Osgoode Society Books

Our books are listed here chronologically by date of publication. Use the Search function to the right to find a particular book, or author.

Quebec (incl. Quebec Civil Law)

  • “Honorary Protestants”: The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997

    By David Fraser, Professor of Law, University of Nottingham, published by the University of Toronto Press. Section 93 of the Constitution Act 1867 guaranteed certain educational rights to Catholics and Protestants in Quebec, but not to anybody else. This study of the challenges, legal and otherwise, encountered by Jewish parents in educating their children in… Read more »

  • The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays

    edited by Barrington Walker, Professor, Department of History, Queens University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2012. One of the central themes of the new legal history of the past two decades has been exploration of the law’s role in shaping the lives and experiences of historically marginalised groups in our society. The Osgoode… Read more »

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

    by Donald Fyson, Professor of History, Universite Laval. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2006. This book is a study of everyday criminal justice in Quebec and Lower Canada between the Conquest and the Rebellions, concentrating on the justices of the peace and the police. The first half explores the criminal justice system itself: the… Read more »

  • Searching for Justice: An Autobiography

    by Fred Kaufman, Quebec Court of Appeal, retired. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2005. As one reviewer wrote, this is a ‘a tale well told of a remarkable life well lived.’ Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna in the mid-twenties, Kaufman managed to leave his native city on one of the last… Read more »

  • The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754 – 2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle

    edited by Philip Girard, Professor, Dalhousie Law School, Jim Phillips, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and Barry Cahill, independent scholar.  Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2004. This volume was prepared to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada’s oldest surviving common law court. The thirteen… Read more »

  • Canadian State Trials Volume II: Rebellion and Invasion in the Canadas, 1837-1839

    edited by F. Murray Greenwood, Emeritus Professor of History, University of British Columbia and Barry Wright, Professor, Department of Law, Carleton University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2002. This second volume of the Canadian State Trials series focuses on the largest state security crisis in 19th century Canada: the rebellions of 1837-1838 and associated… Read more »

  • Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume VIII: In Honour of R.C.B. Risk

    edited by G. Blaine Baker & Jim Phillips. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1999. Collections of essays are usually organised around a particular theme. This book, which represents Canadian legal historians’ tribute to Professor Dick Risk, is, at first glance, something of an exception to that practice. The essays here cover subjects which range… Read more »

  • Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume VII: Canadian Law Firms in Historical Perspective

    Edited by Carol Wilton. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1996. This seventh volume in our Essays series, is a pioneering study of an important but neglected Canadian institution. It offers numerous cases studies of Canadian law firms as well as more general analyses. These essays highlight significant periods in the history of a variety… Read more »

  • Canadian State Trials, Volume I: Law, Politics, and Security Measures, 1608-1837

    edited by F. Murray Greenwood, Emeritus Professor of History, University of British Columbia and Barry Wright, Professor, Department of Law, Carleton University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1996. State trials reveal much about a nation’s insecurities and shed light on important themes in political, constitutional, and legal history. In Canada, perceived and real threats… Read more »

  • Just Lawyers: Seven Portraits

    by David Ricardo Williams. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1995. In 1924 Mackenzie King, on bended knee, pleaded with lawyer, Eugene Lafleur to accept the chief justiceship of Canada, but Lafleur refused. Another lawyer, Gordon Henderson was offered an appointment to the Ontario Court of Appeal but rejected it. Lafleur, Henderson, Frank Covert, Aimé… Read more »