Osgoode Hall Law School professors honoured

Osgoode Hall Law School Professors Allan Hutchinson and Mary Jane Mossman have been recognized for exceptional contributions to scholarship with prestigious honours from the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT), respectively.



Right: Allan Hutchinson


Hutchinson, who is associate dean (research and graduate studies) at Osgoode, where he has been a faculty member since 1982, is the seventh Osgoode faculty member to be elected to the RSC, a distinguished group of the country’s top scholars and scientists. Other Fellows of the society from Osgoode are Professors Harry Arthurs, Peter Hogg, Liora Salter, Brian Slattery and Sharon Williams, and Professor Emeritus Jean-Gabriel Castel.


Mossman, who has taught at Osgoode since 1977 in the areas of property law, family law, gender equality and feminist legal theory and is director of the law school’s Institute for Feminist Legal Studies, was presented with the 2004 CALT Award for Academic Excellence on Wednesday, June 2, in Winnipeg in conjunction with CALT’s annual conference.


Left: Mary Jane Mossman


The award, which honours exceptional contributions to research and law teaching by a Canadian law teacher in mid-career, has been awarded in previous years to two Osgoode faculty members: Professor Neil Brooks in 2002 and Professor Peter Hogg in 1992.


Osgoode Dean Patrick Monahan praised Hutchinson and Mossman for the fine scholarly work that has earned them such important recognition.


“The Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour to which any scholar or scientist can aspire,” Monahan said. “This is a fitting tribute to Associate Dean Hutchinson whose international reputation as a legal theorist with original and provocative ideas is firmly established.” Hutchinson’s induction as a new Fellow of the RSC will take place in Ottawa on Saturday, November 20.


Monahan described Mossman as “one of those rare scholars who has changed the way that Canadians think about the law. Law students, lawyers, and legal scholars have all been touched by the rigorous, courageous and original work that she has pursued throughout her career at Osgoode Hall Law School, particularly in the area of feminist research and scholarship.”


The announcement of the CALT award follows on the heels of two other honours that have been bestowed on Mossman recently – York University’s Walter L. Gordon Research Fellowship in recognition of outstanding research, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree to be awarded at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Call to the Bar Ceremony on Friday, July 23.