Awards

Over the years our books have won many prestigious awards. Most recently, one of out 2022 members’ books, Jim Phillips, Philip Girard and R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada Volume II: Law for the New Dominion, 1867-1914, was awarded the Canadian Law and Society Association’s Prize for the best book published in 2022.

Here is a full list of all our award winners:

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Best Book in Political History

Winner


Best Book in Indigenous History

Winner


Canadian Historical Association Awards

Prize for the best book in any field of Canadian history(formerly the McDonald Prize)

Winners

Honourable Mentions


Clio Award, Regional History

Winners


Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Winners

Honourable Mentions


Ontario Historical Society Awards

J.J. Talman Award

The best book on any aspect of Ontario history in the previous three years.

Winner


Fred Landon Award

The best book on regional history in Ontario in the previous three years.

Winners


Joseph Brant Award

The best book on the province’s multi-cultural history.

Winners


Alison Prentice Award

Best book in women’s history in the preceding three years.

Winners


Other Awards

Best Book in Canadian Studies, given by the Canadian Studies Association

Winner


Fondation du Barreau du Québec Monograph Prize

Winner


J. Willard Hurst Prize

J. Willard Hurst Prize of the Law and Society Association, for the best book in English on socio-legal history for any country.

Winner

Honourable Mention


John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize

For distinguished writing on Canada and/or Canada’s place in the world.

Short-listed

Winners


Floyd Chalmers Award

Given annually by the Champlain Society for writing on Ontario history.

Winners


Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

Finalist


Harold Adams Innis Prize

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.

Short-listed


Priz Lionel Groulx

Priz Lionel Groulx of the Institut d’histoire de l’Ámerique française, awarded for the best book on the history of French America.

Winner


Walter Owen Book Prize

Awarded by the Foundation of Legal Research.

Honourable Mention


Charles Taylor Award

Charles Taylor Award for Literary Non-Fiction

Winner


RBC Taylor Prize

RBC Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction

Short-listed


UBC Medal for Canadian Biography

Winner


Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography

Finalist


City of Toronto Book Prize

Winner


Arthur Ellis Award

For the Best Non-Fiction book.

Winner


Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award

Finalists


Donner Prize

For the best book on Canadian public policy.

Finalist


Outstanding Book

Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States “Outstanding Book” award

Winner


Other Honours For Our Authors

The 2022 David W. Mundell Medal was awarded to  Philip Girard, Associate Editor of the Osgoode Society. 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 Professor Girard was given the award are five Osgoode Society books:

A History of Law in Canada Volume I: Beginnings-1866 (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2018). (with Jim Phillips and Blake Brown).

Lawyers and Legal Culture in British North America: Beamish Murdoch of Halifax (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and Toronto University Press, 2011), pp. 249.

Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2005), pp. 646.

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2004), 515 pp. (editor with Jim Phillips and J. Barry Cahill).

Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume Three, Nova Scotia (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 1990), 369 pp. (editor with Jim Phillips).

Three other Osgoode Society authors have previously been awarded the Mundell Medal. The 2014 winner was Editor-in-Chief Jim Phillips. The 2010 winner was William Kaplan. The 2009 winner was Robert Sharpe.

One of our most prolific authors, Constance Backhouse, was 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); and Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991).  Since 2009 she has also published Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life (2017) and the forthcoming Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges and the RDS Case.