Professor Jim Phillips inducted into the Bertha Wilson Honour Society

The Bertha Wilson Honour Society was established in 2012 in tribute to The Honourable Madam Justice Bertha Wilson – the first woman appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal and the first female Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Bertha Wilson Honour Society at the Schulich School of Law, at Dalhousie University, recognizes their extraordinary alumni and showcases their geographic reach and contributions to law and society. 

The Schulich School of Law and the Dalhousie Law Alumni Association are pleased to announce that six Dal alumni have been inducted into the Bertha Wilson Honour Society for 2020. Among them, University of Toronto Faculty of Law Professor Jim Phillips, MA, Ph.D (History), LLB ’87.

His citation reads as follows: 

Jim Phillips is a Professor of Law, History and Criminology at the University of Toronto, and editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.

Phillips was formerly law clerk to Madam Justice Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2013, he received the Attorney-General for Ontario’s Mundell Medal for “a distinguished contribution to law and letters.”

He has published over 60 articles and book chapters on British imperial history and eighteenth century India, on property and charities law, US legal history, and, principally, Canadian legal history. He has co-edited four volumes of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History/University of Toronto Press’ Essays in the History of Canadian Law. He has also published a number of books including The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle, co-written with Philip Girard; Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchel, co-written with Rosemary Gartner and A History of Law in Canada Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866, co-written with Philip Girard and Blake Brown. Volume Two of A History of Law in Canada, covering the period from 1867 to 2000, will be published in 2022, with co-authors Girard and Brown.

Congratulations to Professor Phillips!

Republished in part from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University