In conversation with Justice Sharpe and Prof. Emeritus Weinrib

Robert Sharpe was a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 1999 to 2020 and is currently Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence at the Faculty of Law. He graduated with the degrees of BA (University of Western Ontario, 1966), LLB (University of Toronto, 1970) and DPhil (Oxford University, 1974). He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1974 and practised with MacKinnon McTaggart (later McTaggart Potts) in the area of civil litigation. He was a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto from 1976 to 1988 and served under Chief Justice Brian Dickson as Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court Canada from 1988 to 1990. Robert Sharpe was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 1990 and served in that capacity until his appointment as member of the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division, now the Superior Court of Justice) in 1995. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1991 and as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2023. Robert Sharpe has written several books on law and Canadian legal history. His most recent book is Good Judgment: Making Judicial Decisions (2018).

Ernest J. Weinrib, BA (University of Toronto, 1965), PhD (Classics, Harvard University, 1968) JD (University of Toronto) 1972, is University Professor and Cecil A. Wright Professor of Law. Professor Weinrib has taught at the University of Toronto in the Department of Classics since 1968 and in the Faculty of Law since 1972. In 1984 he was Visiting Professor of Law, Yale Law School. He has also been a frequent visitor at the Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Tel Aviv University, and from 2014 to 2017 he was Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at Tel Aviv University. Professor Weinrib’s teaching and scholarship have concentrated on Tort Law, the Law of Restitution, and Legal Theory, and he is recognized internationally as a leading figure in the theory of private law. Among his books are The Idea of Private Law (Harvard University Press 1995, Oxford University Press 2012) and Corrective Justice (Oxford University Press 2012). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He gave the 2014 Clarendon Lectures in Law at Oxford University on “The Jurisprudence of Corrective Justice.” He was a recipient of the Ontario Confederation of Faculty Associations teaching award in 2007. In 2009, he was awarded him the Killam Prize, Canada’s highest honour for scholarly achievement (then awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts).