Law School

Barry Wright

Honorary Professor
TC Beirne School of Law
Professor Barry Wright

Barry Wright (BA History, University of Toronto, LLB Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, LLM London School of Economics, University of London, PhD York University) is Professor Emeritus of Law and History at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where he has been a faculty member for over thirty-five years and at various times served as Director of Criminology, Director of Kroeger College, and an Associate Dean. He has been a frequent visiting scholar at UQ Law and a visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.

Professor Wright has published widely on colonial legal history in Canada and Australia and broader rule of law controversies in the nineteenth-century British Empire. His particular focus is the policy impact of utilitarianism on the modernisation of colonial governance and criminal law reform, as reflected in criminal law codification from Thomas Macaulay’s Benthamite India penal code and its colonial adaptations elsewhere, to the James Fitzjames Stephen-influenced Canadian (1892), New Zealand (1893), and Queensland (1899) criminal codes. A related major area of scholarship has been political trials and national security measures in Canadian history and his contributions to and lead editorship of the five-volume Canadian State Trials series. The recently published fifth volume (1939-1990) includes chapters on the early Cold War period, and his current research draws on them in a comparison of the 1945-6 Canadian Royal Commission on Espionage (Gouzenko) and the 1954-5 Australian Royal Commission on Espionage (Petrov) with a focus on questions of judicial independence, due process, and their impact on the development of national security operations. 

Publications

Articles (peer reviewed)

  • “Macaulay’s India Penal Code and Codification in the Nineteenth Century British Empire” (2012) 2:1 Journal of Commonwealth Criminal Law, 25-50. 
  • “Criminal Law Codification and Imperial Projects: The Self-governing Jurisdiction Codes of the 1890’s” (2008) 12 Legal History, 19-49.  
  • “Self-Governing Codifications of English Criminal Law and Empire: The Queensland and Canadian Examples” (2007) 26 University of Queensland Law Journal, 39-65. 
  • “Migration, Radicalism and State Security: Legislative Initiatives in the Canadas and the United States c.1794-1804” (2002) 16 Studies in American Political Development, 48-60. 
  • "Quiescent Leviathan? Citizenship and National Security Measures in Late Modernity" (1998) 25 Journal of Law and Society, 213-236.   
  • "Sedition in Upper Canada: Contested Legality" (1992) 29 Labour/LeTravail, 7-57 (Ontario Historical Association Riddell Award for best article). 
  • "Criminal Proceedings and the Transformative Potential of Law: Taking Historical Experiences Seriously" (1991) 3 Journal of Human Justice, 7-26.  
  • "The Ideological Dimensions of Law in Upper Canada: The Treason Proceedings of 1838" (1989) 10 Criminal Justice History: An International Annual, 131-178. 
  • "Ned Slinker and England's Order" (1986) 24 Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 699-714. 
  • "Towards New Canadian Legal History" (1984) 22 Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 349-374. 

Edited Books (peer reviewed)

  • Canadian State Trials Volume Five: World War, Cold War, and Challenges to Sovereignty, 1939-1990 (co-edited with Susan Binnie and Eric Tucker) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022 (530 pages).
  • Canadian State Trials Volume Four: Security, Dissent and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace, 1914-1939 (co-edited with Eric Tucker and Susan Binnie) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015 (517 pages).  
  • Codification, Macaulay and the Indian Penal Code: The Legacies and Modern Challenges of Criminal Law Reform (co-edited with Wing-Cheong Chan and Stanley Yeo) Ashgate UK, 2011 (379 pages). 
  • Canadian State Trials Volume Three: Political Trials and Security Measures 1840-1914 (coedited with Susan Binnie) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009 (648 pages). 
  • Canadian State Trials Volume Two: Rebellion and Invasion in the Canadas, 1837-39 (co-edited with F.M. Greenwood) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002 (499 pages). 
  • Canadian State Trials Volume One: Law, Politics and Security Measures, 1608-1837 (co-edited with F.M. Greenwood) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996 (742 pages).  
  • Canadian Perspectives on Law and Society: Issues in Legal History (co-edited with W.W. Pue) Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1988 (353 pages).  

Chapters in Peer Reviewed Edited Books

  • “Introduction: World War, Cold War, and Challenges to Sovereignty” (with Susan Binnie and Eric Tucker) Canadian State Trials Volume 5 (2022), 3-43.
  • “Epilogue: The Canadian State Trials Series in Retrospect” Canadian State Trials Volume 5 (2022), 462-503.
  • “State Trials in Post-revolution British North America” in M. Davis, E. Macleod, and G. Pentland eds., Political Trials in an Age of Revolution: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 357-383. 
  • “Introduction: War Measures and the Repression of Radicalism” (with Eric Tucker and Susan Binnie) Canadian State Trials Volume 4, 3-41.  
  • “Macaulay’s India Law Reforms and Labour in the British Empire” in Shaunnagh Dorsett and John McLaren eds., Legal Histories of the British Empire: Laws, Engagements and Legacies London: Routledge, 2014, 218-33. 
  •  “Renovate or Rebuild?: Treatises, Digests, and Criminal Law Codification” in A. Fernandez and M. Dubber eds., Law Books in Action: Essays on the Anglo-American Legal Treatise Oxford: Hart, 2012, 181-201. 
  •  “Revitalising Macaulay’s Indian Penal Code” (co-authored with Stanley Yeo) in Chan, Wright, and Yeo eds., Codification (2011), 3-17. 
  •  “Macaulay’s Indian Penal Code: Historical Context and Originating Principles” in Chan, Wright, and Yeo eds., Codification (2011), 19-55.  
  •  “Introduction: From State Trials to National Security Measures” (with Susan Binnie) Canadian State Trials Volume 3 (2009), 3-32. 
  • “Summary and Incompetent Justice: An Overview of Legal Responses to the 1885 Crisis” (with Bob Beal) Canadian State Trials Volume 3 (2009), 353-410.  
  • “Codification, Public Order, and the Security Provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code, 1892” (with Desmond H. Brown) Canadian State Trials Volume 3 (2009), 516-63. 
  • “Libel and the Colonial Administration of Justice in Upper Canada and New South Wales c.1825-30” in H. Foster, B. Berger and A. Buck eds., The Grand Experiment: Law and Legal Culture in British Settler Societies Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press, 2008, 157.
  • “Imaginary Sedition: Law and the Emerging Public Sphere in Upper Canada c.1798-1828” in Logan Atkinson and Diana Majury eds., Law, Mystery, and the Humanities: Collected Essays Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2008, 167-213. 
  • "Introduction: Rebellion, Invasion and the Crisis of the Colonial State" (co-authored with F.M. Greenwood) in Canadian State Trials Volume 2 (2002), 3-37. 
  • "The Toronto Treason Trials, March-May 1838" (co-authored with P. Romney) in Canadian State Trials Volume 2 (2002), 62-99.  
  • "The Kingston and London Courts Martial, 1838-9" in Canadian State Trials Volume 2 (2002), 130-59. 
  • "The Legal Regulation of Politics: Governance, National Security and the Rule of Law in the Modern State" in M. MacNeil, N. Sargent and P. Swan eds., Law. Regulation and Governance Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada, 2002, 78-96. 
  • "Harshness and Forbearance: The Politics of Pardons and the Upper Canadian Rebellion" in C. Strange ed., Mercy and the Modifications of Punishment Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1996, 77-103.  
  • "The Gourlay Affair: Seditious Libel and the Sedition Act in Upper Canada, 1818-19" in Canadian State Trials Volume 1 (1996), 487-504. 
  • "State Trials, the Rule of Law and Executive Powers in Early Canada" (co-authored with F.M. Greenwood) in Canadian State Trials Volume 1 (1996), 3-51. 
  • "State Trials and Security Proceedings in the Upper Canada During the War of 1812" (coauthored with Paul Romney) in Canadian State Trials Volume 1 (1996), 379-405. 
  • "Parliamentary Privilege and the Repression of Dissent in the Canadas" (co-authored with F.M. Greenwood) in Canadian State Trials Volume 1 (1996), 409-49. 
  • "An Introduction to Canadian Law in History" in Canadian Perspectives on Law and Society (1988), 7-19. 
  • "Issues in Criminal Law and Authority: Civil Liberties and Morality" in Canadian Perspectives on Law and Society (1988), 245-48. 

Other Scholarly Publications

Books

  • Looking at Law: Canada's Legal System 7th. ed. (co-authored with Vincent Kazmierski, Betina Kuzmarov and Rebecca Bromwich) Toronto: LexisNexis, 2019 (221 pages) (I was co-author with the late Patrick Fitzgerald of the 5th and 6th editions of this book). 

Reviews

  • William Twining, The Great Juristic Bazaar: Jurists’ Texts and Lawyers’ Stories (2002) in (2004) 42 Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 533-7. 
  • G.B. Baker and J. Phillips eds., Essays in the History of Canadian Law Vol.VIII  (1999) in (2001) 39 Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 249-59. 
  • David Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressivist Critique 3rd ed., (1998) in (1999) 29 Canadian Review of American Studies, 149-52. 
  • F.M. Sniderman, J.F. Fletcher, P.H. Russell, P.E. Tetlock, The Clash of Rights: Liberty, Equality and Legitimacy in Pluralist Democracy (1996) in (1998) 35 Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 426-28. 
  • J.S. Cockburn and T.A. Green eds., Twelve Good Men and True: The Criminal Trial Jury in England, 1200-1800 (1988) in (1995) 10 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 266-71. 
  • K. Cope, Criteria of Certainty: Truth and Judgement in the English Enlightenment (1990) in (1995) 10 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 272-77.  
  • C. Wilton ed., Essays in the History of Canadian Law Vol. IV: Beyond the Law, Lawyers and Business in Canada 1830-1930 (1990) in (1992) 21 Canadian Business Law Journal, 146-56.  
  • P.C. Stenning, Appearing for the Crown: A Legal and Historical Review of Prosecutorial Authority in Canada (1986); and the Law Reform Commission of Canada, Private Prosecutions (1986) in (1988) 67 Canadian Bar Review, 152-156.