The Balfour Halévy Special Collections

The Balfour Halévy Special Collections are at the heart of the library’s mandate to preserve and record the print record of Canadian law. The centrepiece is a near-comprehensive collection of Canadian legal materials published through 1900, including material published in France and relevant to the civil law tradition of Quebec. This core collection of legal Canadiana – the most complete anywhere – is complemented by a significant collection of early English, Irish and American law reports, statutes and law books. The collections also include early trials published through 1900, as well as some Canadian and English manuscripts, broadsides and ephemera.

Special Collections Slideshow

The Special Collections also include a collection of Osgoodiana, i.e., material produced at or about Osgoode Hall Law School (e.g., casebooks and theses) or by members of the Osgoode faculty.

The library’s Special Collections are named in honour of Balfour Halévy, founding law librarian of the Osgoode Hall Law School Library when it moved to York University from old Osgoode Hall on Queen Street in 1967. It is due to Halévy’s dedication and labour over 30 years as Chief Law Librarian and his vision to create at Osgoode Hall Law School a “national law library” for Canada that the special collections were conceived and developed.

When the library reopens in 2011 in its new home, the Balfour Halévy Special Collections will be housed in a new, state-of-the-art rare book room which will be named the Canada Law Book Rare Book Room in recognition of a gift of $1 million from Canada Law Book Inc., Canada’s oldest law publisher, founded in 1855. The Canada Law Book Rare Book Room will be the centrepiece, both physically and spiritually, of the new library.

All materials in Special Collections are recorded in the library’s online catalogue. Materials must be requested at the Circulation Desk and can be used only in the library. Requests for photocopying may be also made at the Circulation Desk. The Law Librarian will determine if any particular item can be photocopied.

COLLECTIONS