Osgoode Society Books
Our books are listed here chronologically by date of publication, with the books to be published in 2019 first. The 2019 books will be available in the fall. You can order them now using the membership page. Use the Search function to the right to find a particular book, or author.
Constitutional Law
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A Thirty Years War: The Failed Public/Private Partnership that Spurred the Creation of the Toronto Transit Commission, 1891-1921
by Ian Kyer, Independent Historian. Published by Irwin Law. The thirty year franchise granted by the City of Toronto to the privately owned Toronto Railway Company in 1891 brought the City a modern electric streetcar system. But the city and its private sector transit provider never learned to work together. Their relationship was marred… Read more »
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“Honorary Protestants”: The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997
By David Fraser, Professor of Law, University of Nottingham, published by the University of Toronto Press. Section 93 of the Constitution Act 1867 guaranteed certain educational rights to Catholics and Protestants in Quebec, but not to anybody else. This study of the challenges, legal and otherwise, encountered by Jewish parents in educating their children in… Read more »
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Viscount Haldane: "The Wicked Stepfather of the Canadian Constitution"
by Frederick Vaughan, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2010. Lord Haldane is well-known to historians of Canadian constitutional law as one of the Privy Council judges most responsible for re-shaping the division of powers in the direction of greater provincial power after World War One. This deeply-researched biography Fred… Read more »
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The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood
by Mr. Justice Robert Sharpe of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and Patricia McMahon, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2007. The Persons’ Case is one of the best known Canadian constitutional cases, both for the fact that it declared women to be ‘persons’ for the purposes of eligibility… Read more »
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R.C.B. Risk, A History of Canadian Legal Thought: Collected Essays
edited by G.Blaine Baker, Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, and Jim Phillips, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2006. Frank Scott, Bora Laskin, W.P.M. Kennedy, John Wills and Edward Blake are among the better known figures whose thinking and writing about law are featured in this collection…. Read more »
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The Law Makers: Judicial Power and the Shaping of Canadian Federalism
by John T. Saywell, Emeritus Professor of History, York University. Published with University of Toronto Press, 2002. For those who believe that the history of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s decisions on the Canadian constitution is an oft-told story, this book will be a revelation indeed. One of Canada’s outstanding scholars, Professor Saywell draws… Read more »