Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Annual Meeting of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History

[We have the following press release on the annual meeting of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.  DRE]

The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History is honouring four scholars at a special ceremony on June 19, in recognition of the recent contributions they have made to furthering Canadians' understanding of the country's legal history.

At the Osgoode Society's Annual Meeting, the following awards will be presented: the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Canadian Legal History, and the Peter Oliver Prize in Canadian Legal History.

"We applaud the award recipients for enriching Canadians' understanding of the country's legal history," said Professor Jim Phillips, editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society. "Through their work, this year's award recipients have helped promote the public's interest in the history of law and the legal profession."

The R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Canadian Legal History was created following the 2007 retirement of The Honourable R. Roy McMurtry. The award honours Chief Justice McMurtry's various contributions to Canadian legal history as the province's Chief Justice, attorney general and founder and current president of the Osgoode Society.

The fellowship supports PhD candidates or those with a recently-completed doctorate, in their research, for one year. Scholars working on any topic in the field of Canadian legal history are eligible for the award.

The 2019 co- winners of the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Canadian Legal History are Anna Jarvis, a PhD student in the History Department at York University, who is working on the life and times of Edward Jarvis, Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island from 1828 to 1852. The other co-winner is Filippo Sposini, a PhD student in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto, who is working on the law and practice of civil confinement for insanity in nineteenth-century Canada. 

The Peter Oliver Prize in Canadian Legal History was established in 2006 to honour the late Professor Peter Oliver, the Osgoode Society's founding editor-in-chief. The prize is awarded annually for a student's published journal article, book chapter or book about Canadian legal history. Students in any discipline at any stage of their career are eligible.

The 2019 winner of the Peter Oliver Prize in Canadian Legal History is Suzanne Chiodo, a Ph. D. student at Oxford University, for her book The Class Actions Controversy: The Origins and Development of the Ontario Class Proceedings Act, published by Irwin Law.

The Annual Meeting will also feature a talk by Harry Arthurs, on his forthcoming book, to be published by the Osgoode Society and McGill-Queen's University Press — Connecting the Dots: The Life of an Academic Lawyer.

For further information: Amanda Campbell, Administrator, the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, at 416-947-3321 or Amanda.campbell@osgoodesociety.ca.