The Publishing Programme

Each year the Society publishes its "regular" book which members receive AT NO EXTRA CHARGE and which is funded primarily by members' fees. All overhead costs, including research grants to authors and editorial and administrative charges, come out of general revenues.

Printable Publication Order Form
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As well, the Society publishes "optional extras." These are books which the Directors consider are of interest to members and which advance our educational objectives. Most of our books are published in co-operation with our regular publisher, the University of Toronto Press. Sometimes, we work with another publishing house. Society members receive our books at an advantageous price. The prices given below for all books are inclusive of GST.

Fulfilling our mandate means publishing books that conform to high standards of scholarship and are also interesting to our many members in the legal profession. We thus strive to achieve readability, interest and good scholarship.

To receive any of our books, or to join the the Osgoode Society, please phone or fax us at (416) 947-3321 or (416)947-3447 respectively. Order forms and membership form are available on this site.

Books for 2011 - Now Available

Members Book

The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884
by Robert J. Sharpe, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Our members book for 2011 will be a fascinating account of a late nineteenth century murder case in Picton, Ontario. Robert Sharpe's latest offering for the Osgoode Society details the murder of a local resident and the subsequent court proceedings. The author provides a fascinating insight into the operation of the criminal justice system at that time, including the pardon process. The trial may well have been a case of what we would now call a 'wrongful conviction', linking the past to a current and compelling aspect of our criminal justice process.

Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of Toronto Press.
$50 incl tax.


OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Lawyers and Legal Culture in British North America: Beamish Murdoch of Halifax
by Philip Girard, Professor, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.

Well known to Osgoode Society readers as the author of the award winning biography of Bora Laskin, Philip Girard has written an account of an everyday lawyers' practice in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is also an exploration of Canadian legal culture and of the links between law and politics, especially arguments over responsible government.

Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of Toronto Press.
$45 incl tax.

Dewigged, Bothered and Bewildered: British Colonial Judges on Trial
by John Mclaren, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Victoria.

Professor Mclaren has produced a series of case studies of nineteenth century judges from across the British empire, including of course the Canadian colonies, who found themselves the centre of political controversy and were either suspended or removed from office. Anchored by excellent introductory surveys of the process of judicial appointment and the developing rules on judicial independence, the book is the first of its kind on the organisation and operation of colonial judicial systems. We are very pleased to publish this volume with the Francis Forbes Society, our Australian equivalent.

Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of Toronto Press.
$60 incl tax.


Westward Bound: Sex, Violence, the Law, and the Making of a Settler Society
by Lesley Erickson, Professor, Department of History, University of Calgary

In partnership with the University of British Columbia Press, we are publishing the first book of a young scholar which examines the operation of the criminal law in the prairie west in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Local court records and other sources are employed to see how the law worked on reserves, in the cities, and in the countryside, from high profile cases to day-to-day policing and punishment practices.

Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of British Columbia Press.
$45 incl tax.


BOOK AWARDS

We are pleased to congratulate one of our authors, Professor Constance Backhouse, for being named to the Order of Ontario in 2010. Professor Backhouse was honoured for her work as scholar, educator, and advocate for womens' rights. That work includes four Osgoode Society books:

Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975 (2008)
The Heiress versus the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell's Campaign for Legal Justice (2004, with Nancy Backhouse)
Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900 - 1950 (1999)
Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991).

Three of Professor Backhouse's books have won awards, and indeed our books have garnered many prestigious awards.

Our 2008 members' book, Constance Backhouse, Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975, won the Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize for any book published in 2008. This was the third year in a row that an Osgoode Society book won this award. Carnal Crimes has also been short-listed for the 2008-2009 Harold Adams Innis Prize. The Innis Prize is given each year for the best English language book supported by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This success, of which we are very proud, follows the accolades garnered by our members' books for 2006 (Don Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837) and 2007 (Robert Sharpe & Patricia McMahon, The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood). Both won the afore-mentioned Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize. Magistrates, Police and People also won a Clio Award for Regional History, given by the Canadian Historical Association, and the Priz Lionel Groulx of the Institut d’histoire de l’Ámerique française, awarded for the best book on the history of French America. It was also an honourable mention for two prizes: the John A. MacDonald Prize, awarded annually by the Canadian Historical Association for the best book in any field of Canadian history, and the J. Willard Hurst Prize of the Law and Society Association, for the best book in English on socio-legal history for any country.

Here is a full list of all the awards won by Osgoode Society books.

Ontario Historical Society Awards

J.J. Talman Award, for the best book on any aspect of Ontario history in the previous three years.
Winner, 2000: Peter Oliver, Terror to Evil-Doers: Prisons and Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

Fred Landon Award, for the best book on regional history in Ontario in the previous three years.
Winner, 2006: John Honsberger, Osgoode Hall: An Illustrated History

Joseph Brant Award, for the best book on the province's multi-cultural history.
Winner, 2002 - Constance Backhouse, Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950

Alison Prentice Award, best book in women's history in the preceding three years.
Winner, 2001 - Lori Chambers, Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario
Winner, 2004 - Ellen Anderson, Judging Bertha Wilson: Law as Large as Life.
Winner, 2007 - Lori Chambers, Misconceptions: Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969

Canadian Historical Association Awards

John A. MacDonald Prize, awarded annually by the Canadian Historical Association for the best book
in any field of Canadian history.
Winner, 2003: Jerry Bannister, The Rule of the Admirals: Law, Custom and Naval Government in Newfoundland, 1699-1832
Honourable Mention, 2005: Philip Girard, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life
Honourable Mention, 2006: Don Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837.

Clio Award, Regional History.
Winner, 2006: Don Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Winner 2006 - Don Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837.
Winner 2007 - Robert Sharpe and Patricia McMahon, The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood.
Winner 2008 - Constance Backhouse, Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975.

Other Awards

The 2010 David W. Mundell Medal has been awarded to William Kaplan. The Mundell Medal, awarded since 1986, is given annually to an author who has made a distinguished contribution to the law in legal writing. Among the books for which William Kaplan was given the award are two Osgoode Society books. In 1996 he published Bad Judgment: The Case of Mr. Justice Leo A. Landreville, and in 2009 he published Canadian Maverick: The Life of Ivan C. Rand, our members book for 2009.

The 2009 Mundell Medal was awarded to another Osgoode Society author, Robert J. Sharpe. Among the books for which Judge Sharpe was given the award are included three Osgoode Society books: The Last Day, The Last Hour: The Currie Libel Trial; Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey (with Kent Roach); and The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood (with Patricia McMahon).

J. Willard Hurst Prize of the Law and Society Association, for the best book in English on socio-legal history for any country.
Winner, 1992 - Constance Backhouse, Women and the Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada
Honourable Mention, 2007 - Don Fyson, Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Floyd Chalmers Award, given annually by the Champlain Society for writing on Ontario history.
Winner 2001 - L.S. McDowell, Renegade Lawyer: The Life of J.L. Cohen
Winner 2005 - Philip Girard, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life

Finalist, Governor-General's Award for Non-Fiction
2000 - Brian McKillop, The Spinster & The Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past.

John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for distinguished writing on Canada and/or Canada's place in the world.
Winner 2002 - John Saywell, The Law Makers: Judicial Power and the Shaping of Canadian Federalism
Winner 2003 - Robert Sharpe & Kent Roach, Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey

City of Toronto Book Prize
Winner 2000 - Brian McKillop, The Spinster & The Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Arthur Ellis Award for the Best Non-Fiction book.
Winner 2000 - Brian McKillop, The Spinster & The Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

 

Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of Toronto Press