From Empire Ontario to California North: Law and Legal Institutions in Twentieth-Century Ontario

Abstract

This article identifies trends in the evolution of Ontario's legal system during the twentieth century, and considers how socio-economic trends and legal developments were related. Has Ontario moved from a conservative, hierarchical British model of law to a more open and liberal legal environment such as in California? The author considers changes in Ontario's legal system during three periods: post-Victorian Empire and the Great War (1900-1919), the interwar years and World War II (1919-1945), and Ontario after World War II (1945-1990). The discussion of each era is anchored in four themes: moral reform, the response to industrialization, resource development and the environment, and the status of women and minorities. The Ontario Bar almost doubled over the 1970s, closely followed by the expansion of litigation possibilities with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The structure and procedure of Ontario's court system has been reorganized, and complemented with administrative bodies and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Some aspects of Ontario's legal system show continuity: issues surrounding legislating morality and Native Canadian rights to self-governance still have currency, and the legal community must still struggle to adapt to an ever-changing profession. Though the author has identified some trends in the transformation of Ontario law, the developments were not entirely linear, or their causes easily explained.