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A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India

By Moshe Hirsch, Ashok Kotwal, Bharat Ramaswami

Over the last twenty years, India has enacted legislation to turn development goals such as food security, primary education, and employment into legal rights for its citizens. But enacting laws is different from implementing them....

Circulating the Code

Print Media and Legal Knowledge in Qing China

By Ting Zhang

Contrary to longtime assumptions about the insular nature of imperial China’s legal system, Circulating the Code demonstrates that in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) most legal books were commercially published and available to anyone who could...

Reclaiming the Reservation

Histories of Indian Sovereignty Suppressed and Renewed

By Alexandra Harmon

In the 1970s the Quinault and Suquamish, like dozens of Indigenous nations across the United States, asserted their sovereignty by applying their laws to everyone on their reservations. This included arresting non-Indians for minor offenses,...

A Secular Need

Islamic Law and State Governance in Contemporary India

By Jeffrey A. Redding

Whether from the perspective of Islamic law’s advocates, secularism’s partisans, or communities caught in their crossfire, many people see the relationship between Islamic law and secularism as antagonistic and increasingly discordant. In the United States...

Trustees at Work

Financial Pressures, Emotional Labour, and Canadian Bankruptcy Law

By Anna Lund

Trustees at Work explores the role of bankruptcy trustees in determining who qualifies as a deserving debtor under Canadian personal bankruptcy law. The idea of a deserving debtor is reflected in the law governing the...

Down with Traitors

Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China

By Yun Xia

Throughout the War of Resistance against Japan (1931–1945), the Chinese Nationalist government punished collaborators with harsh measures, labeling the enemies from within hanjian (literally, “traitors to the Han Chinese”). Trials of hanjian gained momentum during...

Living Sharia

Law and Practice in Malaysia

By Timothy P. Daniels

Drawing on ethnographic research, Living Sharia examines the role of sharia in the sociopolitical processes of contemporary Malaysia. The book traces the contested implementation of Islamic family and criminal laws and sharia economics to provide...

Seeking the Court's Advice

The Politics of the Canadian Reference Power

By Kate Puddister

Can Parliament legalize same‑sex marriage? Can Quebec unilaterally secede from Canada? Can the federal government create a national firearms registry? Each of these questions is contentious and deeply political, and each was addressed by a...

Ruling Out Art

Media Art Meets Law in Ontario's Censor Wars

By Taryn Sirove

In the 1980s, the Ontario Board of Censors began to subject media artists’ work to the same cuts, bans, and warning labels as commercial film. This innovative exploration of how art and law intersected in...

The Emotions of Justice

Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Choson Korea

By Jisoo M. Kim

The Choson state (1392–1910) is typically portrayed as a rigid society because of its hereditary status system, slavery, and Confucian gender norms. However, The Emotions of Justice reveals a surprisingly complex picture of a judicial...

Forgery and Impersonation in Imperial China

Popular Deceptions and the High Qing State

By Mark P. McNicholas

Across eighteenth-century China a wide range of common people forged government documents or pretended to be officials or other agents of the state. This examination of case records and law codes traces the legal meanings...

Crossing Law’s Border

Canada’s Refugee Resettlement Program

By Shauna Labman

Resettlement – the selection and transfer of refugees from the state where they seek asylum to another state – is considered a tool of refugee protection. In this nuanced account of Canada’s resettlement program from...

Privacy in Peril

Hunter v Southam and the Drift from Reasonable Search Protections

By Richard Jochelson

In 1984, the Supreme Court of Canada, in Hunter v Southam, declared warrantless searches unreasonable under section 8 of the Charter. Police would henceforth require authorization based on “reasonable and probable grounds.” The decision promised...

Good Governance in Economic Development

International Norms and Chinese Perspectives

By Sarah Biddulph

With isolationism and protectionism strengthening in response to the forces of globalization, the interrelationship of the national and supranational in shaping good governance norms has become increasingly relevant. Good Governance in Economic Development critically examines...

Resisting Rights

Canada and the International Bill of Rights, 1947-76

By Jennifer Tunnicliffe

From 1948 to 1966, the United Nations worked to create a common legal standard for human rights protection around the globe. Resisting Rights analyzes the Canadian government’s changing policy toward this endeavour from the 1940s...

By the Court

Anonymous Judgments at the Supreme Court of Canada

By Peter Mccormick

Any court watcher knows that the Supreme Court of Canada delivers some of its major constitutional judgments in a “By the Court” format. This transformative approach abandons the common law tradition of attributing decisions to...

Métis Politics and Governance in Canada

By Kelly Saunders and Janique Dubois

At a time when the Métis are becoming increasingly visible in Canadian politics, this timely book offers a practical guide for understanding who they are and the challenges they face on the path to self‑government....

Enforcing Exclusion

Precarious Migrants and the Law in Canada

By Sarah Grayce Marsden

Migrant workers, though long welcomed in Canada for their labor, are often excluded from both workplace protections and basic social benefits such as health care, income assistance, and education. Through interviews with migrants and their...

Class Actions in Canada

The Promise and Reality of Access to Justice

By Jasminka Kalajdzic

Whatever deficits remain in the Canadian project to make justice available to all, class actions have been heralded as a success. They have been employed over the past twenty-five years to overcome barriers to justice...

Flawed Precedent

The St. Catherine's Case and Aboriginal Title

By Kent McNeil

In 1888, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in the St. Catherine’s case. This precedent‑setting decision would define the legal contours of Aboriginal title in Canada for almost a hundred years. In Flawed...