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Professor Emeritus Hugh Kindred receives two prestigious honours
LEAVING HIS MARK Hugh Kindred’s name is synonymous with international law for generations of Canadian law students and practitioners
BY TRUDI SMITH
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2019 was a banner year for Schulich Law Professor Emeritus Hugh Kindred. An accomplished 45 year career in international law teaching and scholarship at Dalhousie culminated in two prestigious tributes – receiving the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL) John E. Read Gold Medal and having the definitive text on international law from a Canadian perspective named in his honour.
Kindred’s interest in international law can be traced back to the first year of his LLB degree at the University of Bristol. After taking a course on the topic, his fascination with international law led him to pursue every opportunity in the area. He earned an LLM in international and soviet law at the University of London, and then travelled to the US where he added international economic law in a further LLM at the University of Illinois.
In 1971, Kindred began teaching at what was then called Dalhousie Law School. He recalls his first day of work, when a colleague greeted a nervous young student by calling out: “Hello Bruce – great to see you at law school!” It was then that Kindred understood the Dal law school community was special. “I had never known a professor who approached a student in such a warm and friendly way. I sensed immediately that Dal would be a good place for me. The relationships that are built here between the student body and professors are extraordinary.”
That nervous student on his first day was Professor Bruce Archibald (’74), and he’s just one of the students that Kindred has had a huge impact on during his teaching career. His former students are a “who’s who” of international law in Canada – including Schulich Law Professors Phillip Saunders (’84), Rob Currie (’98) and Aldo Chircop (JSD ’88). “With most law students, it’s hardly teaching,” he says modestly, “You just point them in the right direction.” Kindred worked full time at Dalhousie until his retirement in 2008, and then continued to teach, write and supervise graduate students part time until 2016.
It was during his early teaching career that Kindred first encountered a book titled International Law, Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada. He wrote a review of the book in 1983. “I diplomatically said ‘This book is a gold mine of knowledge, but it is the job of the editor – not the reader – to do the mining.’” When Kindred became the editor shortly afterwards, he remained true to this philosophy, creating a book that became an essential for generations of students, scholars and practitioners. The first published volume to approach international law through a Canadian lens, the book has been cited by courts at all levels across the country - including the Supreme Court of Canada – and is referred to throughout the English speaking world.
After editing five editions of the book over 30 years, including the 7th and 8th with colleagues Saunders and Currie, Kindred, already retired, passed it on to them. He says he was “amazed” when he learned the 9th edition in 2019 would be renamed Kindred’s International Law in his honour. “It’s ironic,” he says, “that now that I have nothing to do with the book, it’s named after me!” According to his co-editors, nothing could be further from the truth. In their preface to the 9th edition, Saunders and Currie wrote “The entire book still bears the imprint of his work, which is a major reason for its continued use and authoritative status in Canada and internationally.”
A few months after the publication of Kindred’s International Law in August, Professor Kindred travelled to Ottawa with his wife Sheila to receive his second honour of 2019 – the CCIL Read Medal. The medal commemorates the life and work of John Erskine Read, Q.C., a former dean of the Dalhousie Law School, and the only Canadian elected as a judge on the International Court of Justice. The medal is awarded to those who have made outstanding contributions to international law and policy in Canada. It is not awarded each year – it is only given when the CCIL wants to recognize an individual with exceptional merit. Past recipients have included former dean of the law school Ronald St. John MacDonald and Douglas Johnston, founder of the Marine and Environmental Law Program.
“I was astounded to learn that I’d won the award,” says Kindred. “It’s moving to be recognized by my peers and legal practitioners across Canada.” The award ceremony featured speeches from CCIL board member Pierre-Olivier Savoie and Danaan Hawes of Emond & Co, publisher of Kindred’s International Law. The award was presented by Katie Sykes of Thompson Rivers University’s Faculty of Law, the last student Kindred supervised. Sykes’ speech was a fitting tribute to Kindred’s professional and personal legacy. “Today, Canada is a global leader in international law, both academically and in the policy arena. That is in no small part thanks to the teaching and scholarship of Professor Kindred. He combines this lifetime of tremendous scholarly accomplishments with rare personal qualities of warmth, kindness, modesty and gentleness.”
Kindred returned the favour in May of this year when he tuned in to the law school’s virtual convocation ceremony to cheer Sykes on as she received her PhD. He also has some advice for current and future law students, “Get involved. Study the law hard for sure, but you’ll learn as much through engagement with your classmates and faculty members as you will from books.”
HUGH KINDRED
