TORONTO ­– The Ontario government has awarded the 2021 David Walter Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing to Philip Girard.

Philip Girard is one of Canada’s preeminent legal historians and a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Professor Girard’s extensive work, including many important books, has made a significant contribution to scholarship in Canadian legal history.

He co-wrote A History of Law in Canada, vol. I, Beginnings to 1866, an overview of the history of law in Canada that takes readers through the development of the three streams of Canadian legal traditions: Indigenous legal orders, civil law and common law. His other publications include Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life and Lawyers and Legal Culture in British North America: Beamish Murdoch of Halifax.

Professor Girard serves as the Associate Editor in Chief to the Osgoode Society for Legal History and is the recipient of several book awards, including the Walter Owen Book Prize.