Fellowships and Awards
R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Legal History
The R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Legal History was created in 2007,
on the occasion of the retirement as Chief Justice of Ontario of the
Hon. R. Roy McMurtry. It honours the contribution to Canadian legal
history of Roy McMurtry, Attorney-General and Chief Justice of
Ontario, founder of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
and for many years (and currently) the Society's President.
The fellowship was established by Chief Justice McMurtry's friends and colleagues, and endowed by private donations and the Law Foundation of Ontario.
The fellowship is to support graduate (preferably doctoral) students or those with a recently completed doctorate, to conduct research in Canadian legal history, for one year. Scholars working on any topic in the field of Canadian legal history are eligible. Applicants should be in a graduate programme at an Ontario University or, if they have a completed doctorate, be affiliated with an Ontario University.
The fellowship may be held concurrently with other awards for graduate study. Eligibility is not limited to history and law programmes; persons in cognate disciplines such as criminology or political science may apply, provided the subject of the research they will conduct as a McMurtry fellow in Canadian legal history. The selection committee may take financial need into consideration. Applications will be assessed by a committee appointed by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
The 2010 McMurtry Fellowship has co-winners. Claie Mumme, a doctoral student at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, shares the fellowship for her project entitled "The History of the Contract of Employment in Twentieth Century Canada." Ms. Mumme is a graduate of Osgoode hall Law School (LLB) and New York University (LLM). The other co-winner is Stacey Alexopoulos, a doctoral student in the Department of History, York University. Ms Alexopoulos is writing a thesis on the development of propery rules governing housing on aboriginal reserves since 1951. The Osgoode Society congratulates both winners, chosen from a very strong field of applicants, and is delighted that the fellowship has been awarded to such worthy researchers.
Those interested in the 2011 fellowship should apply by sending a full c.v. and a statement of the research they would conduct as a McMurtry fellow to Marilyn Macfarlane, McMurtry Fellowship Selection Committee, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, M5H 2N6. The deadline for applications is April 15, 2011. For more information contact the Society.
Previous Winners of the McMurtry Fellowship
2008 - Dr. Melanie Brunet, for work on legal education in the twentieth century
- Bradley Miller, a history Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, for work on the history of Canadian extradition
2009 - Mary Stokes, a doctoral student in legal history at Osgoode Hall Law School, for a study of municipal law in nineteenth-century Ontario.
Peter Oliver Prize in Canadian Legal History
The Peter Oliver Prize in Canadian Legal History was established by the Society in 2006 in honour of Professor Peter Oliver, the Society's founding editor-in-chief. The prize is awarded annually for published work (journal article, book chapter, book) in Canadian legal history written by a student.
Students in any discipline at any stage of their careers are eligible. The Society takes a broad view of legal history, one that includes work in socio-legal history, legal culture, etc., as well as work on the history of legal institutions, legal personnel, and substantive law.
Students may self-nominate their published work, and faculty members are also encouraged to nominate student work of which they are aware. Those nominating their own work should send a copy of it to the Society.
The 2010 Oliver Prize winner is Bradley Miller, for his article " 'A Carnival of Crime on our Border:' International Law, Imperial Power, and Extradition in Canada, 1865-1883," published in the Canadian Historical Review, vol 90, 2009.
The deadline for nominations for the 2011 Prize, to be awarded for work published in 2010, is April 15, 2011.
Please send nominations to Professor Jim Phillips, Editor-in-Chief, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto ON M5H 2N6, or by email to j.phillips@utoronto.ca.
Previous Winners of the Peter Oliver Prize
2008 - Eric Adams, "Canada's 'Newer Constitutional Law' and the Idea of Constitutional Rights," McGill Law Journal, vol 51, 2006.
2009 - Myles Leslie, "Reforming the Coroner: Death Investigation Manuals in Ontario, 1863-1894,' Ontario History, vol 100, 2008.
John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History
The Saywell Prize is made possible by the generosity of his son, John W. MacIntosh, to recognise the outstanding contribution to Canadian political and legal history of Professor Saywell. Among his other work Professor Saywell is the author of The Law Makers: Judicial Power And The Shaping Of Canadian Federalism, published by the Osgoode Society in 2002.
The Saywell Prize is given bi-annually to the best new book in Canadian legal history, broadly defined, that makes an important contribution to an understanding of the constitution and/or federalism. In exceptional circumstances, the jury could also consider a seminal article or series of articles, some of the latter not written in the two-year period, to satisfy the objectives of the award.
The first winner of the Saywell Prize, for 2009, is Janet Ajzenstat,
Professor Emerita at McMaster University, for her book The Canadian
Founding: John Locke and Parliament, published in 2007 by
McGill-Queen's University Press. Professor Ajzenstat's book examines
Canada's founding debates, the discussions in the colonial assemblies
about Confederation and the nature of the new national Parliament.
She argues that the men who made Confederation drew on John Locke's
concept of popular sovereignty and its associated notions of
non-discrimination, freedom and the centrality of the rule of law.
She accordingly shows in this important study that the founders did
have a conception of constitutional rights. While not everybody will
agree with her interpretations, this is an important book on the
origins of Canada.
The Saywell Prize will next be awarded in 2011, for a book published in 2009 or 2010.
Other Student Awards
Student Book Award. The Society, in co-operation with Canadian law schools, offers an annual book award to a graduating student deemed to have done excellent work in legal history. The Society provides
one book from its back list and also a current membership, including the annual publication, to such a student in each participating Canadian Law School.
Law Society Of Upper Canada/Osgoode Society Award Of Excellence. Since 2000 the Law Society and the Osgoode Society have presented Osgoode Society memberships to the top 20 graduating students in each of Ontario's law schools.
