University of Alberta Faculty of Law is delighted to announce that Professor Eric Adams has been awarded the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Scholarly Paper Award for his article, The Dean Who Went to Law School: Crossing Borders and Searching for Purpose in North American Legal Education. The award is given to a Canadian law professor within seven years of first appointment for a paper which makes a substantial contribution to legal literature. The award will be presented to Professor Adams at the annual banquet of the CALT conference on Saturday, June 7th, in Winnipeg. Professor Adams is the second recipient to receive this prestigious award from the Faculty; Professor Moin Yahya previously won the award in 2007.
Professor Adams's winning paper provides a history of the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law, focusing on the exceptional twenty-year deanship of Wilbur Bowker. Tracing the Faculty's near collapse during the Second World War and its rebirth under Bowker's postwar deanship, Professor Adams tells the story of Dean Bowker's remarkable three summers at the University of Minnesota Law School in pursuit of his Masters degree and his immersion into the leading currents of thinking and practice in North American legal education. Weaving together a story of personality, circumstance, and ideas, the article provides a biography of Bowker and an intellectual history of the making of modern North American legal education.
"I am thrilled for my work in legal history to be recognized in this way," Professor Adams said in reaction to the announcement. "In a way it is fitting, since Bowker himself was a leading figure in the early years of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers. I am especially pleased to think that my article may assist in bringing Bowker the attention he deserves in the history of Canadian legal education. And, of course, I would like to thank the many excellent research students who have helped me dig into the archives to tell this story."
Professor Adams joined the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law in 2007, and since 2012 has held the position of Associate Professor. Professor Adams holds degrees from McGill, Dalhousie, and the University of Toronto. Prior to obtaining his SJD he practiced civil litigation in Toronto. A recipient of both the Tevie Miller Teaching Award (2011) and the Provost's Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Teaching (2012), Professor Adams researches and teaches in the areas of constitutional law, legal history, and employment law. He has published widely and is currently working on a book on the history of the Canadian Constitution over the course of the twentieth-century.
"I am delighted that Eric's work as a scholar has been recognized by the Canadian Association of Law Teachers through the presentation of the CALT Scholarly Paper Award," said Dean Philip Bryden. "As well as being an outstanding researcher, Eric is an exceptional teacher and contributor to the service of the Faculty and the University, and we are very fortunate to have him as a member of our Faculty."
Professor Adams' research, publications, and CV are available here: