Mr. Stanley Edwards

Stanley Edwards, a University of Alberta law graduate who earned his LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1947, provides insight into his tenure as a lecturer at Osgoode Hall Law School from 1947-1949. Edwards taught administrative law, taxation, bills and notes, and equity alongside faculty members Caesar Wright, Bora Laskin, and John Falconbridge during a transformative period in Canadian legal education.

The interview focuses extensively on Edwards’ relationship with Bora Laskin, whom he describes as principled, approachable, and diplomatic. Edwards offers detailed observations of Laskin’s personality, work habits, and teaching methods during their time as colleagues when both were young faculty members. He particularly emphasizes Laskin’s expertise in constitutional law, labor law, and real property, as well as his commitment to the case method of legal education.

The discussion culminates with the 1949 crisis that led to the mass resignation of the faculty following a confrontation with the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Benchers over the direction of legal education at Osgoode Hall. Edwards describes the heated debates, including the pivotal Canadian Bar Association meeting in February 1949, and explains how this controversy ultimately led him to leave academic life for private practice at Fraser & Beatty, where he specialized in taxation law.

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