Osgoode Society Books
Our books are listed here chronologically by date of publication. Please note that information on our 2020 titles will be released soon. You can still join for 2019 now using the membership page. Use the Search function to the right to find a particular book, or author.
Case Studies
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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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Property on Trial: Canadian Cases in Context
edited by Eric Tucker, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Bruze Ziff and James Muir, Professors, University of Alberta Law School. Published with Irwin Law, 2012. Despite the huge strides made by Canadian legal history in recent decades, we do not know as much as we should about the law of property, a crucial aspect of… 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 »
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Canadian State Trials Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914
edited by Barry Wright, Department of Law, Carleton University, and Dr. Susan Binnie. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2009. This third volume of the Osgoode Society’s Canadian State Trials series covers the period from the 1840s to the First World War. It examines a range of political trials as traditionally defined, including those arising… Read more »
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Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975
by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa. Published with Irwin Law, 2008. An engaging and powerful book about sexual assault crimes in Canadian history, by Professor Constance Backhouse, whose previous books for the Osgoode Society have won major awards. Using a case-study approach, Professor Backhouse explores nine sexual assault trials from across the country… Read more »
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Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume X: A Tribute to Peter N. Oliver
edited by Jim Phillips, Professor of Law, University of Toronto, R.Roy McMurtry, President of the Osgoode Society, and John Saywell, Professor of History Emeritus, York University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2008. This collection of Canadian legal history essays honours Professor Peter Oliver, who led the Osgoode Society as editor-in-chief from its establishment… Read more »
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Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume IX, Two Islands: Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island
edited by Christopher English, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2005. Voices from the East beyond the Northumberland and Cabot Straits. This volume of essays on the legal histories of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland opens with innovative essays on the historiography of two ‘island’ jurisdictions of Atlantic… Read more »
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The Heiress versus the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice
by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, and Madam Justice Nancy Backhouse, Superior Court of Justice, Ontario. Published with University of British Columbia Press, 2004. In 1940 Elizabeth Campbell published a remarkable book Where Angels Fear to Tread telling the story of her determined battle against much of Ontario’s legal establishment as she endeavoured… 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 »