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The Alberta Supreme Court at 100: History and Authority
2007 
edited by Jonathan Swainger, Department of History, University of Northern British Columbia. Published with the University of Alberta Press, 2007.
The centenary of the Supreme Court of Alberta provides an excellent occasion for reflection on its history, and we are grateful to this volume’s editor, Jon Swainger, for putting together this collection. The first two chapters provide an overview of the institutional history, and the remainder examine the court’s jurisprudence in its historical context, exploring the relationship between the court and the province as both moved through the twentieth century. The collection examines the extent to which the Court articulated a specifically Albertan response to the varied legal questions of the past century, analysing First Nations’ hunting rights, oil and gas law, water law, gender, the Hutterites and religious freedom, and the constitution. This volume contributes substantially to our growing knowledge of the history of Canada’s superior courts.
Contents
Contents
vii Contributors
ix Foreword
xi Acknowledgements
xv Photographs
INTRODUCTION
I History and Authority: The Past and Present
in the Supreme Court of Alberta
Jonathan Swainger
Part One: Overviews
ONE
27 The Supreme Court of Alberta: The
Formative Years, 1905-1921
Louis A. Knafla
TWO
69 The Power of Law: Judicial Independence and
the Supreme Court of Alberta, 1918
Wayne N. Renke
THREE
99 The Supreme Court of Alberta Meets
the Supreme Law of Canada
Dale Gibson
Part Two: Specific Issues and Areas of Law
FOUR
133 The Supreme Court of Alberta and First
Nations Treaty Hunting Rights: Federalism
and Respect for “the Queen’s Promises”
Brian Calliou
FIVE
159 Space for Religion: Regulation of Hutterite
Expansion and the Superior Courts of Alberta
Jonnette Watson Hamilton
SIX
193 The Supreme Court of Alberta and Water Law
Arlene J. Kwasniak
SEVEN
227 Energy Law: The Court and the Prosperity Bonus
Alastair R. Lucas
EIGHT
261 The Marriage of Law and History: Family Law
Cases in the Alberta Supreme Court 1907-2006
Marie L. Gordon
NINE
297 The Province of Persons: The Alberta Supreme
Court and Women’s Equality
Jennifer Koshan and Elizabeth Whitsitt
APPENDIX
333 Judges of the Supreme Court of Alberta, 1907-2007
345 Index
Reviews
[An] excellent contribution to an understanding of the work of the court in [many] fields.... [A] decisive advance in the historical scholarship surrounding the work of the Superior Courts in Canada. Justice Gilles Renuad, High Court Quarterly Review, vol 5, 2009
[The] essays make good use of case studies as well as Supreme Court authority to produce a most interesting and readable book. Book Review Editor, Alberta History, Spring 2008
James W. Muir, Alberta Law Review, Vol. 45, 2008.
