Schulich School of Law
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | CANADA B3H 4H9 | +1 (902) 494-3495

Richard Devlin

LL.B. Queen's University Belfast, 1983; LL.M. Queen's University Kingston, 1984.  

Professor

Telephone: (902) 494-1014
E-mail: richard.devlin@dal.ca

Biography

Professor of Law. Has previously been a member of faculty or visiting scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto and McGill University.

Teaching areas:

Contracts, Jurisprudence, Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility and Graduate Studies

Awards:

  • University Research Professor 2005-2010
  • Hanna and Harold Barnett Award for Excellence in Teaching First Year Law 2002/2003

Publications:

           Books: 

  • Critical Disability Theory: Essays in Philosophy, Politics, Policy and Law (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005), editor with Dianne Pothier.
  • Law in Transition:  A 25 Year Retrospective (Edmonton:  Alberta L. Rev., 1994), co-    editor with N. Rafferty.
  • Canadian Perspectives on Legal Theory, (ed.) (Toronto:  Emond Montgomery, 1990). 

           Articles, Review Essays and Reviews: 

  • “Aquaculture Law and Policy in Canada and the Duty to Consult with Aboriginal Peoples” in D. VanderZwaag & G. Chao, eds., Aquaculture Law and Policy in Canada (New York: Routledge, 2006) 293-330. [with R. Murphy]
  • “The Big Chill? Contextual Judgment after Hamilton & Mason” (2005) 28 Dalhousie L.J. 409-441. [with M. Sherrard]
  • “Constitutionalized Law Reform: Equality Rights and Social Context Education for Judges” (2005) 4 Journal of Law and Equality 157-201. [with D. Hackett]
  • “Dis-citizenship” in Law Commission of Canada, ed., Law and Citizenship (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006) 144-175 [with D. Pothier].
  • Book Review, John McCamus, The Law of Contracts (2006) 43 C.B.L.J. 319-324.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Where Are We Since R. v. Neil? (2005) 30(6) The Society Record, 113-114.     
  • “Depriving Law Reform of its Potential? Book Review: New Perspectives on the Public Private Dichotomy” (2005) 43 Alta. L. Rev. 477-480.
  • “Of Legends and Pro Bono” (25:32) Lawyers’ Weekly, 23 Dec. 2005.
  • “Of Cairns and Cages” in P. Resnick & G. Kernerman, eds., Insiders and Outsiders: Alan Cairns and the Reshaping of Canadian Citizenship (Vancouver: U.B.C. Press 2005) 297-315 [with Alexandra Dobrowolsky].
  • “Censorship”, Freedom of the Press”, Freedom of Speech” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2005 [with A. Dobrowolsky].
  • “Reconfiguration Through Consultation: A Modest (Judicial) Proposal?” in M. Murphy, ed., Reconfiguring Aboriginal Relations (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2005). [Co-authored with Ronalda Murphy].
  • Book Review, J. Bakan et al. The Corporation (2004) 40 C.B.L.J. 450-454.
  • Book Review, D. Campbell et al. The Implicit Dimensions of Contract (2004) 39 C.B.L.J. 469.
  • “Self Regulation in the Shire” (2004) 22:1 Society Record 18-19 [with J. Downie].
  • “Recent Developments in the Duty to Consult: Clarification or Transformation” (2003) 14:2 N.J.C.L. 167-216 [Co-authored with Ronalda Murphy].
  • “Breach of Contract?: The New Economy and the Ethical Obligations of the Legal Profession” (2002) 25 Dalhousie Law Journal 335-375.
  • “Citizens Supplicant? Alan Cairns’ Citizens Plus and the Politics of Aboriginal / Constitutional Scholarship” (2002) 7 Review of Constitutional Studies 79-119 [Co-authored with Alexandra Dobrowolsky].
  • “Jurisprudence for Judges: Or, Why Legal Theory Matters for Social Context Education” (2001) 27 Queen’s L.J. 161-206; translated and republished as “la théorie générale du droit pour les juges” (2002) 4 Revue de la Common Law 197-272.
  • “The Law and Politics of ‘Might’: An Internal Critique of Hutch’s Hopeful Hunch” (2000) 38 Osgoode Hall L.J. 545-561.
  • “Reducing the Democratic Deficit: Representation, Diversity and the Canadian Judiciary, or Toward a “Triple P” Judiciary” (2000) 38 Alberta L.R. 734-866 [Co-authored with N. Kim and A.W. MacKay].
  • "ReDreSsing the Imbalances: Reflections on Judicial Decision-making after R.D.S." (1999-2000) 30 Ottawa L. Rev. 1-37 [Co-authored with Dianne Pothier].
  • Book Review, I. Greene et al. Final Appeal (1999) 78 Can. Bar. Rev. 557.
  • Book Review, W. Conklin, The Phenomenology of Modern Legal Discourse (1999) 49 U.T.L.J. 167.
  • "The Canadian Parliament", "The Canadian Constitution", "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms", "The Supreme Court of Canada" for Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia (Microsoft Corp., 1999) [Co-authored with Alexandra Dobrowolsky].
  • "Frustration" Chapter 11, C. Boyle & D. Percy, Contracts: Cases and Commentaries (Toronto: Carswell, 2004).
  • "The Impact of the Charter on Anglophone Legal Theory" (1997) 4(1) Review of Constitutional Studies 19-79. [article invited]
  • "Some Recent Developments in Canadian Constitutional Theory With Particular Reference to Beatty and Hutchinson" (1996) 22(1) Queen's L.J. 81-132.
  • "Judging and Diversity:  Justice or Just Us?/Les Décisions Judicaires et la Diversité:  La Justice des Justiciables ou de justiciers?" (1996) 20(3) Provincial Judges Journal 4-22. 
  • "Book Review, D. Marshall, Judicial Conduct and Accountability and M. Friedland, A Place Apart:  Judicial Independence and Accountability in Canada" (1996) 75 Can. Bar. Rev. 398-402.
  • "Review Essay:  Boyle and Percy eds., Contracts:  Cases and Materials (5th ed.)" (1996) 27 Can. Bus. L.J. 144-151.
  • “We Can’t Go On Together with Suspicious Minds:  Judicial Bias and Racialized Perspective” (1995) 18 Dal. L.J. 408-446.  [To be reprinted in E. Gavaki ed., Race and Racism (1997); also to be reprinted in K. Mahoney and J. Wilson eds, On the Bias:  Ideas for Education and Action (New York:  New York University Press, 1998)].
  • "When Legal Cultures Collide" in R. Bauman ed., Explorations in Difference:  Law, Culture and Politics 169-198 (Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 1995). [Abbreviated version of Law, Postmodernism and Resistance..."].
  • "Normative and Somewhere to Go?:  Reflections on Professional Responsibility" (1995) 33 Alta. L. Rev. 924-943.
  • "Law, Postmodernism and Resistance:  Re-Thinking the Significance of the Irish Hunger Strike" (1994) 14 Windsor Yearbook for Access to Justice 3-81.
  • "Mapping Legal Theory", in R. Devlin & N. Rafferty eds., Law in Transition:  A 25 Year Retrospective 602-621 (Edmonton:  Alberta L. Rev. 1994).
  • “Demanding Difference (But Doubting Discourse)” (1994) 7 C.J.W.L. 156-172.
  • "The Rule of Law and the Politics of Fear:  Some Reflections on Northern Ireland" (1993) 4 Law and Critique 155-185.
  • "Solidarity or Solipsistic Tunnel Vision?  Reminiscences of a Renegade Rapporteur", in K.E. Mahoney and P. Mahoney eds., Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century:  A Global Challenge 991-1003 (Boston, Martinus Nijhoff, 1993). 
  • "Book Review, B. Welling Corporate Law in Canada (2nd ed.)" (1993) 71 Can. Bar Rev. 750-757.
  • "On Complements, Supplements and the Lack of Implements:  A Review of Dangerous Supplements:  Resistance and Renewal in Jurisprudence" (1992) 4 Cdn. Journal of Law and Society, 216-226.
  • "Doubting Donald:  A Reply to Galloway's 'Critical Mistakes'" (1991) 11 Windsor Year Book for Access to Justice 178-205. 
  • "An Essay on Institutional Responsibility:  The Indigenous Blacks and Micmac Programme at Dalhousie Law School" (1991) 14 Dalhousie Law Journal 295-339 [co-author with A. Wayne MacKay] [article invited].
  • "The Big Mac Attack:  A Critical Affirmation of MacKinnon's Theory of Patriarchal Power" (1991) 36 (2) McGill Law Journal 578-608 [co-author with Alexandra Z. Dobrowolsky].
  • "On the Road to Radical Reform:  A Critical Review of Roberto Mangabeira Unger's Politics" (1990) 28 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 641-721 [article invited].
  • "Nomos and Thanatos [Part B]:  Feminism as Jurisgenerative Transformation or Resistance Through Partial Incorporation?" (1990) 13 Dalhousie Law Journal 123-210.
  • "Nomos and Thanatos [Part A]:  The Killing Fields:  Modern Law and Legal Theory" (1989) 12 Dalhousie Law Journal 298-348.
  • "Law's Centaur:  A Preliminary Theoretical Inquiry into the Nature and Relations of Law, State and Violence" (1989) 27 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 219-293.
  • "Legal Education as Political Consciousness Raising ... or Paving the Road to Hell" (1989) 39 Journal of Legal Education 213-231.
  • "Towards An/other Legal Education:  Some Tentative Critical and Speculative Proposals" (1989) 38 U.N.B. Law Journal 89-127 [article invited].
  • "Ventriloquism and the Verbal Icon:  A Critical Comment on Professor Hogg's American Theories of Interpretation" (1988) 25 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 1-18.
  • “Baby M:  The Contractual Legitimation of Misogyny” (1987) 10 R.F.L. (3d), 4-29.
  • "Twisting and the Tourniquet Around the Pulse of Conventional Legal Wisdom: Jurisprudence and Law Reform in the Work of Robert Samek" (1987) Dalhousie Law Journal 157-207.
  • Review Essay on Passion:  An Essay on Human Personality, by Roberto Mangabeira Unger (1985) 11 Queen's Law Journal 219-229.


Courses:

  • LAWS 1000 - Contracts
  • LAWS 3000 - Graduate Seminar on Legal Education and Legal Scholarship 
  • LAWS 2099 - Legal Profession & Professional Responsibility