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Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume X: A Tribute to Peter N. Oliver

2008

edited by Jim Phillips, Professor of Law, University of Toronto, R.Roy McMurtry, President of the Osgoode Society, and John Saywell, Professor of History Emeritus, York University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2008.

This collection of Canadian legal history essays honours Professor Peter Oliver, who led the Osgoode Society as editor-in-chief from its establishment until his death in 2006. The essays are written by Osgoode Society authors, and/or by students and colleagues of Peter’s at York University, and include almost all the major figures working in the field of Canadian legal history today. The introduction provides a history of the Osgoode Society and of Peter’s role in it. The volume is a fitting tribute to an extraordinary life and career.

Jim Phillips

Jim Phillips is Professor of Law, History and Criminology at the University of Toronto, and editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. He was law clerk to Madame Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada (1987-1988) before joining the University of Toronto. He has published numerous articles on British imperial history… Read more »

The Honourable R. Roy McMurtry

R. Roy McMurtry,1932-2024, was the former chief justice of Ontario (1996-2007) and Canadian high commissioner to the United Kingdom (1985-1988). He is counsel at Gowlings. He was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1975 after practicing as a trial lawyer for 17 years, and served as attorney-general under Premier William Davis. Mr. McMurtry founded… Read more »

John Tupper Saywell

The late Professor John Tupper (Jack) Saywell was one of Canada’s most distinguished political historians. He began teaching at the  University of Toronto in 1954, and was Editor of the Canadian Historical Review (1957 – 1963), and of the Canadian Annual Review (1960 – 1979). He was the author of The Office of Lieutenant-Governor: A… Read more »

Peter Oliver

Professor Oliver was a Professor of History at York University for over 40 years, beginning as a full time lecturer in 1965. His work focused mainly on the political and legal history of Ontario in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as correctional history and penology. He was noted for his work on a… Read more »

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Contents:

Contents

Foreword xi

Introduction: Peter Oliver and the Osgoode Society for Canadian
Legal History 1

JIM PHILLIPS, R. ROY MCMURTRY, AND JOHN T. SAYWELL

PART ONE: Criminal Justice: Law, Policy, and the
Limits of the Criminal Sanction

1 Rape in the House of Commons: The Prosecution of Louis Auger,
Ottawa, 1929 33
CONSTANCE BACKHOUSE

2 Wardens and Prisoners: Aspects of Prison Culture in Ontario,
1874-1914 67
JOSEPH ASHLEY BERKOVITS

3 ‘Perverts a Menace’: The Development of the Criminal Sexual
Psychopath Offence, 1948 107
PATRICK BRODE

4 The Law of Rules: Prosecuting Railway Workers in
Mid-Nineteenth-Century Ontario 129
PAUL CRAVEN

PART TWO: The Judiciary: Ideology, Legitimacy, and Politics

5 Politics, Promotion, and Professionalism: Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s
Judicial Appointments 169
PHILIP GIRARD

6 ‘High above the Generality of the People’: The Ideological Origins
of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court Circuit 200
JIM PHILLIPS

7 Judicial Scandal and the Culture of Patronage in
Early Confederation, 1867-78 222
JONATHAN SWAINGER

PART THREE: Legal Thought and the Legal Profession:
Contested Conceptions of Law and Lawyers

8 Strategic Benthamism: Rehabilitating United Canada’s Bar
through Criminal Law Codification, 1847-54 257
G. BLAINE BAKER

9 The Rule of Law and Irish Whig Constitutionalism in
Upper Canada: William Warren Baldwin, the ‘Irish Opposition,’
and the Volunteer Connection 320
JOHN MCLAREN

PART FOUR: New Directions in Legal History – Private Law,
International Law, Low Law, and Informal Law

10 Diplomacy, International Law, and Foreign Fishing in
Newfoundland, 1814-30: Revisiting the 1815 Treaty of Paris
and the 1818 Convention 353
RAINER BAEHRE

11 Social Workers, Courts, and the Implementation of the
Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-69 388
LORI CHAMBERS

12 The David Fasken Estate: Estate Planning and Social History in Early Twentieth Century Ontario 410
C. IAN KYER

13 Squatters’ Rights and the Origins of Edmonton Settlement 446
BRUCE ZIFF and SEAN WARD