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Viscount Haldane: "The Wicked Stepfather of the Canadian Constitution"
by Frederick Vaughan, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2010. Lord Haldane is well-known to historians of Canadian constitutional law as one of the Privy Council judges most responsible for re-shaping the division of powers in the direction of greater provincial power after World War One. This deeply-researched biography Fred… Read more »
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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 »
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Sir John Beverley Robinson: Bone and Sinew of the Compact
by Patrick Brode, Legal Counsel, City of Windsor. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1984. It is appropriate that Patrick Brode’s biography of Sir John Beverley Robinson was published in the year that marked the 200th anniversary of the coming of the loyalists to British North America. Robinson, as Patrick Brode demonstrates, embodied much… Read more »
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A Passion for Justice: The Legacy of James Chalmers McRuer
by Patrick Boyer. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1994. Patrick Boyer’s portrait of James Chalmers McRuer (1890-1985) reveals the complexities of one of Canada’s outstanding jurists, and shows the character and personal dilemmas of the man who was arguably Canada’s greatest law reformer. McRuer’s career of more than fifty years included periods as a… Read more »
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Northern Justice: The Memoirs Of Mr. Justice William G. Morrow
edited by William Morrow. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1995. One of the first Canadians to champion the legal and cultural cause of the North’s indigenous peoples, William George Morrow, the senior partner in an eminent Edmonton law firm, seized the opportunity to go to the North in 1960, and act as a volunteer… Read more »
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The Grand Experiment: Law and Legal Culture in British Settler Societies
edited by Hamar Foster, Professor of Law, University of Victoria, Andrew Buck, Professor of Law, Australian Catholic University, Queensland, and Ben Berger, Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School. Published with the University of British Columbia Press, 2008. In recent years Canadian legal historians have shown an increasing interest in imperial themes and the comparative legal… Read more »
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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 III: Nova Scotia
edited by Jim Phillips, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and Philip Girard, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1990. An introduction by the editors is followed by ten essays grouped into four main areas of study. The first is the legal system as a whole: essays in this section discuss… Read more »
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Duff: A Life in the Law
by David Williams. Published with the University of British Columbia Press, 1984. Out of Print. Sir Lyman Duff is often described as Canada’s most distinguished jurist. His career encompassed forty years in high judicial office, the last eleven as Chief Justice of Canada. More than any other individual, he shaped the Supreme Court and its decisions… Read more »
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Dewigged, Bothered and Bewildered: British Colonial Judges on Trial
by John McLaren, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Victoria. Published with University of Toronto Press, 2011. Canada was but one part of a large and complex empire, and this book is a reminder of that fact and a fascinating exploration of one important aspect of the legal history of the empire – the role of… Read more »