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.

All Books

  • Fulfilment: Memoirs of a Criminal Court Judge

    by David Vanek. Published with Dundurn Press, 1999. We are very grateful to Judge David Vanek for offering us the opportunity to publish his memoirs. In Ontario provincial court judges are the workhorses of the judiciary, carrying out a huge range of tasks and bearing an enormous burden. Most students of Canadian legal history are familiar… Read more »

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  • 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 »

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  • Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950

    by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1999. Colour-Coded has been translated into French and published in Quebec as De La Couleur des Lois: White supremacy had a tenacious hold on the historical roots of the Canadian legal system. Backhouse presents convincing case studies to illustrate how… Read more »

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  • Chief Justice W.R. Jackett: By the Law of the Land

    by Richard W. Pound. Published with McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. When Richard Pound told us he was working on a biography of Wilbur Jackett, former Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Canada, and asked us to consider publication, we were pleased and somewhat sceptical. We had recently published Ian Bushnell’s history of the Federal Court… Read more »

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  • White Man’s Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence

    by Sidney Harring.  Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1998. In recent years numerous important books have appeared which deal with the history of aboriginal populations in early Canada. Although these studies add enormously to our understanding of the role played by native peoples in the British North American and Canadian communities, there has… Read more »

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  • ‘Terror to Evil-Doers’: Prisons and Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

    by Peter Oliver, Professor of History, York University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1998. We are delighted that Peter Oliver has agreed to include his seminal work on prisons and punishments in nineteenth century Ontario in the Osgoode Society’s Publications Series. Professor Oliver’s book draws on a huge range of previously unexplored primary sources… Read more »

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  • "Race", Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada: Historical Case Studies

    by James St. G. Walker, Professor of History and Associate Chair of Graduate Studies at the University of Waterloo. Published with Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997. Professor James Walker is a distinguished historian who has made a substantial contribution to understanding the role of minority groups, especially aboriginal populations and those of African ancestry, in the… Read more »

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  • Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario

    by Lori Chambers, Professor, Department of History and Women’s Studies, Lakehead University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1997. Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario, by Professor Lori Chambers, Lakehead University, is a fascinating account of gender relationships in nineteenth-century Ontario as revealed through a series of laws which reflected Victorian attitudes to… Read more »

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  • The Federal Court of Canada: A History, 1875-1992

    by Ian Bushnell. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1997. The Federal Court of Canada, existing from 1875 to 1971 under the name Exchequer Court of Canada, has occupied a special place in the court structure of Canada. Established principally to adjudicate legal disputes in which the Canadian government was involved, it has, since its… Read more »

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  • Casual Slaughters and Accidental Judgments: Canadian War Crimes Prosecutions, 1944-48

    by Patrick Brode, Legal Counsel, City of Windsor. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1997. Casual Slaughters and Accidental Judgments: Canadian War Crimes Prosecutions, 1944-1948 is Patrick Brode’s third publication with The Ogoode Society and furthers his already considerable reputation for combining sound scholarship with readability. The prosecution after the Second World War of German… Read more »

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