Caesar Wright
{{Short description|Canadian legal scholar}}
File:Cecil Augustus Wright - 1923.jpg in 1923]]
{{Use Canadian English|date=October 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}Cecil Augustus Wright (July 2, 1904{{spnd}}April 24, 1967), often called Caesar Wright, was a Canadian jurist and law professor. He was among the first law professors to import the Harvard case method into Canadian legal education. He was also known for his confrontational and aggressive personality.
Early life and education
Cecil Augustus Wright was born in London, Ontario, on July 2, 1904, to Emily Rosena (Whitehall) and Thomas Augustus Wright.{{Sfn|Bickenbach|Kyer|1987|p=37}}{{Cite web|last=Kyer|first=Clifford Ian|date=2013-12-15|title=Cecil Augustus Wright|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cecil-augustus-wright|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-07|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215100418/http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cecil-augustus-wright/ |archive-date=December 15, 2017 }} He received a BA from the University of Western Ontario in 1923, where he studied economics, history, and political science.{{Sfn|Bickenbach|Kyer|1987|p=37}}
In 1926, at age 22, he graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School.{{sfn|Bickenbach|Kyer|1983|p=164}}
Career
Wright taught at Osgoode from 1927.{{sfn|Laskin|1967|p=215}} During this time he championed many reforms of the legal education system, and in particular favoured a greater role for classroom instruction over the existing apprenticeship model.{{sfn|Bickenbach|Kyer|1987|p=4}}
In 1949, the Law Society of Upper Canada rejected his proposed reforms and Wright left Osgoode to become dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.{{Sfn|Friedland|2002|p=439}} Together with other professors, including Bora Laskin, he shaped the undergraduate law program into a professional law school, which was eventually accredited by the Law Society in 1957.{{Sfn|Bickenbach|Kyer|1987|p=4}} He remained with the university until his death on April 24, 1967, in Toronto. Before his death, he had resigned effective June 30 of that year.{{Sfn|Friedland|2002|p=441}}
According to the legal historian R. Blake Brown, Wright has been regarded as "the founder of Canadian tort law scholarship".{{sfn|Brown|2001|p=169}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite journal|last1=Bickenbach|first1=Jerome E.|last2=Kyer|first2=Clifford Ian|year=1983|title=The Harvardization of Caesar Wright|journal=University of Toronto Law Journal|volume=33|issue=2|pages=162–183|doi=10.2307/825431|jstor=825431}}
- {{Cite book|last1=Bickenbach|first1=Jerome E.|last2=Kyer|first2=Clifford Ian|title=The Fiercest Debate: Cecil A. Wright, the Benchers, and Legal Education in Ontario, 1923–1957|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1987|isbn=978-1-4875-8947-9|oclc=1006419868}}
- {{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=R. Blake|title=Cecil A. Wright and the Foundations of Canadian Tort Law Scholarship|journal=Saskatchewan Law Review|volume=64|pages=169–218|year=2001|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/sasklr64&i=175}}
- {{Cite book|last=Friedland|first=Martin L.|url=https://archive.org/details/universityoftoro0000frie|title=The University of Toronto: A History|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2002|isbn=978-1-4426-8250-4|oclc=809041543|author-link=Martin Friedland|url-access=registration}}
- {{cite journal|last1=Laskin|first1=Bora|author-link=Bora Laskin|title=Cecil A. Wright—A Tribute|year=1967|journal=Canadian Bar Review|volume=45|issue=2|pages=215–218|id=[https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/1967CanLIIDocs38 1967 CanLIIDocs 38]}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311013023/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008726 Canadian Encyclopedia entry]
- [https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cecil-a-wright-fonds Cecil A. Wright archival papers] held at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200426160845/https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services]
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Category:20th-century Canadian lawyers
Category:Canadian legal scholars
Category:People from London, Ontario
Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto
Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law