Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life
© 2005
In any account of twentieth-century Canadian law, Bora Laskin (1912-1984) looms large. Born in northern Ontario to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Laskin became a prominent human rights activist, university professor, and labour arbitrator before embarking on his 'accidental career' as a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal (1965) and later Chief Justice of Canada (1973-1984). Throughout his professional career, he used the law to make Canada a better place for workers, racial and ethnic minorities, and the disadvantaged. As a judge, he sought to make the judiciary more responsive to modern Canadian expectations of justice and fundamental rights.
In Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life, Philip Girard chronicles the life of a man who, at all points of his life, was a fighter for a better Canada: he fought antisemitism, corporate capital, omnipotent university boards, the Law Society of Upper Canada, and his own judicial colleagues in an effort to modernize institutions and re-shape Canadian law. Girard exploits a wealth of previously untapped archival sources to provide, in vivid detail, a critical assessment of a restless man on an important mission.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 690 pages
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 1.4in x 9.0in
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Author Information
Philip Girard is a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. -
Table of contents
Introduction
Part I: Starting Out
1 The Lakehead
2 Law School
3 Articling
4 Harvard
5 Waiting
Part II: The Academy
6 Professor
7 Osgoode
8 Revolution
9 Federalism
Part III: Extra-curricular
10 Arbitrator
11 Human Rights
12 Academic Freedom
Part IV: Transitions
13 Elder Statesman
14 The Accidental Judge
15 Ontario Court of Appeal
Part V: The Supreme Court of Canada
16 On to Ottawa
17 Early Promise
18 Chief Justice
19 The Laskin Court
20 The Great Dissenter
21 Architect of Public Law
22 Patriation
23 The Berger Affair
24 Final Years
25 Epilogue
notes
illustration credits
index
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Subjects and Courses
