Canada's Influence on International Law

The CCIL's founding president, Judge Ronald St. John Macdonald (1928-2006), had a great interest in biographical studies of individual figures important to the development of international law in Canada.  He published a number of articles on leading figures in the Canadian Yearbook of International Law:

In addition, his four-part article "A Historical Introduction to the Teaching of International Law in Canada", also published in the Yearbook, includes many references and sources useful to the historical study of individuals who played important roles in the development of international law teaching in Canada (see pdf (1974) 12 Can Y.B. Int'l L. 67, pdf (1975) 13 Can Y.B. Int'l L. 255, pdf (1976) 14 Can Y.B. Int'l L. 224 and pdf (1983) 21 Can Y.B. Int'l L. 235).

Click here for Ronald St. John Macdonald's own biographical profile as the 1988 Read Medal recipient.

In 2004 Judge Macdonald wrote to his former student Karen Knop at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto to discuss ways to encourage law students to take up this kind of biographical and historical research.  In response, Professor Knop and her legal history colleague, Angela Fernandez, created a seminar course called "Canadian Approaches to International Law". In the course, each student chose a figure in the history of international law in Canada to research, and wrote a paper describing and assessing that person's contribution to the development of the teaching or practice of international law in Canada.

Links are provided here to a selection of these papers written in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.  The selection includes: two papers on the early Quebec law teacher Maximilien Bibaud written by Britt Braaten and Adam Shevell; a paper on the early nineteenth century Nova Scotia admiralty court judge, Alexander Croke, by Rachel Kent; a paper on Ontario's David Mills by Claire Young; a paper on Wolfgang Friedmann, focusing on the years he spent at the University of Toronto, by Sarah McEachern; and a paper on the founder of the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University, John Cobb Cooper, by Agape Lim.

Two additional papers from the course have been published.  The one, Cheryl Robinson, "Canada in Spite of Itself: Raoul Dandurand and Minority Rights at the League of Nations" (2007) 36 Proc. Can. Council Int'l L., is reproduced among the links below.  An abstract is given for the other: Erin Roth, "John Peters Humphrey: Canadian Nationalist and World Government Advocate" (2007) 45 Can Y.B. Int'L 305.

Ronald St. John Macdonald would undoubtedly have been happy to see so much good work come from the suggestions he made and the inspiration he provided.  We make the papers available here for those who are interested in this type of research or the individual subject.  We also hope that others will contribute their own scholarship in this genre.  If you have a paper that you would like to post, please contact CCIL Office Manager, Elizabeth Macaulay, at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

 Author   Title   Abstract   Article 
 Braaten, Britt  Maximilien Bibaud: Early Canadian Teacher, Scholar and Pundit  pdf Braaten pdf Braaten
 Kent, Rachel  Admiral of the Court: Sir Alexander Croke in Nova Scotia, 1801-1815  pdf Kent  pdf Kent
 Lim, Thea Agape V.  John Cobb Cooper: At the Frontiers of International Law  pdf Lim  pdf Lim
 McEachern, Sarah  Viewed as Canadian, Viewing as Canada: Wolfgang Gaston Friedmann's Canadian Years (1950-1955)  pdf McEachern  pdf McEachern
 Robinson, Cheryl  Canada in Spite of Itself: Raoul Dandurand and Minority Rights at the League of Nations  pdf Robinson  pdf Robinson
 Roth, Erin C.  John Peters Humphrey: Canadian Nationalist and World Government Advocate  pdf Roth  
 Shevell, Adam  The Utopia and Isolation of Maximilien Bibaud    pdf Shevell
 Young, Claire  Pedantic Hero: An Analysis of David Mills Contributions to a Canadian Approach to International Law  pdf Young  pdf Young