Cecil Augustus Wright (July 2, 1904April 24, 1967), often called Caesar Wright, was a Canadian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and law professor. He was among the first law professors to import the Harvard

case method The case method is a teaching approach that uses decision-forcing cases to put students in the role of people who were faced with difficult decisions at some point in the past. It developed during the course of the twentieth-century from its or ...

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 London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

, on July 2, 1904, to Emily Rosena (Whitehall) and Thomas Augustus Wright. He received a BA from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

in 1923, where he studied economics, history, and political science. In 1926, at age 22, he graduated from

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the ''Journal of Law and Social Policy'', and the ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal ...

Career

Wright taught at Osgoode from 1927. 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. In 1949, the

Law Society of Upper Canada The Law Society of Ontario (LSO; ) is the law society responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1797 as the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC; ), its name was changed by statu ...

rejected his proposed reforms and Wright left Osgoode to become dean of the

University of Toronto Faculty of Law The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto, located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Downtown Toronto. It is the top ranked common law facu ...

. Together with other professors, including

Bora Laskin Bora Laskin (October 5, 1912 – March 26, 1984) was a Canadians, Canadian jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of Canada, chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984 and as a List of justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, puisne just ...

, he shaped the undergraduate law program into a professional law school, which was eventually accredited by the Law Society in 1957. 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. According to the legal historian R. Blake Brown, Wright has been regarded as "the founder of Canadian tort law scholarship".

Notes

Sources

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External links

Canadian Encyclopedia entryCecil A. Wright archival papers
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Cecil 1904 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Canadian lawyers Canadian legal scholars Lawyers in Ontario Legal educators People from London, Ontario Academic staff of the University of Toronto Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law