Barry Wright is a professor in the Department of Law at Carleton University. His teaching interests are the history of criminal law and its administration, comparative colonial legal history, constitutional law and legal, social and political theory. Since joining Carleton in 1986, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London (1993-1994) and a Visiting Academic at the School of Law at the University of Queensland (2005-2006, 2010). He is also cross appointed to the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice (2006) and the Department of History (2010) at Carleton.
In 1993 he was the recipient of the Riddell Award from the Ontario Historical Association for the best article about Ontario History in 1992. He also received the Excellence Award in Graduate Teaching in 1998. He can be reached at b_wright@carleton.ca.
Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Books
Canadian State Trials Volume V: World War, Cold War and Challenges to Sovereignty, 1939-1990 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2022. Editor with Susan Binnie and Eric Tucker).
Canadian State Trials Volume IV: Security, Dissent and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace 1914-1939 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2015), 507 pp. (editor with Susan Binnie).
Canadian State Trials, Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2009), 656 pp. (editor with Susan Binnie).
Canadian State Trials, Volume II: Rebellion and Invasion in the Canadas, 1837-1838 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2002), 512 pp. (editor with F. Murray Greenwood).
Canadian State Trials, Volume I: Law, Politics and Security Measures, 1608-1837 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 1996) 744 pp. (editor with F. Murray Greenwood).
Chapters in Osgoode Society Books
‘Introduction: From State Trials to National Security Measures’ in Barry Wright, Susan Binnie, eds., Canadian State Trials, Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 3-32 (with Susan Binnie).
‘Summary and Incompetent Justice: An Overview of Legal Response to the 1885 Crisis” in above, pp. 353-410 (with Bob Beal).
‘Codification, Public Order, and the Security Provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code, 1892’ in above, pp. 516-563 (with Desmond H. Brown).
‘Libel and the Colonial Administration of Justice in Upper Canada and New South Wales c.1825-30’ in H. Foster, B. Berger and A. Bucks, eds., The Grand Experiment: Law and Legal Culture in British Settler Societies (Vancouver: The Osgoode Society and University of British Columbia Press, 2008), pp. 15-37.
‘Introduction: Rebellion, Invasion and the Crisis of the Colonial State’ in F. Murray Greenwood, Barry Wright, eds., Canadian State Trials, Volume II: Rebellion and Invasion in the Canadas, 1837-1838 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2002), pp. 3-37 (with F. Murray Greenwood).
‘The Toronto Treason Trials, March-May 1838’ in above, pp. 62-99 (with Paul Romney).
‘The Kingston and London Courts Martial, 1838-1839’ in above, pp. 130-159.
‘State Trials, the Rule of Law and Executive Powers in Early Canada’ in F Murray Greenwood and Barry Wright, eds., Canadian State Trials, Volume I: Law, Politics and Security Measures, 1608-1837 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 3-51 (with F. Murray Greenwood).
‘State Trials and Security Proceedings in Upper Canada During the War of 1812’ in above, pp. 379-405 (with Paul Romney).
‘Parliamentary Privilege and the Repression of Dissent in the Canadas’ in above, pp. 409-449 (with F. Murray Greenwood).
‘The Gourlay Affair: Seditious Libel and the Sedition Act in Upper Canada, 1818-1819’ in above, pp. 487-504.
Other Legal History Publications
‘Macaulay’s India Law Reforms and Labour in the British Empire,’ in Shaunnagh Dorsett and John McLaren eds., Legal Histories of the British Empire: Laws, Engagements and Legacies (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 218-33
‘Renovate or Rebuild? Treatises, Digests and Criminal Law Codification,’ in A. Fernandez and M. Dubber, eds., Law Books in Action: Essays on the Anglo-American Legal Treatise (Hart: Oxford and Portland, 2012), pp. 181-201
‘Macaulay’s India Penal Code and Codification in the Nineteenth Century British Empire, ‘ Journal of Commonwealth Criminal Law, Vol 2, 2012, pp. 25-50
Codification, Macaulay and the Indian Penal Code: The Legacies and Modern Challenges of Criminal Law Reform (UK: Ashgate Publishing Co, 2011), 379 pp. (editor with Wing-Cheong Chan and Stanley Yeo)
‘Imaginary Sedition: Law and the Emerging Public Sphere in Upper Canada c.1798-1828’ in Logan Atkinson and Diana Majury, eds., Law, Mystery and the Humanities: Collected Essays (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. 167-213.
‘Criminal Law Codification and Imperial Projects: The Self-Governing Jurisdiction Codes of the 1890s’ Legal History, Vol 12, 2008, pp. 19-49.
‘Self-Governing Codifications of English Criminal Law and Empire: The Queensland and Canadian Examples’ University of Queensland Law Journal, Vol 26, 2007, pp. 39-65.
‘Migration, Radicalism and State Security: Legislative Initiatives in the Canadas and the United States c.1794-1804′ Studies in American Political Development, Vol 16, 2002, pp. 48-000
‘Harshness and Forbearance: The Politics of Pardons and the Upper Canadian Rebellion’ in C. Strange, ed., Qualities of Mercy (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1996), pp. 77-103.
‘Sedition in Upper Canada: Contested Legality’ Labour/Le Travail, Vol 29, 1992, pp. 7-57. Winner of the O.H.A. Riddell Award for best article about Ontario History, 1992.
‘Criminal Proceedings and the Transformative Potential of Law: Taking Historical Experiences Seriously’ Journal of Human Justice, Vol 3, 1991, pp. 7-26.
Canadian Perspectives on Law and Society: Issues in Legal History (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1988), 353 pp. (editor with W. Wesley Pue)
‘Towards a New Canadian Legal History’ Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol 22, 1984, pp. 349-374.
‘The Ideological Dimensions of Law in Upper Canada: The Treason Proceedings of 1838’ Criminal Justice History: An International Annual, Vol 10, 1989, pp. 131-178.
