Assistant Professor
Chancellor Day Hall
3674 Peel Street
Room 43
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9
514-398-4400, x00135 [office]
joshua.nichols [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
Biography
Joshua Nichols is Metis from Treaty 8 Territory in British Columbia. He teaches Aboriginal law, constitutional history, and legal theory.
His research centers on the legacy of British Imperialism and the conflictual constitutional relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples. In particular, he is interested in how Indigenous constitutional practices have responded to the development of the centralized administrative state since the mid-19thcentury.
In his latest projects, he is exploring the historical genealogy of the administrative state within the British Empire and the possibilities for post-Westphalian forms of multinational federalism.
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
- “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.
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
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
Areas of interest
Aboriginal law and Indigenous constitutionalism, constitutional history, history of the British Empire, administrative law, multinational federalism, legal and political philosophy.