The Hon. Allen Linden

This 1991 interview with Justice Allen Linden provides a comprehensive account of his groundbreaking work as author of “Canadian Tort Law” (first published in 1972) and his role in the transformation of Canadian legal education and scholarship. Linden discusses how he became the first to write a comprehensive Canadian tort law textbook, motivated by the absence of indigenous Canadian legal materials and the continued reliance on English texts despite Canada’s independence from the Privy Council in 1949.

Linden traces his journey from articling with a Toronto personal injury firm to studying at Berkeley with renowned tort scholars Prosser and Fleming, then joining Osgoode Hall Law School in 1961 during an exciting period of curriculum reform and scholarly development. He describes the 1960s-70s as a golden age when young Canadian law professors began creating distinctly Canadian jurisprudence, writing textbooks and articles that would influence courts and legal practice. The interview reveals how academic legal writing gained acceptance in Canadian courts, with judges increasingly citing scholarly works alongside case law.

The discussion covers the practical aspects of legal scholarship, including the challenges of finding time and funding for comprehensive textbook writing, the role of research assistants and students, and the modest financial rewards compared to the intellectual satisfaction of seeing one’s ideas adopted by courts. Linden reflects on the evolution from reliance on English authorities to a more independent Canadian legal tradition that drew from multiple jurisdictions while developing distinctly Canadian approaches to legal problems.

This description was written by AI and may contain some inaccuracies.