Richard Risk is a former Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. He joined the Faculty in 1962, and consistently taught at least one course a year on legal history from 1964 on. Originally, Professor Risk’s legal scholarship focused principally on real estate law, while in later years he became one of the country’s leading administrative law scholars. In addition to these fields, Professor Risk is recognized as one of Canada’s premier legal historians, helping to pioneer the field in the 1970s.
In honour of his impressive array of work in the field of legal history, the Osgoode Society published Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume VIII – In Honour of R.C.B. Risk (Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and University of Toronto Press, 1999). In the forward to this volume, Prof. Risk is referred to as “arguably the most respected academic authority on Canadian legal history” (p. x).
Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Books
A History of Canadian Legal Thought: Collected Essays, eds., G. Blaine Baker and Jim Phillips (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and the University of Toronto Press, 2006), 434 pp.
Chapters in Osgoode Society Books
‘This Nuisance of Litigation: The Origins of Workers’ Compensation in Ontario’ in D.H. Flaherty, ed., Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume II (Toronto: The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 1983), pp. 418-491.
‘The Law and the Economy in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Ontario: A Perspective’ in D.H. Flaherty, ed., Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume 1 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 1981), pp. 88-131.
Other Legal History Publications
‘My Continuing Legal Education,’ University of Toronto Law Journal, vol 55, 2005, pp. 313-330
‘On the Road to Oz: Common Law Scholarship about Federalism after World War II,’ Dalhousie Law Journal, vol 27, 2004, pp. 1 – 45
‘Canadian Law Teachers in the 1930s: “When the World was Turned Upside Down”‘, University of Toronto Law Journal, vol 51, 2001, pp. 143 – 185
‘Here Be Cold and Tygers’: A Map of Statutory Interpretation in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s’ Saskatchewan Law Review, vol 63, 2000, pp. 195-225
‘The Many Minds of W.P.M. Kennedy’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 48, 1998, pp. 353-386.
‘In Memoriam: John Willis’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 47, 1997, pp. 301-304.
‘Constitutional Scholarship in the Late-Nineteenth Century: Making Federalism Work’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 46, 1996, pp. 427-457.
‘The Scholars and the Constitution: P.O.G.G. and the Privy Council’ Manitoba Law Journal, Vol 23, 1996, pp. 496-523.
‘Rights Talk in Canada in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Good Sense and Right Feeling of the People’ Law and History Review, Vol 14, 1996, pp. 1-32 (with R.C. Vipond).
The Privy Council and Its Scholars: Canadian Constitutional Law (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Faculty of Law, 1992), pp. 63.
‘Blake and Liberty’ in J. Ajzenstat, ed., Canadian Constitutionalism, 1791-1991 (Ottawa: Canadian Study of Parliament Group, 1992), pp. 195-211.
‘A.H.F. Lefroy: Common Law Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century Canada: On Burying One’s Grandfather’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 41, 1991, pp. 307-331.
‘Constitutional Thought in the Late Nineteenth Century’ Manitoba Law Journal, Vol 20, 1991, pp. 196-203.
‘New Directions for Legal History’ in D. and R. Gagan, eds., New Directions for the Study of Ontario’s Past (Hamilton, Ont.: McMaster University, 1988), pp. 117-126.
‘Volume One of the Journal: A Tribute and a Belated Review,’ University of Toronto Law Journal, vol 37, 1987, pp. 193 – 225
‘John Skirving Ewart: The Legal Thought’ University of Toronto law Journal, Vol 37, 1987, pp. 335-357.
‘John Willis – A Tribute’ Dalhousie Law Journal, Vol 9, 1984, pp. 521-554.
‘Lawyers, Courts, and the Rise of the Regulatory State’ Dalhousie Law Journal, Vol 9, 1984, pp. 31-54.
‘The Beginnings of Regulation’ in E.G. Baldwin, ed., The Cambridge Lectures: Selected Papers Based upon Lectures Delivered at the Conference of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (Toronto: Butterworths, 1983), pp. 252-255.
‘Sir William R. Meredith C.J.O: The Search for Authority’ Dalhousie Law Journal, Vol 7, 1983, pp. 713-741.
The Law and the Economy in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ontario: A Perspective’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 27, 1977, pp. 403-438.
‘The Last Golden Age: Property and Allocation of Losses in Ontario in the Nineteenth Century’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 27, 1977, pp. 199-239.
‘The Golden Age: The Law About the Market in Nineteenth-Century Ontario’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 26, 1976, pp. 307-346.
‘The Nineteenth-Century Foundations of Business Corporation in Ontario’ University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol 23, 1973, pp. 270-306.
‘A Prospectus for Canadian Legal History’ Dalhousie Law Journal, Vol 1, 1973, pp. 227-245.
