One Law for All? An Introduction

• Author: Elizabeth Shilton & Karen Schucher
• Pages: 1-23

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 

One Law for All?

An Introduction

Eizabeth Shiton & Karen Schucher

A. BERNIE ADELL AND HIS MANY CONTRIBUTIONS TO

CANADIAN LABOUR LAW

This volume arises from a symposium in honour of the late Professor Ber-

nard Adell, hosted by the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace

at Queen’s University (CLCW). The symposium marked the twentieth

anniversary of Weber v Ontario Hydro, a decision of the Supreme Court

of Canada that radically challenged orthodox understandings of the role

of arbitration in Canadian labour law. It brought together scholars, prac-

titioners and arbitrators to explore the impact of the decision on labour

arbitration and collective bargaining. The themes discussed reected

Bernie Adell’s lifelong interest in the intersection between theoretical

and practical labour law, and in the institutions that instantiate and en-

force that law in Canadian workplaces. This collection of essays is the

mature fruit of that symposium.

Bernie Adell left a giant footprint on Canadian labour law. The

ood of tributes that followed his unexpected death in  at the age of

seventy- ve — tributes from former students, academics and members

 The symposium, entitled “One Law for All”: Has Weber v Ontario Hydro Transformed

Collective Agreement Administration and Arbitration in Canada? [the Weber Sympo-

sium], was held in Kingston, Ontario on October –, .

 []  SCR  [Weber].

    

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of the practicing labour law community, both nationally and internation-

ally — contained recurring references to his rigorous and relentlessly

scrupulous scholarship, his engaged teaching, his patient and eective

mentorship, and his meticulous editorial work. His long career reached

back almost to the birth of labour law as an academic discipline in Can-

adian universities. He was gold medalist in the class of  at the Uni-

versity of Alberta, and went on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to acquire

a doctorate in law. His dissertation, a comparative examination of the

legal status of collective agreements, was formally supervised by Profes-

sor Harold Hanbury, Vinerian Professor of English Law and author of

Hanbury’s Modern Equity. Less formally, Adell was mentored by pioneer-

ing UK labour law scholar Otto Kahn-Freund, then at the London School

of Economics. A version of his dissertation was subsequently published

as The Legal Status of Collective Agreements in England, the United States

and Canada. In a lengthy review, Professor AWR Carrothers, then Presi-

dent of the University of Calgary, described that book as follows:

It is a good book, and merits close and careful reading. . . . The author

writes with condence, with courtesy, and with style, eschewing stri-

dent criticism for scholarly ratiocination. The text reveals the author’s

critical understanding not only of the legal materials but also of the cul-

tures of industrial relations in the three countries which he examines.

Adell’s academic writing never lost those qualities.

On his return to Canada in , Adell was appointed Assistant Pro-

fessor at the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario,

where he spent his entire academic career, moving up through the aca-

demic ranks to full professor and serving both as Associate Dean and

as Dean. He took formal retirement in  at a time when mandatory

retirement was still a feature of the legal landscape in Ontario. Even as

Professor Emeritus, however, he remained actively involved in faculty

 See Brian Langille (Speech delivered at the Bora Laskin Award Ceremony,  Oc-

tober ), online: www.queensu.ca/clcw/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.clcwwww/

les/les/BernardAdellTributes.pdf.

 BL Adell, The Legal Status of Collective Agreements in England, the United States and

Canada (Kingston, ON: Queen’s University Industrial Relations Centre, ).

 AWR Carrothers, Book Review of The Legal Status of Collective Agreements in Eng-

land, the United States and Canada by BL Adell, () : University of Toronto Law

Journal  at .