
  • 2019 members book, which will is Connecting the Dots: The Life of an Academic Lawyer by Harry Arthurs
  • Lectures and Events
  • Quarterly newsletter with information on the Osgoode Society and Canadian legal history.




Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Justice Sharpe qua historian interviewed regarding the Lazier Murder

Fans of Justice Robert Sharpe's legal history work will be interested in this OBA interview with him about the Lazier Murder, a cause célèbre of late nineteenth century rural Ontario (h/t Amanda Campbell.)

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/oba-presents-holiday-hours-a-new-cpd-ucrNdLx3voS/

If the interviews spark your interest in Justice Sharpe's book on the case, take a look at the entry on the Osgoode Society website.

Robert Sharpe is one of the Osgoode Society’s most prolific authors, and his latest offering is a compelling account of a late nineteenth century murder case in Picton, Ontario.  This very thoroughly researched and engagingly written case study details the murder of a local resident and the subsequent court and governmental proceedings. What emerges is a fascinating insight into the operation of the policing, prosecution and trial processes of late nineteenth century Ontario, one that shows how much public opinion and courtroom atmosphere could at times affect the outcome of a trial. The Lazier Murder also looks at the executive commutation process by which it was decided if those sentenced to be executed would be hanged. Sharpe’s account  suggests that this may well have been a case of what we would now call a ‘wrongful conviction.’

Sunday, August 11, 2019

*Updated* Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop fall 2019

*Revised 10 August 2019*

OSGOODE SOCIETY LEGAL HISTORY WORKSHOP, 2019-2020:

FALL TERM 2019

Wednesday September 11: Nancy Wright, University of Victoria: “The Laphroaig
Leasehold:  Popular Interpretations of Feudal Tenures.” 

Wednesday September 25: Jim Phillips, University of Toronto: ‘The Canadian
Court System, 1867-1914’

Wednesday October 9 – Yom Kippur

Tuesday October 15: Note the Tuesday. Donal Coffey, Max Planck Institute:
‘Newfoundland and Dominion Status.’

Wednesday October 30  (new date): Philip Girard, Osgoode Hall Law School: ‘The
Contrasting Fates of French-Canadian and Indigenous Constitutionalism: British
North America, 1763-1867.’

Wednesday November 6: Eric Adams, University of Alberta: ‘Constitutional
Wrongs: A Legal History of Japanese Canadians’

Wednesday November 13 (new date): Joseph Kary, Kary and Kwan: Sonderkommando in
Canada: Montreal's first World War II War Crimes Trial, 1951-1956

Wednesday November 27: Patricia McMahon, Torys: ‘Radioactive: The Life and
Lies of Boris Pregel’

Friday, August 9, 2019

Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop--Fall 2019 Schedule



OSGOODE SOCIETY LEGAL HISTORY WORKSHOP, 2019-2020:

FALL TERM 2019

Starting is 6.30 as usual at U of T Law School, room to be announced. 
If you would like to be put on the list for announcements and to receive copies of the papers to be presented, please email j.phillips@utoronto.ca

Wednesday September 11: Nancy Wright, University of Victoria: 'The Laphroaig
Leasehold:  Popular Interpretations of Feudal Tenures'

Wednesday September 25: Jim Phillips, University of Toronto: ‘The Canadian
Court System, 1867-1914’

Wednesday October 9 – Yom Kippur, no session

Tuesday October 15: (Note that it's Tuesday, not Wednesday) Donal Coffey, Max Planck Institute:
‘Newfoundland and Dominion Status.’

Wednesday October 30: Joseph Kary, Kary and Kwan: 'Sonderkommando in
Canada: Montreal's first World War II War Crimes Trial, 1951-1956'

Wednesday November 6: Eric Adams, University of Alberta: ‘Constitutional
Wrongs: A Legal History of Japanese Canadians’

Wednesday November 13: Philip Girard, Osgoode Hall Law School: ‘The
Contrasting Fates of French-Canadian and Indigenous Constitutionalism: British
North America, 1763-1867’

Wednesday November 27: Patricia McMahon, Torys: ‘Radioactive: The Life and
Lies of Boris Pregel’

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Torrie, "Farm Debt Compromises During the Great Depression: An Empirical Study of Applications made under the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act in Morden and Brandon, Manitoba" on SSRN

Virginia Torrie of the University of Manitoba Law School has posted "Farm Debt Compromises During the Great Depression: An Empirical Study of Applications made under the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act in Morden and Brandon, Manitoba" on SSRN. The article also appears in volume 41, issue 1 (2018) of the Manitoba Law Journal. [This journal is open access.]

This article presents the results of an empirical study of the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act (FCAA) in Morden and Brandon, Manitoba. Parliament enacted this federal insolvency statute to address the agricultural crisis of the 1930s colloquially known as the “Dust Bowl”. The express purpose of the Act was to “keep the farmer on the farm” by reducing debts to an amount that the farmer could afford to pay. This is the first article to engage in a substantive analysis of the FCAA, and it employs a novel methodology for studying farm debt compromises under the Act. This study uncovers notable differences in the way that FCAA applications played out in Morden and Brandon. It reveals that much farm credit was obtained locally, with roughly half of all claims being owed to individuals or estates, which in many instances were the mortgage lender. In addition, medical debts listed the FCAA files call attention to the privation of the “Dirty Thirties” and the financial costs born by individuals for medical care in the pre-public health care era. The empirical findings of this study thus add to historical scholarship about the experience of the Great Depression on the Canadian Prairies by shedding light on the social context of debtor-creditor relations in farming communities, and highlighting regional variations in the application of a federal law designed to help address the farm debt crisis.

Call for presenters: Osgoode Society Toronto Legal History workshop Fall term


Jim Phillips advises that he has four sessions lined up with presenters for the fall for the legal history workshop.
We still have some spots open.
If you, or some one you know, is an academic (any department) either a faculty member, independent scholar or grad student, who is studying a legal history topic (also any geographic area and time period) who would be interested in presenting a work-in-progress to the legal history workshop (held at U of T Law School every other Wednesday evening--more or less) please email Jim at j.phillips@utoronto.ca.
And anyone who would like to receive the papers and attend some or any sessions, please also email Jim to be added to the distribution list.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Gordon Bale

Gordon Bale, a longstanding member of the Osgoode Society and contributor to Canadian legal history, has died at the age of 85. After doing graduate work in economics and teaching in that field at RMC, he obtained a law degree from the newly founded Queen’s University Faculty of Law. Gordon returned there as a professor and spent the rest of his academic career at Queen’s, where he specialized in wills and estates and created a seminar in legal history. His biography of Canada’s second chief justice, William Johnstone Ritchie, published by Carleton University Press in 1990, was a precursor of the wave of judicial biographies that would appear in Canada in the 21st century.  Gordon was a kind and gentle scholar whose presence will be missed.

(Thanks to Philip Girard)

Thursday, June 27, 2019

CFP: Does Law's History Matter? The Politics of our Disciplinary Practices



Thanks to Shaunnagh Dorsett for sending this on.

CFP: Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society

This year’s conference will be held in Melbourne, Australia, 11-14 December 2019. The theme is ‘Does Law’s History Matter? The Politics of our Disciplinary Practices’
Deadline for abstracts (individual or panel) and on the conference theme or any other topic is 21 July 2019. More information on the theme and submission of abstracts can be found on the conference website: https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/events/2019-anzlhs-conference.
The keynote speakers are:

(Canadians, please note that there will be a Wes Pue event on the 13th.)

Monday, June 24, 2019

Congratulations to Osgoode Society Director Mahmud Jamal on his appointment to the Ontario Court of Appeal!

Mahmud Jamal, Partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, is appointed a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Mr. Justice Jamal replaces Madam Justice G. Pardu, who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective January 1, 2019.
Justice Jamal was born in Kenya, raised in England, and completed high school in Edmonton. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto, LL.B. and B.C.L. degrees from the Faculty of Law, McGill University, and an LL.M. from Yale Law School, which he attended on a Fulbright Scholarship. He served as law clerk to Justice Melvin Rothman of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Charles Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Justice Jamal, who is bilingual, practised with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in the fields of appellate litigation, constitutional and public law, class actions, and commercial litigation. He appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in 35 appeals addressing a wide range of civil, constitutional, criminal, and regulatory issues. He also appeared before various provincial courts, the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and Tax Court of Canada, and federal and provincial administrative tribunals.
Justice Jamal was a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, The Advocates’ Society, and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. He was a member of the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute and a trustee of the Canadian Business Law Journal. He has taught constitutional law at McGill, administrative law at Osgoode Hall, and published widely in his areas of practice. He was also chair of Osler’s pro bono program and a member of its Partnership Board.
He and his wife, Goleta, are the proud parents of two teenagers.

Friday, June 21, 2019

Kelm and Smith, Talking back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories


In honour of Indigenous Peoples' Day today (June 21) the U of T press has compiled a list of relevant publications from their catalog.

On the legal history front, they highlight Mary-Ellen Kelm and Keith D. Smith, Talking back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories published in 2018, available in paperback and e-book formats. Here's the blurb:

Talking Back to the Indian ActTalking Back to the Indian Act is a comprehensive "how-to" guide for engaging with primary source documents. The intent of the book is to encourage readers to develop the skills necessary to converse with primary sources in more refined and profound ways. As a piece of legislation that is central to Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples and communities, and one that has undergone many amendments, the Indian Act is uniquely positioned to act as a vehicle for this kind of focused reading.
Through an analysis of thirty-five sources pertaining to the Indian Act—addressing governance, gender, enfranchisement, and land—the authors provide readers with a much better understanding of this pivotal piece of legislation, as well as insight into the dynamics involved in its creation and maintenance.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Campbell and Exner, "An Elusive Remedy: A Calgary Chiropodist Complains of Libel, 1916" on SSRN



Lyndsay Campbell and Heidi J. T. Exner have posted "An Elusive Remedy: A Calgary Chiropodist Complains of Libel, 1916" on SSRN. The article is forthcoming in the Law & History Review.


The decision of a chiropodist - a man who called himself 'Doctor' and developed and sold foot products - to prosecute a small Calgary newspaper for criminal libel in the summer of 1916 touched off a series of events that ultimately resulted in the chiropodist's convictions for holding himself out as a doctor and practising medicine without a licence. The proceedings against the editor were stayed. These legal proceedings demonstrate the mutually reinforcing commitments of doctors and lawyers to protecting the professionalisation of medicine, and especially orthopaedic surgery, against the threat of interlopers in early twentieth-century Canada.

Friday, June 14, 2019

Hutchison, "The Patriation of Canadian Corporate Law" on SSRN


Camden Hutchison of Allard Law, UBC, has posted "The Patriation of Canadian Corporate Law" SSRN. The article is forthcoming in the U of T Law Journal.

Here's the abstract:

Canadian corporate law belongs within a broader Anglo-American legal tradition, sharing many of the features of other common law jurisdictions, most notably England and the United States. Prior to Confederation, Canadian corporate law first emerged from nineteenth-century English legislation and continued to resemble English law--at least superficially--well into the twentieth century. In the 1970s, Canadian corporate law moved closer to the United States, as major legislative reforms, including the Canada Business Corporations Act, were significantly influenced by American statutes. From a legislative perspective, Canada has clearly been influenced by developments from beyond its borders.

Legislation is only one source of corporate law, however. Just as important is the creation of legal rules through the common law adjudicatory process. Thus, examining case law raises an important empirical question distinct from, though relevant to, the issue of legislative influence--namely, what have been the major influences on Canadian judicial lawmaking? This article addresses this question through a comprehensive citation analysis of substantially all corporate law decisions by Canadian courts of appeal since 1867. 

The primary findings are as follows: 

(1) Over the past 150 years, Canadian corporate law--once dominated by English precedent--has become increasingly characterized by domestic Canadian precedent; 

(2) Historically, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council played an important role in maintaining English influence, such that the prominence of English precedent decreased after 1949; and 

(3) Despite the increasing influence of Canadian precedent throughout the Canadian legal system, Canadian courts continue to cite English cases when addressing unsettled legal issues, preserving a channel for the continuing influence of English jurisprudence in Canada. 

Surprisingly, Canadian judicial decisions rarely cite American cases, challenging the notion that Canadian courts have been significantly influenced by American law. Ultimately--and despite residual English influence--Canadian corporate law has formed its own distinct identity.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

New from MQUP: Tracings of Gerald Le Dain's life in the Law ed. Baker and Janda

The life and work of a leading Canadian legal academic, university administrator, law reformer, and judge.


Tracings of Gerald Le Dain&#039;s Life in the LawGerald Le Dain (1924-2007) was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1984. This collectively written biography traces fifty years of his steady, creative, and conciliatory involvement with military service, the legal academy, legislative reform, university administration, and judicial decision-making. 

This book assembles contributions from the in-house historian of the law firm where Le Dain first practised, from students and colleagues in the law schools where he taught, from a research associate in his Commission of Inquiry into the non-medical use of drugs, from two of his successors on the Federal Court of Appeal, and from three judicial clerks to Le Dain at the Supreme Court of Canada. Also reproduced here is a transcript of a recent CBC documentary about his 1988 forced resignation from the Supreme Court following a short-term depressive illness, with commentary from Le Dain’s family and co-workers.

Gerald Le Dain was a tireless worker and a highly respected judge. In a series of essays that cover the different periods and dimensions of his career, Tracings of Gerald Le Dain’s Life in the Law is an important and compassionate account of one man's commitment to the law in Canada.

Contributors include Harry W. Arthurs, G. Blaine Baker, Bonnie Brown, Rosemary Cairns-Way, John M. Evans, Melvyn Green, Bernard J. Hibbitts, Peter W. Hogg, Richard A. Janda, C. Ian Kyer, Andree Lajoie, Gerald E. Le Dain, Allen M. Linden, Roderick A. Macdonald, Louise Rolland, and Stephen A. Scott.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Congratulations to Jim Phillips, Philip Girard and Blake Brown!

For winning an honourable mention for the W. Wesley Pue prize for best book on a social legal subject for A History of Law in Canada vol 1: Beginnings to 1866, published by the Osgoode Society and U of T press in 2018!
Update: The citation says: "A History of Law in Canada, Volume One is a monumental and masterful work. It fills a gap in Canadian scholarship by providing a comprehensive, well-written and informative account of the history of law in Canada. Its 900 pages of text and footnotes reflect an astonishing range of knowledge. It breaks new ground in its sweep and scale, and its interweaving of the history of the three pillars of Canadian law: common law, civil law and Indigenous legal orders. It will be a classic for many years, a guide and inspiration to Canadian legal historians for generations to come."

H/t Bruce Ryder

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

New from UTP: Violence, Order, and Unrest: A History of British North America, 1749–1876, ed. Mancke, Bannister, McKim and See

Looks like quite a bit of legal history in this new collection from the University of Toronto Press: Violence, Order, and UnrestA History of British North America, 1749–1876Edited by Elizabeth Mancke, Jerry Bannister, Denis McKim, and Scott W. See. From the publisher:

Violence, Order, and UnrestThis edited collection offers a broad reinterpretation of the origins of Canada. Drawing on cutting-edge research in a number of fields, Violence, Order, and Unrestexplores the development of British North America from the mid-eighteenth century through the aftermath of Confederation. The chapters cover an ambitious range of topics, from Indigenous culture to municipal politics, public executions to runaway slave advertisements. Cumulatively, this book examines the diversity of Indigenous and colonial experiences across northern North America and provides fresh perspectives on the crucial roles of violence and unrest in attempts to establish British authority in Indigenous territories. In the aftermath of Canada 150, Violence, Order, and Unrest offers a timely contribution to current debates over the nature of Canadian culture and history, demonstrating that we cannot understand Canada today without considering its origins as a colonial project.