Awards
Over the years our books have won many prestigious awards. Most recently, the 2019 Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize, Honourable Mention, was awarded to A History of Law in Canada Volume 1 Beginnings to 1866 by Philip Girard, Jim Phillips and R. Blake Brown. This book also won Honorable Mention for the Walter Owen Book Prize, awarded by the Foundation of Legal Research. Also recently, David Fraser, “Honorary Protestants”: The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997, won Honourable Mention for the Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize in 2016.
Here is a full list of all our award winners:
Canadian Historical Association Awards
John A. MacDonald Prize
Awarded annually by the Canadian Historical Association for the best book in any field of Canadian history.
Winner
Honorable Mentions
Clio Award, Regional History
Winners
Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize
Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize
Winners
Honorable Mentions
Ontario Historical Society Awards
J.J. Talman Award
The best book on any aspect of Ontario history in the previous three years.
Winner
Fred Landon Award
The best book on regional history in Ontario in the previous three years.
Winners
Joseph Brant Award
The best book on the province’s multi-cultural history.
Winner
Alison Prentice Award
Best book in women’s history in the preceding three years.
Winners
Other Awards
J. Willard Hurst Prize
J. Willard Hurst Prize of the Law and Society Association, for the best book in English on socio-legal history for any country.
Winner
Honorable Mention
Floyd Chalmers Award
Given annually by the Champlain Society for writing on Ontario history.
Winners
Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction
Finalist
John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize
For distinguished writing on Canada and/or Canada’s place in the world.
Winners
Harold Adams Innis Prize
Given each year for the best English language book supported by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Short-listed
Priz Lionel Groulx
Priz Lionel Groulx of the Institut d’histoire de l’Ámerique française, awarded for the best book on the history of French America.
Winner
Charles Taylor Award
Charles Taylor Award for Literary Non-Fiction
Winner
RBC Taylor Prize
RBC Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction
Short-listed
UBC Medal for Canadian Biography
Winner
Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography
Finalist
City of Toronto Book Prize
Winner
Arthur Ellis Award
For the Best Non-Fiction book.
Winner
Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award
Finalists
Donner Prize
For the best book on Canadian public policy.
Finalist
Outstanding Book
Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States “Outstanding Book” award
Winner
Other Honours For Our Authors
The 2019 Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize, the Honourable Mention , was awarded to A History of Law in Canada Volume 1 Beginnings to 1866 by Philip Girard, Jim Phillips and R. Blake Brown.
The 2014 David W. Mundell Medal was awarded to Jim Phillips, Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Society. The Mundell Medal, awarded since 1986, is given annually to an author who has made a distinguished contribution to the law in legal writing. Among the books for which Professor Phillips was given the award are six Osgoode Society books, including Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume 10 – A Tribute to Peter Oliver (2008, editor with R. Roy McMurtry and Jack Saywell), and The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle(2004, editor with Philip Girard and J. Barry Cahill.)
Two other Osgoode Society authors have previously been awarded the Mundell Medal. The 2010 winner was William Kaplan. Among the books for which William Kaplan was given the award are two Osgoode Society books. In 1996 he published Bad Judgment: The Case of Mr. Justice Leo A. Landreville, and in 2009 he published Canadian Maverick: The Life of Ivan C. Rand, our members, book for that year
The Mundell Medal was awarded to another Osgoode Society author, Robert J. Sharpe, in 2009. Among the books for which Mr Justice Sharpe was given the award are three Osgoode Society books: The Last Day, The Last Hour: The Currie Libel Trial; Brian Dickson: A Judge’s Journey (with Kent Roach); and The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood (with Patricia McMahon). Since winning the award Justice Sharpe has also published The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884 (Osgoode Society, 2011).
One of our most prolific authors, Constance Backhouse, was named to the Order of Ontario in 2010. Professor Backhouse was honoured for her work as scholar, educator, and advocate for womens’ rights. That work includes four Osgoode Society books: Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975 (2008); The Heiress versus the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice(2004, with Nancy Backhouse); Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900 – 1950 (1999); and Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991).