Randal Graham is a Canadian

law professor 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 legal practition ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

, and the Goodmans LLP Faculty

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

in legal ethics at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law.

Early life and education

Originally from

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Graham earned a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

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 ...

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

, followed by a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

from the same institution in 1999. While completing his dissertation, Graham worked under the supervision of

Peter Hogg Peter Wardell Hogg (12 March 1939 – 4 February 2020) was a New Zealand–born Canadian legal scholar and lawyer. He was best known as a leading authority on Canadian constitutional law, with the most academic citations in Supreme Court jurisp ...

, for whom he had worked as a research assistant throughout his time in the LL.B. program.

Career

From 1996 to 1997, Graham clerked at the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

under Mr. Justice John Sopinka after which he practised

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

at Goodmans LLP. He served as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

and an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

before coming to the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law in 2002, soon earning tenure and full professorship. In 2005, Graham was named "Faculty

Scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

" for the international impact of his research. He has won awards for outstanding teaching, including the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching, Western University's highest teaching-related honour. In 2016, Graham testified in front of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...

regarding Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts (medical assistance in dying) relating to euthanasia in Canada. In 2017, Graham published his first novel, Beforelife, followed by its sequel, Afterlife Crisis, in 2020. Raoul Bhaneja narrated the audiobook version of Afterlife Crisis. The third novel of the trilogy, Nether Regions, was released in September 2022. Beforelife won the

Independent Publisher Book Awards The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled as the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual literary awards for independently published books. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Aw ...

Gold Medal for Fantasy Fiction. Both Beforelife and Afterlife Crisis were top ten finalists for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Singer-songwriter, Treasa Levasseur, described Graham's Afterlife Crisis for

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

The Next Chapter (radio program) as ". . . a sprawling, intellectual yet humorous book - like if Life of Brian by

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

was 14-and-a-half hours long and was written by a law professor at Western University." Heather McBriarty of The Miramichi Reader described Graham's Nether Regions as ". . . a hilariously thought-provoking romp of a book in the finest tradition of

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...

, and

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

. McBriarty noted, "Graham draws from both today's headlines and ancient myths to create a world like no other, and never hesitates to ask huge philosophical questions in the most outlandish of settings."

Publications

Books

*''Statutory Interpretation: Theory and Practice''. Toronto: Emond, 2001 ISBN 978-1-55239-063-4. *''Statutory Interpretation: Cases, Text and Materials''. Toronto: Emond, 2002 ISBN 978-1-55239-091-7. *''Legal Ethics: Theories, Cases, and Professional Regulation''. 3rd Edition (2nd Edition 2014; 1st Edition 2004). Toronto: Emond, 2014 ISBN 978-1-55239-623-0. *''Beforelife''. Toronto:

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

, 2017 ISBN 9781770413177. *''Afterlife Crisis''. Toronto:

, 2020 ISBN 9781770414709. *''Nether Regions''. Toronto:

, 2022 ISBN 9781770414716.

Selected articles

* Morality v. Markets (2005) 8:1 Legal Ethics 87. * In Defence of Ethinomics (2005) 8:1 Legal Ethics 160. * Right Theory, Wrong Reasons (2006) 34 SCLR (2d) 1.
"What Judges Want: Judicial Self-Interest and Statutory Interpretation"
(2009)Statute Law Review 30(1) 38 -72, Oxford University Press. * Evolutionary Analysis: The Impact of Interpretive Theory (2010) 34 Man. LJ 1, 143. * The Myth of Originalism (appearing in Interpretatio Non Cessat, Yvon Blais), 2011.

Videos

*
Building Accessibility for People with Disabilities into our Legislation: Avoiding the Creation of Unintended Barriers
', 8 May 2016. *
Beforelife CBC Interview
', 8 September 2017. *
Second Beforelife CBC Interview
', 13 April 2018. *
Homecoming 2020 Western Law Ethics Webinar
', 20 October 2020. *
Commencement Speech to Professional Graduates, Western University
', 8 July 2022 (at 34 minute mark).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Randal Living people Canadian legal scholars Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario Law clerks People from Peterborough, Ontario Year of birth missing (living people)