Awards

Over the years our books have won many prestigious awards. Most recently, one of out 2022 members’ books, Jim Phillips, Philip Girard and R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada Volume II: Law for the New Dominion, 1867-1914, was awarded the Canadian Law and Society Association’s Prize for the best book published in 2022.

Here is a full list of all our award winners:

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Best Book in Political History

Winner

2021: Heidi Bohaker, Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

Best Book in Indigenous History

Winner

2021: Daniel Rück, The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Prize for the best book in any field of Canadian history(formerly the McDonald Prize)

Winners

2019: Eric Reiter, Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870-1950

2003: Jerry Bannister, The Rule of the Admirals: Law, Custom, and Naval Government in Newfoundland, 1699-1832

Honourable Mentions

2020: Heidi Bohaker, Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

2013: Shelley Gavigan, Hunger, Horses, and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905

2006: Donald Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

2005: Philip Girard, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life

2002: Laurel Sefton MacDowell, Renegade Lawyer: The Life of J.L. Cohen

Clio Award, Regional History

Winners

2013: Shelley Gavigan, Hunger, Horses, and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905

2012: Philip Girard, Lawyers and Legal Culture in British North America: Beamish Murdoch of Halifax

2008: Donald Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Winners

2023: Jim Phillips, Philip Girard, R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada Volume II: Law for the New Dominion, 1867-1914

2013: R. Blake Brown, Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada

2008: Constance Backhouse, Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975

2007: Robert J. Sharpe, Patricia McMahon, The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood

2006: Donald Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Honourable Mentions

2019: Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866

2016: David Fraser, “Honorary Protestants”: The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997

2013: Shelley Gavigan, Hunger, Horses, and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905

2011: Lesley Erickson, Westward Bound: Sex, Violence, the Law, and the Making of a Settler Society

Ontario Historical Society Awards

J.J. Talman Award

The best book on any aspect of Ontario history in the previous three years.

Winner

2000: Peter Oliver, ‘Terror to Evil-Doers’: Prisons and Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

Fred Landon Award

The best book on regional history in Ontario in the previous three years.

Winners

2013: Robert J. Sharpe, The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884

2006: John D. Honsberger, Osgoode Hall: An Illustrated History

Joseph Brant Award

The best book on the province’s multi-cultural history.

Winners

2021: Heidi Bohaker, Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

2002: Constance Backhouse, Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950

Alison Prentice Award

Best book in women’s history in the preceding three years.

Winners

2007: Lori Chambers, Misconceptions: Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969

2004: Ellen Anderson, Judging Bertha Wilson: Law As Large As Life

2001: Lori Chambers, Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario

Other Awards

Best Book in Canadian Studies, given by the Canadian Studies Association

Winner

2021: Daniel Rück, The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Fondation du Barreau du Québec Monograph Prize

Winner

2020: Eric Reiter, Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870-1950

J. Willard Hurst Prize

J. Willard Hurst Prize of the Law and Society Association, for the best book in English on socio-legal history for any country.

Winner

1992: Constance Backhouse, Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Honourable Mention

2007: Donald Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize

For distinguished writing on Canada and/or Canada’s place in the world.

Short-listed

2021: Heidi Bohaker, Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

Winners

2003: Robert J. Sharpe, Kent Roach, Brian Dickson: A Judge’s Journey

2002: John Tupper Saywell, The Law Makers: Judicial Power and the Shaping of Canadian Federalism

Floyd Chalmers Award

Given annually by the Champlain Society for writing on Ontario history.

Winners

2005: Philip Girard, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life

2001: Laurel Sefton MacDowell, Renegade Lawyer: The Life of J.L. Cohen

Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

Finalist

2000: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Harold Adams Innis Prize

Given each year for the best English language book supported by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Short-listed

2009: Constance Backhouse, Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975

Priz Lionel Groulx

Priz Lionel Groulx of the Institut d’histoire de l’Ámerique française, awarded for the best book on the history of French America.

Winner

2007: Donald Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Walter Owen Book Prize

Awarded by the Foundation of Legal Research.

Honourable Mention

2019: Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866

Charles Taylor Award

Charles Taylor Award for Literary Non-Fiction

Winner

2002: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

RBC Taylor Prize

RBC Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction

Short-listed

2014: Charlotte Gray, The Massey Murder: A Maid, her Master, and the Trial that Shocked a Nation

UBC Medal for Canadian Biography

Winner

2001: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography

Finalist

2001: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

City of Toronto Book Prize

Winner

2000: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Arthur Ellis Award

For the Best Non-Fiction book.

Winner

2000: A. B. (Brian) McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award

Finalists

2015: Christopher Moore, The Court of Appeal for Ontario: Defining the Right of Appeal, 1792-2013

2013: Lori Chambers, Misconceptions: Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969

2013: Barrington Walker, Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858-1958

Donner Prize

For the best book on Canadian public policy.

Finalist

1998: Sidney L. Harring, White Man’s Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence

Outstanding Book

Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States “Outstanding Book” award

Winner

1993: Constance Backhouse, Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Other Honours For Our Authors

The 2022 David W. Mundell Medal was awarded to Philip Girard, Associate Editor of the Osgoode Society. The Mundell Medal, awarded since 1986, is given annually to an author who has made a distinguished contribution to the law in legal writing. Among the books for which Professor Girard was given the award are five Osgoode Society books:

A History of Law in Canada Volume I: Beginnings-1866 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2018). (with Jim Phillips and Blake Brown).

Lawyers and Legal Culture in British North America: Beamish Murdoch of Halifax (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and Toronto University Press, 2011), pp. 249.

Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2005), pp. 646.

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2004), 515 pp. (editor with Jim Phillips and J. Barry Cahill).

Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume Three, Nova Scotia (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 1990), 369 pp. (editor with Jim Phillips).

Three other Osgoode Society authors have previously been awarded the Mundell Medal. The 2014 winner was Editor-in-Chief Jim Phillips. The 2010 winner was William Kaplan. The 2009 winner was Robert Sharpe.

One of our most prolific authors, Constance Backhouse, was named to the Order of Ontario in 2010. Professor Backhouse was honoured for her work as scholar, educator, and advocate for womens’ rights. That work includes four Osgoode Society books: Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975 (2008); The Heiress versus the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice(2004, with Nancy Backhouse); Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900 – 1950 (1999); and Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991). Since 2009 she has also published Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life (2017) and the forthcoming Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges and the RDS Case.