Bannermans's Struggle for Canadian Copyright available from UBC Press in paperback.

From UBC Press, released in hardcover in February, available in paperback in July 2013 is McMaster historian Sara Bannerman's
The Struggle for Canadian Copyright
Imperialism to Internationalism, 1842-1971.






The publisher says:

First signed in 1886, the Berne Convention for the 
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is still
the cornerstone of international copyright law.
Set against the backdrop of Canada’s development
from a British colony into a middle power, this
book reveals the deep roots of conflict in the
international copyright system and argues
that Canada’s signing of the convention can be
viewed in the context of a former British colony’s
efforts to find a place on the world stage. In this
groundbreaking book, Sara Bannerman examines
Canada’s struggle for copyright sovereignty and
explores some of the problems rooted in imperial
and international copyright that affect Canadians
to this day

New book on history of WWI Canadian Courts Martial by Iacobelli from UBC press.

New release, available September 30 from UBC Press, for the Studies in Canadian Military History Series, Published in association with the Canadian War
Museum

Death or Deliverance
Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War 

by Teresa Iacobelli.

Here's the publisher's blurb:


Soldiers found guilty of desertion or cowardice
during the Great War faced death by firing
squad. Social memory of this brutal system of
frontline justice inspired the pardon movements
of the 1990s, which sought redemption for
soldiers executed on the battlefield. Iacobelli
looks beyond stories of callous generals and
quick executions to consider the trials of nearly
two hundred soldiers sentenced to death but
spared by a disciplinary system capable of
thoughtful review and compassion. Published on
the centennial anniversary of the war’s outbreak,
Death or Deliverance reconsiders an important
chapter in the history of both a war and a nation.

Interdisciplinary history of sterilization in 20th century Canada by Erika Dyck

An interdisciplinary history available for pre-order (to be published in November) from the U of T Press is University of Saskatchewan medical historian Erika Dyck's 

FACING EUGENICS: REPRODUCTION, STERILIZATION, AND THE POLITICS OF CHOICE

Facing Eugenics is a social history of sexual sterilization operations in twentieth-century Canada. Looking at real-life experiences of men and women who, either coercively or voluntarily, participated in the largest legal eugenics program in Canada, it considers the impact of successive legal policies and medical practices on shaping our understanding of contemporary reproductive rights. The book also provides deep insights into the broader implications of medical experimentation, institutionalization, and health care in North America.

Erika Dyck uses a range of historical evidence, including medical files, court testimony, and personal records to place mental health and intelligence at the centre of discussions regarding reproductive fitness. Examining acts of resistance alongside heavy-handed decisions to sterilize people considered “unfit,” Facing Eugenics illuminates how reproductive rights fit into a broader discussion of what constitutes civil liberties, modern feminism, and contemporary psychiatric survivor and disability activism.

Osgoode Society publication honoured

The 2012 Osgoode Society members' book, R. Blake Brown's Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada, has been awarded the 2013 Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize. Congratulations to Professor Brown. This is the fourth time that an Osgoode Society book has won this award, so congratulations to the society too!

Prizes awarded at Osgoode Society Annual General meeting

The Osgoode Society Annual General Meeting was held yesterday at Osgoode Hall. A large number of members and guests were on hand to hear editor-in-chief Jim Phillips report on the society's operations, approve minutes and the financial report, to hear society president R.Roy McMurtry's fascinating remarks on his soon to be published memoirs (this year's Osgoode Society members' book), and to congratulate this year's prize winners.

Three awards were presented: the Peter Oliver Prize for best published student work in the previous year, the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship for graduate students or junior scholars researching important subjects in legal history, and the Jack Saywell Prize for the best book on constitutional legal history published in the last two years.

The winners are as follows:

Peter Oliver prize (co-winners): Susan McKelvey, currently a J.D. student at Queen's University for an article based on work done as an undergraduate at York University, and David Steeves, a lawyer at Legge & Legge in Toronto, for an article based on work done as a graduate student at Dalhousie University Law School (as it then was known.)

There were also co-winners of the McMurtry Fellowship--Joseph Dunlop, currently a post-doc at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, and Ed Cavanagh, a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa.

The Saywell Prize was awarded to Dr. Michael Cross, professor emeritus of history at Dalhousie University, for his biography of Robert Baldwin, "The Morning Star of Memory," published in 2012 by Oxford University Press.

Our congratulations to all winners!

Patrick dissertation on Blasphemy law in Canada and the Anglo world

Jeremy Patrick, now of the University of South Queensland, has posted his dissertation on SSRN.

Here's the abstract for "The Curious Persistence of Blasphemy: Canada and Beyond"

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the history and future of the crime of blasphemy. In the introduction, several key questions are examined: (1) What is blasphemy? (2) Why do people blaspheme? and (3) What are the real or perceived harms of blasphemy? Subsequently, Part I examines the history of blasphemy and blasphemy-like laws in six jurisdictions around the globe: England, Ireland, Australia, Pakistan, the United Nations, and the United States. The jurisdictions chosen illuminate the fact that blasphemy is a complex concept which can be regulated in a wide variety of ways. These six provide an excellent picture of the varied and diverse ways the concept of blasphemy has operated and an understanding as to why it remains relevant today. Part II of this dissertation turns away from a global, comparative examination of blasphemy and instead provides a comprehensive, in-depth study of a single jurisdiction: Canada. This sustained history of blasphemy in Canada, the first ever published, allows for a valuable snapshot of the evolution of the crime into its modern form. Part III synthesizes the research and analysis in Parts I and II to answer the fundamental questions: what is the future of the crime of blasphemy in Canada and beyond?

Stevenson on 1978 US Indian Child Welfare Act and Politicization of First Nations in Saskatchewan

An intriguingly transnational look at law, society and first nations activism: Allyson Stevenson in American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring2013, Vol. 37 Issue 1/2, "Vibrations across a Continent: The 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act and the Politicization of First Nations Leaders in Saskatchewan."

Here's the abstract:

The article discusses the impact of the U.S. Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 on the political, cultural, and legal discourses surrounding aboriginal children in Saskatchewan's child welfare system. Particular focus is given to debates over transracial adoption. According to the author, the ICWA provided First Nations leaders with a framework for their activism on child welfare jurisdiction. Details on the roles of gender and racial discrimination in child welfare policies and practices are presented. Other topics include the Canadian Indian Act of 1876, self-government movements among First Nations peoples, and the Saskatchewan activist group known as the Peyakowak Committee.