Jim Phillips named Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Photo by Dewey Chang

Professor Jim Phillips has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada – a recognition awarded to the country’s most distinguished scholars, artists and scientists.

Phillips, a leading figure in the field of Canadian legal history, has made the history of law a dynamic tool for interrogating Canada’s past, present and national identity.

Phillips serves as editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. An intellectual leader in the expansion of legal scholarship beyond traditional doctrinal limits, his work ranges over intellectual history, socio-legal studies, case studies and comparative legal history.

Phillips was awarded the Attorney General of Ontario's Mundell Medal, honouring excellence in legal writing, in 2013. Last year, he and his co-authors were awarded W. Wesley Pue Book Prize from the Canadian Law and Society Association for A History of Law in Canada: Volume II: Law for the New Dominion, 1867-1914. Volume I, Beginnings to 1866, was published in 2018 and Volume III, The Twentieth Century, will appear in 2026.

"Congratulations to Jim, on his induction into the Royal Society of Canada’s Academy of Social Sciences,” said Jutta Brunnée, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University Professor and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair. “His profound contribution to Canadian legal history has inspired many and will continue to elevate the field for generations to come.”

RSC will induct Fellows at ceremony held during the Celebration of Excellence and Engagement in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nov. 8.

Cross-appointed faculty member, Kamari Clarke, a Distinguished Professor of Transnational Justice at U of T's Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, will also be inducted.