Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
The purpose of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History is to encourage research and writing in the history of Canadian law. The Society, which was incorporated in 1979 and is registered as a charity, was founded at the initiative of the Honourable R. Roy McMurty, formerly attorney general for Ontario and chief justice of the province, and officials of the Law Society of Upper Canada. The Society seeks to stimulate the study of legal history in Canada by supporting researchers, collecting oral histories, and publishing volumes that contribute to legal-historical scholarship in Canada. It has published books on the courts, the judiciary, and the legal profession, as well as on the history of crime and punishment, women and law, law and economy, the legal treatment of the ethnic minorities, and famous cases and significant trials in all areas of the law.
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Prairie Justice
The Hanging of Mike Hack
Price:
$60.00
ISBN: 9781487561789
Pub Date: November 2024
Prairie Justice examines the gripping true story of a 1928 murder in Saskatchewan, highlighting themes of injustice and systemic flaws in the Canadian criminal justice system.
Deadly Swindle
An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario that Gripped the World
Price:
$80.00
ISBN: 9781487560232
Pub Date: October 2024
A fascinating journey into life and law in late nineteenth-century Canada, Deadly Swindle tells the story of one the country’s most sensational murder cases.
Law of the Land
The Advent of the Torrens System in Canada
Price:
$34.95
ISBN: 9781487552138
Pub Date: November 2022
Greg Taylor traces the spread of the Torrens system, from its arrival in the far-flung outpost of 1860s Victoria, British Columbia, right up to twenty-first century Ontario.
A History of Law in Canada, Volume Two
Law for a New Dominion, 1867–1914
Price:
$95.00
ISBN: 9781487545673
Pub Date: November 2022
This book recounts the many and varied transformations in the history of law in Canada in the half century after Confederation.
Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered
British Colonial Judges on Trial, 1800-1900
Price:
$59.95
ISBN: 9781487548889
Pub Date: June 2022
Using the career histories of judges who challenged the system, Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered illuminates issues of judicial tenure, accountability, and independence throughout the British Empire.
Canadian State Trials, Volume V
World War, Cold War, and Challenges to Sovereignty, 1939–1990
Price:
$90.00
ISBN: 9781487546038
Pub Date: November 2022
The final volume of the Osgoode Society’s Canadian State Trials series sheds light on the legal issues surrounding perceived security threats in Canada in the twentieth century.
Doodem and Council Fire
Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance
Price:
$37.95
ISBN: 9781442615434
Pub Date: July 2021
Providing rare insights into the doodem tradition and the concept of council fires, this book explores Indigenous law and the Anishinaabe’s holistic approach to governance, territoriality, family, and kinship structures.
Wounded Feelings
Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870–1950
Price:
$50.00
ISBN: 9781487526986
Pub Date: September 2020
Wounded Feelings explores how people brought stories of emotional injury like betrayal, grief, humiliation, and anger before the Quebec courts from 1870 to 1950, and how lawyers and judges translated those feelings into the rational language of law.
The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History
Price:
$88.00
ISBN: 9781487508371
Pub Date: October 2020
This is the first historical study to examine changing perceptions of sexual murder and the treatment of "sex killers" while the death penalty was in effect in Canada.
Canadian State Trials, Volume III
Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914
Price:
$50.00
ISBN: 9781487526016
Pub Date: April 2020
The third volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines Canadian legal responses to real or perceived threats to the safety and security of the state from 1840 to 1914, a period of extensive challenges associated with fundamental political and socio-economic change.
A History of Law in Canada, Volume One
Beginnings to 1866
Price:
$68.00
ISBN: 9781487547462
Pub Date: May 2019
This volume presents a history of the development of three legal traditions in Canada – the Indigenous, the French, and the English.
A Legal History of Adoption in Ontario, 1921-2015
Price:
$37.95
ISBN: 9781487523305
Pub Date: May 2018
Lori Chambers’ fascinating study explores the legal history of adoption in Ontario since the passage of the first statute in 1921.
Law, Debt, and Merchant Power
The Civil Courts of Eighteenth-Century Halifax
Price:
$44.95
ISBN: 9781487523169
Pub Date: March 2018
In the early history of Halifax (1749-1766), debt litigation was extremely common. In Law, Debt, and Merchant Power, James Muir offers an extensive analysis of the civil cases of the time as well as the reasons behind their frequency.
Brian Dickson
A Judge's Journey
Price:
$53.00
ISBN: 9781442657717
Pub Date: December 2003
Engaging and incisive, Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey traces Dickson's life from a Depression-era boyhood in Saskatchewan, to the battlefields of Normandy, the boardrooms of corporate Canada and high judicial office, and provides an inside look at the work of the Supreme Court during its most crucial period.
Misconceptions
Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969
Price:
$43.95
ISBN: 9780802082466
Pub Date: September 2007
Misconceptions argues that child welfare measures which simultaneously seek to rescue children and punish errant women will not, and cannot, succeed in alleviating child or maternal poverty.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754-2004
From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle
Price:
$58.00
ISBN: 9781442623774
Pub Date: December 2004
Editors Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, and Barry Cahill have put together the first complete history of any Canadian provincial superior court. All of the essays are original, and many offer new interpretations of familiar themes in Canadian legal history.

Prairie Justice
The Hanging of Mike Hack
$60.00
ISBN: 9781487561789
Pub Date: November 2024
Deadly Swindle
An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario that Gripped the World
$80.00
ISBN: 9781487560232
Pub Date: October 2024
Law of the Land
The Advent of the Torrens System in Canada
$34.95
ISBN: 9781487552138
Pub Date: November 2022
Greg Taylor traces the spread of the Torrens system, from its arrival in the far-flung outpost of 1860s Victoria, British Columbia, right up to twenty-first century Ontario.
A History of Law in Canada, Volume Two
Law for a New Dominion, 1867–1914
$95.00
ISBN: 9781487545673
Pub Date: November 2022
This book recounts the many and varied transformations in the history of law in Canada in the half century after Confederation.
Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered
British Colonial Judges on Trial, 1800-1900
$59.95
ISBN: 9781487548889
Pub Date: June 2022
Using the career histories of judges who challenged the system, Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered illuminates issues of judicial tenure, accountability, and independence throughout the British Empire.
Canadian State Trials, Volume V
World War, Cold War, and Challenges to Sovereignty, 1939–1990
$90.00
ISBN: 9781487546038
Pub Date: November 2022
The final volume of the Osgoode Society’s Canadian State Trials series sheds light on the legal issues surrounding perceived security threats in Canada in the twentieth century.
Doodem and Council Fire
Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance
$37.95
ISBN: 9781442615434
Pub Date: July 2021
Providing rare insights into the doodem tradition and the concept of council fires, this book explores Indigenous law and the Anishinaabe’s holistic approach to governance, territoriality, family, and kinship structures.
Wounded Feelings
Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870–1950
$50.00
ISBN: 9781487526986
Pub Date: September 2020
Wounded Feelings explores how people brought stories of emotional injury like betrayal, grief, humiliation, and anger before the Quebec courts from 1870 to 1950, and how lawyers and judges translated those feelings into the rational language of law.
The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History
$88.00
ISBN: 9781487508371
Pub Date: October 2020
This is the first historical study to examine changing perceptions of sexual murder and the treatment of "sex killers" while the death penalty was in effect in Canada.
Canadian State Trials, Volume III
Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914
$50.00
ISBN: 9781487526016
Pub Date: April 2020
The third volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines Canadian legal responses to real or perceived threats to the safety and security of the state from 1840 to 1914, a period of extensive challenges associated with fundamental political and socio-economic change.
A History of Law in Canada, Volume One
Beginnings to 1866
$68.00
ISBN: 9781487547462
Pub Date: May 2019
This volume presents a history of the development of three legal traditions in Canada – the Indigenous, the French, and the English.
A Legal History of Adoption in Ontario, 1921-2015
$37.95
ISBN: 9781487523305
Pub Date: May 2018
Lori Chambers’ fascinating study explores the legal history of adoption in Ontario since the passage of the first statute in 1921.
Law, Debt, and Merchant Power
The Civil Courts of Eighteenth-Century Halifax
$44.95
ISBN: 9781487523169
Pub Date: March 2018
In the early history of Halifax (1749-1766), debt litigation was extremely common. In Law, Debt, and Merchant Power, James Muir offers an extensive analysis of the civil cases of the time as well as the reasons behind their frequency.
Brian Dickson
A Judge's Journey
$53.00
ISBN: 9781442657717
Pub Date: December 2003
Engaging and incisive, Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey traces Dickson's life from a Depression-era boyhood in Saskatchewan, to the battlefields of Normandy, the boardrooms of corporate Canada and high judicial office, and provides an inside look at the work of the Supreme Court during its most crucial period.
Misconceptions
Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969
$43.95
ISBN: 9780802082466
Pub Date: September 2007
Misconceptions argues that child welfare measures which simultaneously seek to rescue children and punish errant women will not, and cannot, succeed in alleviating child or maternal poverty.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754-2004
From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle
$58.00
ISBN: 9781442623774
Pub Date: December 2004
Editors Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, and Barry Cahill have put together the first complete history of any Canadian provincial superior court. All of the essays are original, and many offer new interpretations of familiar themes in Canadian legal history.