Donald Fyson is Professor of History in the Département d’histoire of Université Laval. He has published extensively in eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth- century Quebec history, with a focus on the relationship between state, law and society, especially as seen through the criminal and civil justice system, the police and local administration. These themes are explored in several articles and in a book, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837 published by the Osgoode Society for Canadian legal history.
In 2007 he won the Prix Lionel-Groulx Fondation Yves-Saint-Germain of the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française for best book on the history of French America; the Clio Prize (Quebec) of the Canadian Historical Association for best book in Quebec history, and the book prize of the Canadian Law and Society Association for best book in 2007.
Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Books
Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XI: Quebec and the Canadas (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2013) pp. 582 (editor with Blaine Baker)
Magistrates, Police, and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764- 1837 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2006), 467 pp. Translated into French and republished as Magistrats, police et société: la justice criminelle ordinaire au Québec et au Bas-Canada (1764- 1837) (Montréal: Hurtubise, 2010), pp. 592.
Chapters in Osgoode Society Books
‘Minority Groups and the Law in Quebec, 1760-1867’ in Blaine Baker, Donald Fyson, eds. Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XI: Quebec and the Canadas (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2013) pp. 278 – 329.
‘The Trials and Tribulations of Riot Prosecutions: Collective Violence, State Authority and Criminal Justice in Quebec, 1841-1892’ in Susan Binnie and Barry Wright, eds., Canadian State Trials, Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 161-203.
Other Legal History Publications
‘La police au Québec, 1760-1878: des modèles impériaux dans une colonie nord-américaine’ in Vincent Denis et al. eds., Polices et empires coloniaux, 18e-20e siècles (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012), pp.
‘De la common law à la Coutume de Paris: les nouveaux habitants britanniques du Québec et le droit civil français, 1764-1775’ in Florent Garnier and Jacqueline Vendrand-Voyer, eds., La coutume dans tous ses états (Paris: La Mémoire du Droit, 2012), pp.
‘The Gros Village and the Metropolis: Reciprocal Constructions of Crime, Danger and Risk in Quebec City and Montreal, from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the 1920s’ in David Niget and Martin Petitclerc, eds., Les risques de l’histoire. Contributions à une historiographie du risque (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2012), pp.
‘Glimpses of Quebec City’s Common Gaol, 1808-1867’ Society Pages: The Magazine of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, Vol 32, 2011, pp. 5-7.
‘Pierre Bédard et le système judiciaire du Bas-Canada, 1812-1829’ Bulletin d’histoire politique Vol 19, 2011, pp. 43-57.
‘The Legal Profession and Penal Justice in Quebec City, 1856-1965: From Modernity to Anti- Modernity’ in Constance Backhouse and W. Wesley Pue, eds., The Promise and Perils of Law: Lawyers in Canadian History (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2009), pp. 141-157.
‘L’État et la justice au Québec, 1857-1965’ in Donald Fyson and Yvan Rousseau, eds., L’État au Québec: Perspectives d’analyse et expériences historiques (Québec: Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises, 2008), pp. 21-26.
‘La violence entre hommes et la justice au Québec, 1780-1850’ in Antoine Follain et al., eds., La violence et le judiciaire: discours, perceptions, pratiques (Rennes: Presses de l’Université de Rennes, 2008), pp. 241-249.
“The Canadiens and British Institutions of Local Governance in Quebec, from the Conquest to the Rebellions”. In Nancy Christie (ed), Transatlantic Subjects: Ideas, Institutions, and Social Experience in Post-Revolutionary British North America (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008): 45-82.
‘Les dynamiques politiques locales et la justice au Québec entre la Conquête et les Rébellions’ Bulletin d’histoire politique, Vol. 16, 2007, pp. 337-346.
‘Judicial Auxiliaries Across Legal Regimes: From New France to Lower Canada’ in Claire Dolan, ed., Entre justice et justiciables: Les auxiliaires de la justice du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle (Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005): pp. 383-403.
‘The Judicial Prosecution of Crime in the Longue Durée: Quebec, 1712-1965’ in Jean-Marie Fecteau and Janice Harvey, eds., La régulation sociale entre l’acteur et l’institution: Pour une problématique historique de l’interaction (Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2005), pp. 85- 119.
‘Attorney-General / Solicitor-General’ in Gerald Hallowell, ed., The Oxford Companion to Canadian History (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 55. Also in above “Courts of Law, Provincial and Local” pp. 160-61, “Criminal Law” pp. 164-65, “Federal Court of Canada” pp. 215, “Riot” pp. 545 et “Roncarelli v Duplessis” pp. 548-49.
‘Urban Elites and Local Power: The Montreal Magistracy, 1764-1830’ in Claude Bellavance and Marc St-Hilaire, eds., Le phénomène urbain au Québec: Échelles, approches et matériaux (Québec: Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises, 2002), pp. 24-26.
‘Jurys, participation civique et représentation au Québec et au Bas Canada: les grands jurys du district de Montréal (1764-1832)’ Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, Vol 55, 2001, pp. 85-120.
‘Le droit romain comme source du Code Civil du Bas-Canada’ Revue du notariat, Vol 103, 2001, pp. 87-113 (with Sylvio Normand).
“La paroisse et l’administration étatique sous le Régime britannique (1764-1840)”. In Serge Courville and Normand Séguin (ed), Atlas historique du Québec: La paroisse (Sainte-Foy: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2001): 25-39.
‘Droit romain et codification du droit privé: les sources des codificateurs’ in Ella Hermon, ed., La question agraire à Rome: Droit romain et société. Perceptions historiques et historiographiques (Como: Edizioni New Press, 1999) pp. 175-183 (with Sylvio Normand).
‘L’administration de la justice 1800-1867’ in Les 150 ans du Barreau de Québec 1849-1999, special issue of Cap-aux-Diamants, Vol. Spring 1999, pp. 35-39.
‘The Biases of Ancien Régime Justice: The People and the Justices of the Peace in the District of Montreal, 1785-1830’ in Tamara Myers et al., ed., Power, Place and Identity: Historical Studies of Social and Legal Regulation in Quebec (Montreal: Montreal History Group, 1998), pp. 11-35.
The Court Structure of Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764 to 1860 1st edition, (Montreal: Montreal History Group, 1994) 115 pp; 2nd revised and corrected edition: (Montreal: Montreal History Group, 1997-2010) (updated regularly) (with the assistance of Evelyn Kolish and Virginia Schweitzer)
‘A Guide to Legislation in Pre-Confederation Quebec and Lower Canada’ in Donald Fyson et al., eds., Class, Gender and the Law in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Quebec: Sources and Perspectives (Montreal: Montreal History Group, 1993), pp. 5-27.
