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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
On Being A Second: Grace Wambolt, Legal Professionalism And 'Inter-Wave' Feminism In Nova Scotia, Elizabeth Legge
On Being A Second: Grace Wambolt, Legal Professionalism And 'Inter-Wave' Feminism In Nova Scotia, Elizabeth Legge
Dalhousie Law Journal
Grace Wambolt was the fifth female graduate of Dalhousie Law School and the second woman to practise law in Nova Scotia. She was one of the relatively few female lawyers in Canada (up to the influx of the nineteen-seventies) who practiced law following the push by the first female lawyers for the elimination of formal barriers to practice. This paper examines the similarities and differences between the "firsts" and those who followed them, primarily by looking at the life of Wambolt and her letters and speeches preserved in the Wambolt fonds located in the Nova Scotia Archives and donated by …
Canadian Constitutional Identities, Eric M. Adams
Canadian Constitutional Identities, Eric M. Adams
Dalhousie Law Journal
Constitutions are stories nations tell about themselves. Despite the famous declaration in the Constitution Act, 1867 that the "Provinces ofCanada...Desire...a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom," most of Canada's constitutional history can be understood as the search for a distinctly Canadian constitutional identity Canadians have always looked to their constitutional instruments to both reflect and produce a particular vision of the nation and its citizens. This article focuses on the search for Canada s constitutional identity during its first century as a nation, from Confederation until the 1960s. Drawing on a varied array of sources and …
No Longer "Naked And Shivering Outside Her Gates": Establishing Law As A Full-Time On-Campus Academic Discipline At Mcgill University Inthe Nineteenth Century, A J. Hobbins
Dalhousie Law Journal
Although Canada was a single province (1763-1791), subsequently divided into Upper and Lower Canada, legal education developed very differently in the two components. The Law Society of Upper Canada controlled legal education in Ontario until the second half of the twentieth century, while in Quebec, where the legal system was based on both civil and common law, university-based legal education began in the first half of the nineteenth century. This study examines how legal education developed at McGill University, moving from part-time teaching by professionals off-campus to an on-campus faculty taught by full-time academics by the end of the century …
Long Overdue: A Reappraisal Of Section 121 Of The Constitution Act, 1867, Ian A. Blue
Long Overdue: A Reappraisal Of Section 121 Of The Constitution Act, 1867, Ian A. Blue
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article offers a new interpretation of s. 121 of the Constitution Act, 1867. The author re-evaluates the traditional interpretation of s. 121, found in Gold Seal Limited v. The Attorney General of the Province of Alberta. That interpretation limited the application of s. 121 to prohibiting interprovincial "customs duties" but nothing else. The author analyzes s. 121 using a purposive approach. After reviewing the provision's wording, legislative history, legislative context and its place within the scheme of the Act, the article concludes that a purposive and progressive interpretation leads to a more robust role for s. 121. Thus interpreted, …
Cravath By The Sea: Recruitment In The Large Halifax Law Firm, 1900-1955, Jeffrey Haylock
Cravath By The Sea: Recruitment In The Large Halifax Law Firm, 1900-1955, Jeffrey Haylock
Dalhousie Law Journal
The traditional view is that regularized, meritocratic hiring in Canadian law firms had to wait until the 1960s, with the rise in importance of Ontario university law schools. There was, however, more regional variation than this view allows. After an overview of the rise of large firms in the U.S. and Canada, and of the modern hiring strategies (the "Cravath system") that developed in New York in the early twentieth century, the author considers whether Halifax firms were employing these strategies between 1900 and 1955. Nepotistic hiring continued unabated; however, the three large firms of the period recruited young students …
Dual Class Shares In Canada: An Historical Analysis, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Poonam Puri
Dual Class Shares In Canada: An Historical Analysis, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Poonam Puri
Dalhousie Law Journal
Dual class shares have been used by Canadian corporations to access public capital markets for the past sixty years. The debates surrounding the regulation of dual class shares have been reenergized. The authors of this article argue that only by looking to the legitimating role of nationalist policy, legislation and discourse in the historical development of dual class share structures can we derive context to the current debates surrounding the regulation of dual class shares and obtain a fuller understanding of the contemporary issues theypresent. Based on an analysis of the use of dual class shares as a financing technique …
The Dartmouth Schools Question And The Supreme Court Of Nova Scotia, Robert Nicholas Bérard
The Dartmouth Schools Question And The Supreme Court Of Nova Scotia, Robert Nicholas Bérard
Dalhousie Law Journal
Scholars have often demonstrated that courts in Canada have long been responsive to the political, social, cultural and economic contexts in which they operate. An illustration of the ways in which the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia embodied this role can be found in the Court's handling of a dispute between the Town of Dartmouth and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Halifax, often referred to as the "Dartmouth Schools Question" in 1939 and 1940 The case concerned the attempt of the Town of Dartmouth, alone among municipalities in Nova Scotia, to collect local taxes on property used for Catholic …
Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk
Canadian Law Teachers In The 1930s: "When The World Was Turned Upside Down", Richard Risk
Dalhousie Law Journal
During the 1930s. scholars in the Canadian common law schools introduced fundamental changes in ways of thinking about law, changes that made one of them. John Willis, say 'the world was turned upside down." These scholars rejected the past, especially the English legal thought of the late nineteenth century Instead, they were influenced by changes in the United States, which began early in the century, and by the emerging regulatory and welfare state. In private law subjects, Caesar Wright was central, using American ideas to challenge the dominant English authority, especially in his writing about torts. In public law subjects, …
Designating The Dean Of Law: Legal Education At Mcgill University And The Montreal Corporate And Professional Elite, 1946-1950., A J. Hobbins
Dalhousie Law Journal
The nature of legal education has been the subject of an ongoing debate in all Canadian jurisdictions. A central theme of this debate for much of the twentieth century was whether legal education should be restricted to training for the local Bar as opposed to studying law as an academic discipline in addition to such professional training A decanal vacancy at McGill University brought this question to the fore in 1946 when the anglophone members of the Montreal Bar exerted a great deal of influence on the selection process. The matter was complicated by the opposition of the corporate elite …
Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau
Canadian State Trials, Vol. 1, Michael Boudreau
Dalhousie Law Journal
In a letter to Deputy Judge Advocate Charles Gould, dated 10 April 1762, General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, wrote with regard to the proceedings of the general courts martial in Montreal that "it is a Maxim held by all Civilians That no government can subsist without Law." Over half a century later in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, William Elenes filed an affidavit with the Harbour Grace Sessions Court alleging that a group of men stole some potatoes from his house. "Late in March of [ 1817]," the statement read, "John McGrath with a gun and two …
Inside The Law: Canadian Law Firms In Historical Perspective, Douglas C. Harris
Inside The Law: Canadian Law Firms In Historical Perspective, Douglas C. Harris
Dalhousie Law Journal
This collection of essays edited by Carol Wilton' chronicles the changing character of Canadian law firms from the "golden age" of the sole practitioner in the nineteenth century to the mega-firms of the late twentieth. Most of the essays describe the changing profession through a case study of a single lawyer or firm, and Wilton has collected a representative sample of firms from across the country. Some of the firms remained small or disappeared, while others grew into full-service corporate commercial law firms of several hundred lawyers. Most of the essays focus on the personalities of the lawyers involved, their …
Mr. Justice Roland Ritchie: A Biography, Thomas Stinson
Mr. Justice Roland Ritchie: A Biography, Thomas Stinson
Dalhousie Law Journal
Mr. Justice Roland Almon Ritchie (1910-1988) was the most recent Nova Scotian to have been on the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving for a quarter-century (1959-1984). Judicial biographies in this country are rare enough that any addition to the literature can be justified but Ritchie is an especially intriguing choice. He served on the bench for a long period, there is a wealth of information regarding his formative years courtesy of the published diaries of his older brother, Charles, and he is regarded as the embodiment of conservatism in a court that has frequently been described as …
The Search For Resolution Of The Canada-France Ocean Dispute Adjacent To St. Pierre And Miquelon, Ted L. Mcdorman
The Search For Resolution Of The Canada-France Ocean Dispute Adjacent To St. Pierre And Miquelon, Ted L. Mcdorman
Dalhousie Law Journal
They were not to become an "object of jealously" according to the British and French in 1783. True to this admonition, the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon have remained as the uncontested footnotes to France's colonial presence in North America. However, the ocean area and resources adjacent to the French islands became the object of intense jealously, being the centre of a thorny, 25 year international dispute between Canada and France.
Ideology And The Emergence Of Legal Aid In Saskatchewan, Jennie Abell
Ideology And The Emergence Of Legal Aid In Saskatchewan, Jennie Abell
Dalhousie Law Journal
My work at Saskatchewan legal aid (from 1978 to 1982) generated questions for me about law and social change, and about the origins of legal aid in the context of the expansion of the welfare state. I examined the history of legal aid under the N.D.P. in Saskatchewan from 1974-1982 in an earlier work.' I concluded that the Saskatchewan N.D.P did not significantly differ from other provincial parties in its handling of legal aid during that period, and in that sense that legal aid as it was elaborated under a social democratic government was not fundamentally altered.
The Constitution And Immigration: The Impact Of The Proposed Changes To The Immigration Power Under The Constitution Act, 1867, Davies Bagambiire
The Constitution And Immigration: The Impact Of The Proposed Changes To The Immigration Power Under The Constitution Act, 1867, Davies Bagambiire
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article examines the impact that the suggested changes would have on the immigration power as presently set forth in sections 95 and 91(25) of the Constitution Act, 1867, and on Canadian immigration policy generally. First, it discusses how the present immigration power is allocated as between the federal government and the provinces, how it has been exercised or attempted to be exercisedby the two levels of government and how it has evolved and been interpreted by the Courts. Secondly, it looks at the problems that could arise as a result of the federal government transferring some of its immigration …
The "Colored Barrister": The Short Life And Tragic Death Of James Robinson Johnston, 1876-1915, Barry Cahill
The "Colored Barrister": The Short Life And Tragic Death Of James Robinson Johnston, 1876-1915, Barry Cahill
Dalhousie Law Journal
The mortal remains of James Robinson Johnston, Nova Scotia's first Black lawyer, lie buried in the family plot at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax. The gravestone epigraphy records that he was a Good Templar, a Freemason and an Oddfellow; his Dalhousie University degrees (one of them inaccurately); and the fact that he died a mere nine days short of his thirty-ninth birthday. "Gone but not forgotten" reads the epitaph, much less ironically now - in view of the fact that the recently established Chair in Black Canadian Studies at his alma mater has been named in Johnston's honour-than it ever …
The Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden
The Democratic Intellect: The State In The Work Of Madame Justice Wilson, Philip L. Bryden
Dalhousie Law Journal
It is a great honour to have been asked to provide an essay for this volume of reflections on the contribution Madame Justice Bertha Wilson has made to the development of law in Canada. To a certain extent, this is a matter of pride in finding my own name associated with that of the very learned and respected individuals who have set out their thoughts in this collection of articles. In the main, however, the honour comes from the opportunity to make a public statement of my own respect and admiration for Madame Justice Wilson and the significant role that …
Tribute To Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, Foreword, And Preface, A Kim Campbell
Tribute To Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, Foreword, And Preface, A Kim Campbell
Dalhousie Law Journal
On behalf of the Government of Canada, I am pleased to convey my best wishes to all those participating in 'The Democratic Intellect" Symposium being hosted by Dalhousie Law School in honour of Madame Justice Bertha Wilson's contribution to the law and to the life of Canada.
The Origin And Evolution Of The Attorney And Solicitor In The Legal Profession Of Nova Scotia, Barry Cahill
The Origin And Evolution Of The Attorney And Solicitor In The Legal Profession Of Nova Scotia, Barry Cahill
Dalhousie Law Journal
D.G. Bell has observed that the torrent "of historical writing on Canadian legal education has yet to be matched by intensive study of the legal profession itself." The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that, for eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Nova Scotia, the development of the legal profession was so closely linked to the evolution of the superior courts, especially the Court of Chancery, that the former cannot be studied in isolation from the latter. By the time Halifax was founded in 1749, the attorney at law and solicitor in equity had not only been statutorily entrenched as …
Law Faculty Developments At Calgary, 1984-1989, Margaret E. Hughes
Law Faculty Developments At Calgary, 1984-1989, Margaret E. Hughes
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Calgary Law Faculty is the youngest of the Canadian Law Schools, having been established in 1976. During the period under review the Faculty tackled developmental challenges that older Canadian law schools had faced years ago in generally less stringent economic times.
Newfoundland And Dominion Status, Christine Boyle
Newfoundland And Dominion Status, Christine Boyle
Dalhousie Law Journal
The relationship between Canada and Newfoundland was under stress for a number of different reasons during the eighties. There was a dispute over off-shore mineral rights' as well as concern over French fishing rights.2 For those interested in the relationship, Dr. Gilmore's book, Newfoundland and Dominion3 Status, subtitled The External Affairs Competence and International Law Status of Newfoundland, 1855-1934, therefore provides a useful historical background as well as fascinating information about the constitutional development of Newfoundland. This may be of interest as well to constitutional and international scholars generally as well as to Newfoundland's neighbours in the Maritimes.
The Fiercest Debate: Cecil A. Wright, The Benchers And Legal Education In Ontario 1923-1957, W R. Lederman
The Fiercest Debate: Cecil A. Wright, The Benchers And Legal Education In Ontario 1923-1957, W R. Lederman
Dalhousie Law Journal
In the dozen years after the end of the Second World War, long-standing conflicts about the nature of education for the legal profession in Ontario became especially acute. Fortunately, climax and successful compromise came in 1957. In that year the Law Society of Upper Canada, which had controlled legal education and admission to practice from the early days of the Colony of Upper Canada, gave up its monopoly of legal education and conceded an equal position in this respect to Ontario universities willing and able to enter the field. Several were, and promptly did so. Indeed the University of Toronto …
Commissions Of Inquiry And Public Policy In Canada, Frank Iacobucci
Commissions Of Inquiry And Public Policy In Canada, Frank Iacobucci
Dalhousie Law Journal
Most Canadians attach a great deal of importance to commissions of inquiry. When commissions of inquiry are appointed and when they report, great public attention is usually focussed on the substantive and serious issues discussed.
The Role Of The Commission Counsel, John Sopinka
The Role Of The Commission Counsel, John Sopinka
Dalhousie Law Journal
Commissions of inquiry have been prominently featured in this country for decades. For instance the Durham Report on the 1837 Mackenzie- Papineau Rebellion was the product of a public inquiry. As well, other inquiries have played a pivotal role in the development of our public and economic life. We had, for example, the Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the McDonald Commission on the Economy, the Dubin Inquiry on Aviation Safety and the Estey Inquiry on Bank Failures to mention a few. In 1979, the Law Reform Commission of Canada estimated that there had …
Legal Education In Saskatchewan 1982-1988, Daniel I. Ish
Legal Education In Saskatchewan 1982-1988, Daniel I. Ish
Dalhousie Law Journal
My predecessor in the office of dean, Don Clark, in an article in this Journal approximately six years ago, described in his usual eloquent fashion the development of the little law school on the prairie from its genesis in 1910. In these pages I will attempt to outline some of the developments in the College of Law during my six years as dean. I intend to adopt an intuitive, first-person narrative which, I hope, will not be too self-serving in its description of the College of Law between 1982 and 1988.
Lord Of Point Grey: Larry Mackenzie Of U.B.C., Stanley B. Frost
Lord Of Point Grey: Larry Mackenzie Of U.B.C., Stanley B. Frost
Dalhousie Law Journal
P. B. Waite has been hugely fortunate in his subject, Norman Archibald MacRae MacKenzie, known to his intimates as "Larry". Here is a quintessential Canadian. Born in a modest Manse in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and schooled at Pictou Academy, he then laboured for four years on a farm in Saskatchewan, survived four years in the trenches of World War I (mostly with the Nova Scotia Highlanders, emerging without a scratch, but with a Military Medal and bar, and a promised but never confirmed commission), entered Law at Dalhousie, won a Carnegie Fellowship to Harvard and then a renewal to take …
Educating Men And Women For Service Through Law: Osgoode Hall Law School 1963-1988, Mary Jane Mossman
Educating Men And Women For Service Through Law: Osgoode Hall Law School 1963-1988, Mary Jane Mossman
Dalhousie Law Journal
My work... has assumed the shape of ... a spiral curriculum, circling around the same issues, though trying to keep them open-ended. This statement was penned by Northrop Frye in Spiritus Mundi in the context of reflections about creativity and literary criticism, but it aptly describes as well the intellectual ferment of writing about legal education in Canada during the past few decades. Indeed, Frye's suggestion that the above quotation "may be only a rationalization for not having budged an inch in eighteen years ' may similarly offer an important clue about the legal education debate in Canada and the …
Maximilien Bibaud, 1823-1887: The Pioneer Teacher Of International Law In Canada, R Stj Macdonald
Maximilien Bibaud, 1823-1887: The Pioneer Teacher Of International Law In Canada, R Stj Macdonald
Dalhousie Law Journal
Maximilien Bibaud was a most unusual man: student of philosophy, history, and literature, teacher, author, chronicler and reformer of the law, founder of the first organized law school in Canada, true pioneer of the teaching of international law in this country. Insolently but exhilaratingly new in both his ideas and his techniques for legal education, Bibaud was far in advance of his time. As we mark the centenary of his death in 1987, his interests and achievements are as relevant today as they were when he opened his law school 136 years ago.