J. Barry Wright

Professor Emeritus (cross appointed Law and Criminology); Honorary Professor, T.C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia

• B.A. (Toronto), LL.B. (York), LL.M. (London), Ph.D. (York)
• Email J. Barry Wright

• Visit the Website

Current research

• Political trials and the administration of national security measures in Canadian history
• Utilitarianism, 19th century criminal law reform and codification
• Comparative study of rule of law issues and 19th century British colonial and post colonial governance

Teaching interests

• history
• criminal and constitutional law
• legal, political and social theory

Selected Media Appearances

• Interview with the Champlain Society for their podcast series on new Canadian history books

Selected Recent Publications:

‘Gouzenko, Petrov, and the Canadian and Australian Espionage Commissions:  The Rule of Law and the Neo-Colonial Development of Cold War Security States’ (2025) vol.36 (3) King’s Law Journal

Canadian State Trials Volume Five: World War, Cold War, and Challenges to Sovereignty, 1939-1990 (co-edited with Susan Binnie and Eric Tucker) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022

‘State Trials in Post-revolution British North America’ in M. Davis, E. Macleod, and G. Pentland eds., Political Trials in an Age of Revolution: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848, London: Macmillan, 2019.

‘Macaulay’s India Law Reforms and Labour in the British Empire’ in Shaunnagh Dorsett and John McLaren eds., Legal Histories of the British Empire: Laws, Engagements and Legacies London: Routledge, 2014.

(Please visit Law UQ for full listing of publications)