Louis Antone Knafla

Dr. Louis Antone Knafla

PhD.

Positions

Professor Emeritus

Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Contact information

Email

knafla@ucalgary.ca

Phone number

Office: +1 (403) 220-3322

For media enquiries, contact

Submit a media request

Background

Educational Background

Ph.D. University of California, 1965

M. A. University of California, 1961

B.A. Claremont Men's College, 1957

Biography

Louis (Lou) Knafla is a Professor of History Emeritus of the University of Calgary, specializing in British and Canadian legal history. Teaching early modern British history, the history of the common law, and the history of crime and criminal justice in England and Canada, as well as Honours historiography, he was active in chairing adjudication committees for the University of Calgary Faculty and Graduate Studies Research Grants, and for several Canada Council and SSHRC adjudication committees 1971-2004. Active in sports and marathon running, he served on the editorial boards of the Law and History Review, and the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, was Editor of Criminal Justice History, and a co-founder and two-term president of the Canadian Law and Society Association. Retiring in 2001, when he and Maggie moved to the Creston valley in the interior of British Columbia, he has remained active in research and writing, and participates in various local charitable organizations. An active gardener and hiker, they play golf and continue to travel in fulfilling their bucket list - Patagonia and South Georgia Island, Antarctica, being their late autumn 2025 destination.

 

Projects

“The Court of Admiralty” [Kent at Kaw series, two vols.]; “The Legal Culture of the Columbia-Kootenays, 1860s – 1915”.
Research into prominent court cases in the Columbia-Kootenays for local archives.

Publications

  • “The Magistrate — and Humourous Magistrates — in Early-Seventeeth Century England”. Louis A. Knafla. Early Theatre. 183-207. (2011)
  • “English Law in the Age of the Black Death". Louis A. Knafla. The Maryland Historian . 1-5. (1997)
  • "The Concept of Conscience in the English Common Law Tradition" . Louis A. Knafla. Toronto Law Journal. 1-16. (1976)
  • "The Law Studies of an Elizabethan Student" . Louis A. Knafla. Huntington Library Quarterly. 221-240. (1969)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume VII. Court of Exchequer — Equity Proceedings. . Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 172. (2021)
  • “Legal-Historical Writing for the Canadian Prairies: Past, Present, Future.” In Canada’s Legal Pasts. Looking Forward, Looking Back . Louis A. Knafla. University of Calgary Press. 271-296. (2020)
  • Fragile Settlements. Aboriginal Peoples, Law, and Resistance in South-West Australia and Prairie Canada. Louis A. Knafla, Amanda Nettlebeck, Russell Smandych and Robert Foster. UBC Press. 315. (2016)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume V. Courts of Equity — Requests. Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 288. (2014)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume VI. Courts of Equity — Wards and Liveries. Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 288. (2021)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume III. Star Chamber. Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 276. (2012)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume IV. Courts of Equity — Chancery. Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 290. (2013)
  • Kent at Law, 1602. Volume II. Local Jurisdictions: Borough, Liberty and Manor. Louis A. Knafla. List & Index Society. 490. (2011)
  • “’This Is Our land’: Aboriginal Title at Customary and Common Law in Comparative Contexts” In Aboriginal Title and Indigenous Peoples. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Ed. Louis A. Knafla and Haijo Westra. UBC Press. 1-34. (2010)
  • “Treasonous Murder: The Trial of Ambroise Lépine for the Resistance, 1869-1874" In Canadian State Trials, Vol. III.. Louis A. Knafla. “Treasonous Murder: The Trial of Ambroise Lépine for the Resistance, 1869-1874." In Canadian State Trials, Vol. III.. 297-352, 609-14. (2009)
  • "The Supreme Court of Alberta: The Formative Years, 1905-1921" In The Alberta Supreme Court at 100. History and Authority. Louis A. Knafla. The University of Alberta Press and The Osgoode Society. 69-98. (2007)
  • "Frontier Lawyers: Origins of the Alberta Law, 1882-1914" In Just Works. Lawyers in Alberta, 1907-2007. Louis A. Knafla. Law Society of Alberta. 16-27. (2007)
  • "Lawyers at War 1914-1949" In Just Works. Lawyers in Alberta 1907-2007. Louis A. Knafla. Law Society of Alberta. 105-121. (2007)
  • “Law and Justice” In The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Louis A. Knafla. “Law and Justice.” In The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. 535-543. (2005)
  • “The Geographical, Jurisdictional and Jurisprudential Boundaries of English Litigation in the Early Seventeenth Century.” In Boundaries of the Law. Geography, Gender and Jurisdiction in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Louis A. Knafla. Ashgate Publishing. 130-148. (2005)

More Information

Canadian Association of Law Teachers

Canadian Historical Association

Canadian Law and Society Association

International Association of Law and Legal Institutions

Law and Society Association (U.S.)

North American Conference on British Studies

The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History

The Renaissance Society of America

Dictionary of International Biography

Directory of American Scholars

International Scholars Directory

Honorary Fellow, Phi Beta Kappa

Fellow, Great Plains Research Centre 

Fellow, Pi Gamma Mu

Fellow, Royal Historical Society 

Phi Alpha Theta

Who's Who of Intellectuals

2000 Outstanding Academics of the 21st Century