Canadian Law and Society Association

Welcome to the website of the Canadian Law & Society Association. The CLSA is a group of scholars from many disciplines who are interested in the place of law in social, political, economic and cultural life. CLSA members bring training in law, history, sociology, political science, criminology, psychology, anthropology, and economics as well as in other related areas of socio-legal inquiry. Among its activities, the CLSA publishes the Canadian Journal of Law & Society, sponsors an annual conference and graduate student workshop, awards prizes for socio-legal scholarship, and generally works to encourage socio-legal inquiry in Canada and internationally.

News We congratulate the CLSA's 2009 Book Prize winner, Constance Backhouse for Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975 (Osgoode Society for Legal History & Irwin Law, 2008). Honourable mention was awareded to Elise Chenier for Strangers in Our Midst: Sexual Deviancy in Post-War Ontario (University of Toronto Press, 2008). Congratulations also to the Canadian Journal of Law & Society's 2009 Article Prize winner, Diana Young for "Claims for Recognition and the Generalized Other: the Reasonable Person and Judgment in Criminal La" (2008) 23 CJLS/Rcds 15-37. A reminder to graduate students who participated in the Annual Meeting at Carleton: your travel grant applications are due no later than June 15, 2009. Applications will be processed within 10 working days of the deadline.  Read the Spring 2009 edition of the CLA newsletter, The Bulletin. The CLSA, together with the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT), has prepared a position paper on legal education and issues raised by the Federation of Law Societies' Discussion Paper on the Accreditation of Canadian Common Law Degrees. The board of the CLSA has also adopted a set of principles that it proposes should guide any proposals concernng accreditation of university-based legal education.

This site is currently undergoing major renovations. Please stay tuned for updates.