U of A Law Professor gains rave reviews for new book

The publication of law professor Eric M. Adams’ newest book, Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution (UBC Press), in October has been met with widespread interest and praise from both the academic community and the general public.

The book, which is co-authored by Jordan Stanger-Ross from the University of Victoria, provides a legal-historical analysis of the internment, dispossession, and exile of Japanese Canadians following the Second World War.

Across 14 chapters, Adams and Stanger-Ross detail the circumstances and personalities behind the exile. They follow the lives of families facing government orders that uprooted them from their homes, stripped them of their livelihoods and possessions and proposed to exile them from Canada.

They also analyze the court case – the first ever heard in what was then the new Supreme Court of Canada building – in which lawyers and judges grappled with the meaning of citizenship, race, and rights in times of war and its aftermath.

“[This publication] is a remarkable story, beautifully and sensitively told…a monumental achievement,” writes Douglas Harris, legal historian and professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law.

Since the release of Challenging Exile, Adams and Stanger-Ross have had a busy two months of book launches and promotion.

The U of A Faculty of Law community celebrated the book with a sold out launch event on October 21, hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Studies. Launch events also took place at the University of Victoria, as well as in Lethbridge, Toronto and Ottawa.

Adams and Stanger-Ross have also been fielding requests to discuss their research from a variety of media outlets across the country.

The authors were featured on an episode of the Curious Canadian History podcast in November. They also received a rave review from Globe and Mail journalist John Ibbitson, who called the book “essential reading” and “a superb chronicle” of one of the darkest chapters in Canada’s story,

“Although the book is principally a legal history of the federal government’s decision to expel its own citizens and of the judicial rulings that upheld that decision, the authors take great care to include the voices of those who endured internment and then exile,” Ibbitson writes. “This combination of scholarly research and personal narrative makes Challenging Exile especially compelling, and essential reading for anyone who cares about our country’s past.”

Adams and Stanger-Ross have more interviews, talks and launches scheduled into the new year. They also expect to release commentary later this month to mark the 80th anniversary of the federal order to exile Japanese Canadians.

“I’m immensely grateful for the positive reception the book has received so far,” Adams says. “It’s an important story, not only for the legal community, but for the public at large.”

Learn more about Challenging Exile on the publisher’s website.