Joshua Nichols

Biography

Joshua Ben David Nichols is Metis from Treaty 8 Territory in British Columbia. He teaches and publishes in legal theory, political philosophy and constitutional law. His research focuses on the role that imperial systems of internal colonization have played in the development of liberal democracies in the 20th century and the challenges these systems pose to constitutionalism, federalism and the rule of law going forward. His current research project examines the constitutional histories of the Dominions of Canada and South Africa from the post-WW1 move to independence to their ongoing projects of constitutional reconciliation.  

Professor Nichols is happy to supervise graduate students working on problems relating to constitutionalism in conditions of deep diversity. This includes questions broadly related to the history of British colonial imperialism and practices of constitutionalism as well as the comparative analysis of modern projects of constitutional reconciliation. He is particularly interested in supervising students working on issues relating to Canadian Aboriginal law, Federal Indian Law in the United States, and the constitutional implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Employment

• Assistant Professor, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2021-
• Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Faculty of Law, 2018-2021
• Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University, Public Administration, 2017-2018

Education

• PhD, University of Victoria, 2017
• JD, University of British Columbia, 2014
• PhD, University of Toronto (philosophy), 2009
• MA, University of Alberta (sociology), 2004
• BA (Hons.) University of Alberta (political science), 2003

Areas of interest

Aboriginal law and Indigenous constitutionalism, constitutional history, history of the British Empire, administrative law, multinational federalism, legal and political philosophy.

Selected publications

Monographs

• A Reconciliation without Recollection: An Investigation of the Foundations of Aboriginal Law in Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020).
  Finalist for the 2021 Donald Smiley Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association.
• The End(s) of Community: History, Sovereignty, and the Question of Law, (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2013).

Edited Collections

• Democratic Multiplicity, James Tully, Keith Cherry, Fonna Forman, Jeanne Morefield, Joshua Nichols, Pablo Ouziel, David Owen and Oliver Schmidke, eds (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009178372
• Wise Practices: Exploring Indigenous Economic Justice and Self-Determination, Joshua Nichols, Ryan Beaton, John Borrows and Robert Hamilton, eds (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021).
• Legal Violence and the Limits of Law, Joshua Nichols and Amy Swiffen, eds (New York: Routledge Press, 2017).
• The Ends of History? Questioning the Stakes of Historical Reason, Joshua Nichols and Amy Swiffen, eds (New York: Routledge Press, 2013).

Journal Articles

• “Undoing the Colonial Double-Bind: Interpretation and Justification in Aboriginal Law” (2023) 27:2 Rev Const Stud. 41-75 (co-authored with Amy Swiffen) 
• “Reconciliation and the Straitjacket: A Comparative Analysis of the Secession Reference and Sparrow” (2021) 52:2 Ottawa L R. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• “In Search of Honorable Crowns and Legitimate Constitutions: Mikisew Cree First Nation v Canada and the Colonial Constitution” (2020) 70:3 UTLJ 341. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• “The Tin Ear of the Court: Ktunaxa Nation and the Foundation of the Duty to Consult” (2019) 56:3 Alta L Rev 729. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• “A Narrowing Field of View: An Investigation into the Relationship between the Principles of Treaty Interpretation and the Conceptual Framework of Canadian Federalism” (2019) 56:2 Osgoode Hall LJ 350.
• “Figures of History, Foundations of Law: Acéphale, Angelus Novus, and the Katechon” (2017) 31:1 J Historical Sociology 98.
• “A Reconciliation without Recollection? Chief Mountain and the Sources of Sovereignty” (2015) 48:2 UBC L Rev 515.
• “Claims of Sovereignty-Burdens of Occupation: William and the Future of Reconciliation” (2015) 48:1 UBC L Rev 221.