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.
Criminal Law
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Fatal Confession: A Girl’s Murder, a Man’s Execution, and the Fitton Case
Carolyn Strange, Fatal Confession: A Girl’s Murder, a Man’s Execution, and the Fitton Case. Published by the University of British Columbia Press. Carolyn Strange is Professor of History at the Australian National University. In the mid-1950s most Canadians still believed that murder merited the death penalty. It was also a time when modern approaches to… Read more »
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Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World
Our first Optional Extra title for 2024 is Ian Radforth, Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World, published by the University of Toronto Press. Deadly Swindle is a fascinating journey into life and law in late nineteenth-century Canada. Its jumping off point is the murder of Frederick Cornwallis Benwell, whose body was discovered in the… Read more »
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Prairie Justice: The Hanging of Mike Hack
Wayne Sumner, Prairie Justice: The Hanging of Mike Hack, published by the University of Toronto Press. Wayne Sumner is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. This is a deeply-researched case study of a capital murder case from Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Although Mike Hack was deaf, and although his case was not famous, and it… Read more »
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Essays in the History of Canadian Law Volume XII: New Essays in Women’s History
Our members’ book for 2023 is Lori Chambers and Joan Sangster, eds., Essays in the History of Canadian Law Volume XII: New Essays in Women’s History, published by the University of Toronto Press. Lori Chambers is Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University, and Joan Sangster is Professor Emerita of History at Trent University. This… Read more »
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Borderline Crime: Fugitive Criminals and the Challenge of the Border, 1819-1914
By Bradley Miller, Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, published by the University of Toronto Press. This is the first comprehensive history of cross-border Canadian-American interactions in relation to fugitive criminals, escaped slaves, and refugees. Miller examines the complexity of those interactions, which involved formal legal regimes governed by treaties as well… Read more »
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Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada
R. Blake Brown, Professor of History, St Mary’s University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2012. $45.00; Student Price: $20.00. The topic of gun control is never far from the public eye in this country, taking centre stage whenever a dramatic shooting occurs and invariably featuring in debates about Canadian-American distinctions. This is the… Read more »
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The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays
edited by Barrington Walker, Professor, Department of History, Queens University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2012. One of the central themes of the new legal history of the past two decades has been exploration of the law’s role in shaping the lives and experiences of historically marginalised groups in our society. The Osgoode… Read more »
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Westward Bound: Sex, Violence, the Law, and the Making of a Settler Society
by Lesley Erickson, Independent Historian and Researcher, Vancouver. Published with UBC Press, 2011. The history of crime and punishment is one of the principal lenses through which historians of the law investigate the relationship between the law in the books and the ‘law in action,’ and the uses of law to regulate relations among social… Read more »
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The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884
by Robert J. Sharpe, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2011. Robert Sharpe is one of the Osgoode Society’s most prolific authors, and his latest offering is a compelling account of a late nineteenth century murder case in Picton, Ontario. This very thoroughly researched and engagingly… Read more »
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A Trying Question: The Jury in Nineteenth Century Canada
by R. Blake Brown, Professor of History, St Mary’s University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2009. The jury has long been a central institution of both the trial process in particular and of the ideology of the common law in general, a body exemplifying the distinctiveness of our legal tradition. In this first book-length… Read more »