The Workshop, also known as the Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop, takes place on Wednesday evenings via Zoom (only) throughout 2024-25. It meets approximately seven times in each term, on roughly alternate Wednesdays. The schedule for the first term will be arranged during the summer of 2024 and will be available by August. The schedule for the second term will be arranged during the first term and will be available by the end of November. Students must take the course for the full year. For each session, a different presenter will circulate in advance a paper on which he or she would like comments and critique. The presentations may be on any aspect of legal history, from any jurisdiction or time, though most tend to be on Canadian or US topics. Students enrolled in the course for credit are not expected to present a paper, but to read the papers and participate in the discussion and critique at each session. Through exposure to varied topics in and approaches to legal history, students will come to appreciate the methodologies and modes of analysis employed in doing legal history.
Attendees at the workshop in addition to J.D. students are graduate students and faculty in law and history from U of T and York, as well as members of the profession and other interested parties. Paper presenters are mostly workshop members, but some are visitors from other universities inside and outside Canada. Workshop presenters in recent years from outside Toronto have included Constance Backhouse (Ottawa), David Fraser (Nottingham), Robert Gordon (Yale), Rande Kostal (Western), Brad Miller (British Columbia), Michel Morin (Montreal), Rebecca Scott (Michigan), and Brian Young (McGill).
All members of the law school community are welcome to attend any workshop. JD students or graduate students wishing to register in the workshop for credit may do so. No previous background in history is required.
Method of Evaluation: Students will attend (remotely) a minimum of 10 of the workshop sessions. In addition, students will prepare 4 comments on the papers, of 600-800 words each. Students will also write a paper of 7,000 words (not including bibliography and footnotes) on any legal history topic. The topic for these papers must be approved by the instructor. Evaluation will be based on the paper (80%) and workshop participation (20%), which includes the comments on papers and contributions to discussion. Students must pass both the paper and the participation component to receive credit for the workshop.