Educated at the universities of St. Andrews and London, John McLaren taught law in Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta before moving to the University of Victoria in 1987. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University and at the Australian National University. His major areas of interest are Canadian and colonial legal history, legal education, legal theory, and compensation law. Among his books are Law for the Elephant, Law for the Beaver: Essays in the Legal History of the North American West and Essays in the History of Canadian Law (Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1992, edited with Hamar Foster); Land and Freedom: Law, Property Rights and the British Diaspora (Routledge: 2001, edited with Andrew Buck and Nancy Wright) and Dewigged, Bothered and Bewildered: British Colonial Judges on Trial, 1800-1900 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011). Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered examines the disciplinary actions the Crown took toward several judges throughout the British Empire from the 1800 to 1900. As Lansdowne Professor of Law at University of Victoria, McLaren co-edited Despotic Dominion: Property Rights in British Settler Societies (UBC Press, 2004), a study of the evolution of property law in several former British colonies, particularly Canada and Australia.

John McLaren has served on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, was a founder of the Canadian Law and Society Association, has been involved in reform work on the civil law relating to sexual assault, is active in refugee work, dances the Morris, and lives in Victoria.

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Law for the Elephant, Law for the Beaver: Essays in the Legal History of the North American West

BOOKS:

Law for the Elephant, Law for the Beaver: Essays in the Legal History of the North American West and Essays in the History of Canadian Law (Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1992, edited with Hamar Foster)

Land and Freedom: Law, Property Rights and the British Diaspora (Routledge: 2001, edited with Andrew Buck and Nancy Wright)

Despotic Dominion: Property Rights in British Settler Societies (UBC Press, 2004). Co-editor.

Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered: British Colonial Judges on Trial, 1800-1900 (University of Toronto Press 2011) 978-1-4426-4437-3

[BCBW 2017] "Law"