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Legal History

Labour Day Display

In honour of Labour Day, the library has made a slide presentation detailing the history of labour day and some of the most important labour cases in Canadian history. Also included is a display of several library books that discuss the history of labour day and some of the legal aspects of Canadian labour law. […]

An Important Association Copy: George-Étienne Cartier and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine

The Osgoode Library’s Canada Law Book Rare Book Room contains many treasures illustrative of Canadian law and history. One of my favourites is a small book, not of great value in its own right, but valuable both because of its association with two great of Canadians and because of the insight it gives us into […]

Gentoo Laws (1776) and the Imperial Project

“Honourable Sirs, I have now the Satisfaction to transmit to you a complete and corrected Copy of a Translation of the Gentoo Code, executed with great Ability, Diligence, and Fidelity, by Mr. Halhed, from a Persian Version of the original Shanscrit, which was undertaken under the immediate Inspection of the Pundits or Compilers of this […]

New HeinOnline Library: Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture and Law

We are pleased to announce that we now have access to this new library on HeinOnline.  Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law, edited by Paul Finkelman with the assistance of Hein’s editorial staff, brings together for the first time all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the […]

Historical NS Hansards Now Online

All of the available early debates and proceedings (Hansard) of the of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the period 1868-1993 are now online on the Legislature’s website. The production and posting of these materials was a project of the NS Legislative Library. This gives Nova Scotians and everyone access to the historical debates […]

New Legal History Journal Subscription

The Osgoode Library now subscribes to JUS GENTIUM: Journal of International Legal History, the first issue of which has just recently been published. Jus Gentium is the first American journal dedicated to addressing the history of international law. Much of modern scholarship on the history of international law is preoccupied not with international law, but with […]

A Brush with History: Where were you when Louis Riel was tried?

Deeds are not accomplished in a few days, or in a few hours. A century is only a spoke in the wheel of everlasting time - Louis Riel Two years ago, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, news agencies across the continent were in a flurry publishing memorial articles entitled, […]

A Canadian Pirate, and Other Notable Trials

We at the library would like to offer heartfelt congratulations to Osgoode’s Class of ’55, who recently celebrated their 60th Anniversary reunion! Helmed by Mr Morley Wolfe, the Class of ’55 took this occasion to offer the library a sum collected at their get-together, to be dedicated to collection development. This donation allowed the library to […]

The Jarvis-Irving Collection

In several separate purchases over the past year, the Osgoode Library has managed to acquire a collection of law books, the Jarvis-Irving Collection, comprising 32 titles (67 volumes) that belonged to Samuel Peters Jarvis (1792-1857), a lawyer and prominent Toronto citizen and member of the Family Compact in Upper Canada. Jarvis was born in Newark […]

In the News: An Octocentenary of Note: Magna Carta Turns 800

“JOHN, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, Greeting.” In 2015, such an aureate introduction won’t even fit in a tweet. But in 1215, […]