₁ Macdonald, R. St. J., “An Historical Introduction to the Teaching of International Law in Canada” (1974) 12 C.Y.I.L. 67 at 81.Google Scholar Praise from Judge Macdonald, one of Canada’s most distinguished international lawyers and a former dean of law at Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto, must inevitably be taken seriously and be a source of pride.

₂ Macdonald, R. St. J., “Maxwell Cohen at Eighty: International Lawyer, Educator and Judge” (1989) 27 C.Y.I.L. 3,Google Scholar provides an excellent summary of Cohen’s achievements in the field of international law.

₃ Macdonald, supra note 1 at 78.

₄ Starting in 1856 during the Faculty of Law’s first decade, Frederick W. Torrance offered one hour per week in international law. Macdonald, supra note 1 at 69.

₅ Macdonald, R. A., “The National Law Programme at McGill: Origins, Establishment, Prospects” (1990) 13 Dalhousie L.J. 259.Google Scholar While this substantial article concentrates on the National Law Programme, which began in 1968, it also serves as a useful history of the faculty from its inception over a century before. Elsewhere, Mackay stated that for a “first class law school … two things are necessary, viz: legal research and uniform legal education, based upon the results of research.” Frost, Stanley and Johnston, David L., “Law at McGill: Past, Present and Future” (1981) 27 McGill L.J. 36.Google Scholar Frost and Johnston suggest that had Mackay remained “he would have been a major liberalizing influence in the faculty.” It is probable that they meant a liberalizing influence in terms of the scope of the curriculum (law as liberal education versus law as professional training), for if they used “liberal” in a more general sense their assertion could be challenged on two grounds. First, following Mackay’s resignation the faculty appointed Corbett and, within four years, F.R. Scott, who were surely liberal enough influences in their own right. Second, there is a significant body of evidence that indicates Mackay was less than liberal in some areas and was in fact strongly anti-Semitic. David Lewis, later a Rhodes scholar, tells of questioning Mackay over a failing grade and being berated for his backward race (Lewis seemed unsure whether this was because he was Polish or Jewish). Lewis, David, The Good Fight: Political Memoirs 1909–1958 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1981) at 23–24.Google Scholar Lewis’s experience accurately reflected the shameful views Mackay himself formalized on April 23, 1926, when he wrote a five-page letter on the “Jewish problem” to Principal Currie. Mackay started by stating that Jews were the least desirable immigrants to Canada, continued through the stereotypical view that Jews all became professionals, “money lenders and middle men” of which Canada already had too many, and concluded with a plan for reducing Jewish enrollment by establishing quotas and subjecting Jews to far more rigorous admission standards. McGill University Archives, “Jewish Students at McGill,” RG2, Cont. 46, File 445. The Faculty of Law had the highest Jewish enrollment (40 per cent) at the university in 1924. After an even more stringent version of Mackay’s plan was regrettably adopted, Jewish enrollment in law, still the highest in the university, fell to 15 per cent by 1939. These restrictions were not eased until after the Second World War. Seven years after this letter, in response to the Royal Society of London’s appeal to place German refugee scholars in western universities, Mackay again offered his advice to Principal Currie, writing on July 21, 1933: “The simple obvious truth is that the Jewish people are of no use to us in this country. Almost all of them adopt one of the four following occupations, namely, merchandising, money lending, medicine and law, and we have already far too many of our own people engaged in these occupations and professions at present. This is not a case of anti-Semitism at all. I have the highest regard for the better class of Jews, some of whom are our best citizens, but as a race of men their traditions and practices do not fit in with a high civilization in a very new country.” McGill University Archives, “Jews — Protestants, Education and Germany,” RG2, Cont. 46, File 443. The “better class of Jew” appears to be those whose ancestors had come to Canada in the previous century as opposed to the new wave of immigrants. These documents, previously published in several places, were drawn to my attention by Paul Axelrod’s interesting article, “McGill University on the Landscape of Higher Education: Historical Reflections” (1998) 10 Fontanus 17 at 28. The most charitable way to assess Mackay’s views is to assume they merely mirrored the general anti-Semitism endemic in society at that time. Nonetheless, given those views and the size of the Jewish population in law, the faculty was perhaps fortunate that Mackay took his liberalizing influence to the Frothingham Chair of Logic and Metaphysics.

₆ Interestingly, before Corbett’s appointment, Mackay taught international law, but it was H.A. Smith, professor of jurisprudence and common law, who wrote most of the scholarship in international law emanating from the faculty.

₇ Macdonald, supra note 1 at 75, termed Corbett “one of the most original and creauve international lawyers that Canada has ever produced,” but notes he only received recognition in Canada when awarded the Judge Read medal in 1972.

₈ Late in life, Corbett prepared a brief handwritten autobiography on which he put the covering note: “This spotty record is intended for Corbetts only.” Various versions of the text survive in the McGill University Archives, “Handwritten Record of P.E.C. Life,” MG4195, Cont. 002, File 6. Each chapter is separately titled and paging is not uniform. This quotation is from “The Family” at 5.

₉ Corbett, E. A, Father, God Bless Him (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1953) at 12–33.Google Scholar

₁₀ Ibid, at 15–16.

₁₁ Corbett, supra note 8, “The Family” at 3

₁₂ Rhodes scholarships were first awarded in 1903 and, in Canada, in 1904. Canada received approximately one scholarship per province, averaging eight per year in the initial phases. SeeParkin, George R., The Rhodes Scholarship (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1912).Google Scholar

₁₃ Fetherstonhaugh, R. C., McGill University at War, 1914–1918, 1939–1945 (Montreal: McGill University, 1947) at 2.Google Scholar

₁₄ Professor Desmond Morton (see first unnumbered note), in commenting on an earlier draft of this article, pointed out that the 73^rd Battalion “narrowly missed being broken up in England but was saved by the political influence of its officers andjoined the 12^th Brigade of the 4^th Division. In the process, it gave up several drafts or trained soldiers, and presumably Corbett was among them.” Corbett, supra note 8, “The First World War and I” at 2, states: “It was always a nasty satisfaction to me that I got to France months before the 73^rd.”

₁₅ Corbett, Percy, “P.E.C. Diary, 1916,” in leaves from a Subaltern’s Diary, McGill University Archives,Google Scholar MG4195, Cont. 001. Since he gave the diary a title he may have contemplated publishing it at one time. In the entry for October 15, 1916, he writes: “Why I should have come through the whole shambles with a slight wound … is a riddle I shall never be able to solve.”

₁₆ Hutchison, Paul Phelps, Canada’s Black Watch: The First Hundred Years, 1862–1962 (Montreal: Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, 1962) at 96–98.Google Scholar

₁₇ This, at least from the Canadian side, refers to the Mills bomb, a hand grenade with a serrated outer cover that forms shrapnel on detonation. It was invented by Sir William Mills (1856–1932) in 1915.

₁₈ Fetherstonhaugh, R. C., The 13th Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada, 1914–1919 (S.L.: Royal Highlanders of Canada, 1925), section 1 at 175.Google Scholar Robert Clarke (see first unnumbered note) informed me that the Regimental archivist reported that the war diaries for the critical period of April and May 1917 are currently missing, so apart from Corbett’s general service record only these published sources have been checked for details on his military career.

₁₉ Regina Trench was a position occupied by German forces near the village of Pys during the Battle of the Somme in October 1916. On the early morning of October 8, a number of battalions, including the Royal Highlanders, attacked the Regina Trench. The wire in front of the Royal Highlanders had not been properly cut by artillery barrage, and the battalion was caught up in the wire during the final charge. The soldiers were exposed to machine gun fire and cut to pieces. Thirteen of seventeen officers, and 288 of 360 men, who went forward in the attack, were casualties. R.C. Fetherstonhaugh, supra note 18 at 139–41; Nicholson, G. W.L, The Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1964) at 172–98Google Scholar; Canada in the Great World War (Toronto: Mak-ers of Canada, 1917), vol. 4 at 74–78.

₂₀ R.C. Fetherstonhaugh, supra note 18 at 177–78.

₂₁ Ibid, at 179.

₂₂ London Gazette, Supplement no. 30204 (July 26, 1917) at 7644–45. The military records for this period all misspelled Corbett’s middle name but this was a common error. For example, Humphrey in his tribute appearing later in this article and the McGill Directory of Graduates 1924 also used the spelling Elwood.

₂₃ E.A. Corbett, supra note 9 at 74, reports: “[H] e served with distinction asan officer of the 13^th Highlanders of Montreal throughout the war. In February, 1918, he was severely wounded, and, after several months in hospital, had proceeded to Oxford.” Corbett’s service record indicates he joined the 73^rd Battalion (RHC) in 1915 and only joined the 13^th Battalion (RHC) in July 1916. There is a casualty report for him being wounded in August 1916 but not for the more serious second wound.

₂₄ Letter of Desmond Morton to author, March 25, 1999.

₂₅ Corbett, , supra note 8, “The First World War and I” at 2.Google Scholar

₂₆ Corbett, Percy, “Impressions Mostly Oxonian,” in Leaves from a Subaltern’s Diary, McGill University Archives, MG4195, Cont. 001, chapter 1 at 1.Google Scholar These memoirs of Oxford University are a typed manuscript, divided into chapters, and possibly once intended for publication.

₂₇ Dean J.E.C. Brierley, McGill Senate, November 23, 1983. Motion of condolence to Corbett’s family.

₂₈ Heeney, A. D. P., The Things That Are Caesar’s: Memoirs of a Canadian Public Servant (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972) at 25.Google Scholar

₂₉ Of Corbett’s friendship with Edward Bridges, son of the poet Robert Bridges.

₃₀ The All Souls betting book does indeed record the matter for posterity as one intrigued reader discovered: “For a taste of their urbanity, I recommend the Betting Books which All Souls has privately published now and then … The stakes are seldom high but the subjects are all-embracing … There was once a bet to the effect that Home, Sweet Home was written by a divorced German Jew, and between the wars Corbett succeeded in proving that he could in fact hang upside down by the grip of his toes for 10 seconds on the common-room door.” Morris, Jan, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) at 63–64.Google ScholarPubMed

₃₁ Corbett, supra note 8, “Some Oxford Friends” at 15-16. J.E.C. Brierley, in the motion of condolence, supra note 27, mentioned not only Corbett’s athletic feat but also his first book on the Roman law of marriage, terming it a classic.

₃₂ E.A. Corbett, supra note 9 at 73–74.

₃₃ Corbett, supra note 8, “Margaret” at 13.

₃₄ Ibid.

₃₅ Ibid. Corbett notes he “proposed, dangerously, in a canoe.”

₃₆ Corbett stated that Currie persuaded him to come to McGill in his remarks for public consumption in Collard, E. A., ed. The McGill You Knew (Don Mills, ON: Longmans, 1975) at 227.Google Scholar This entry is cited more fully later in this article. David Corbett stated that his father returned to Canada because Margaret Corbett wanted to be closer to her family, then suffering the trauma of her older brother’s suicide immediately followed by her father’s death. He suggested that with his father’s qualifications it was relatively easy to obtain a job at McGill, and it may be imagined that Currie would certainly try to help one of his former officers. Corbett, David, “McGill,” in Draft Biography of Percy Corbett, McGill University Archives,Google Scholar MG 4195, Cont. 002, File 11, chapter 6 [that is, chapter 4], p. 1. This draft of a biography was never completed. It is divided into chapters but largely unpaged.

₃₇ Heeney, supra note 28 at 25.

₃₈ For the circumstances that obliged Humphrey to take on such a rigorous schedule, see Hobbins, A. J., “Dear Rufus: A Law Student’s Life in the Roaring Twenties” (1999) 44 McGill L.J. 753 at 757–58.Google Scholar

₃₉ Ibid, at 763.

₄₀ Collard, supra note 36 at 194.

₄₁ During the last few years of his life, Humphrey decided to write an autobiography recounting his entire life, since his previously published autobiography only covered the UN years. Tentatively titled “Life is an Adventure,” this account is fairly complete up to the point Humphrey joined the UN in 1946. The autobiography is in McGill University Archives, “Life is an Adventure,” MG 4127, Cont. 008, File 133. This extract is from “Montreal: I Become a Quebecer,” chapter 2 at 56. See also Hobbins, supra note 38 at 763.

₄₂ Letter of August 28, 1945, “PEC Letters to DC,” McGill University Archives, MG 4195, Cont. 001. Warren Dicks (see first unnumbered note) compares Corbett’s musings to Ambrose Bierce’s definition: “Consult, v.t. To seek another’s approval of a course already decided on,” A Cynic’s Wordbook (NY: Doubleday, 1906).

₄₃ Hobbins, supra note 38 at 765–76.

₄₄ Ibid, at 775.

₄₅ Heeney, supra note 28 at 26.

₄₆ Hobbins, supra note 38 at 776.

₄₇ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 265.

₄₈ Certain letters, such as this one, have not yet been donated to McGill University Archives and are currently in the author’s possession as Humphrey’s literary executor. When these letters are cited, the tide “Humphrey correspondence” and a date are simply given. For an excellent appreciation of Kennedy, a Tudor historian for the first two decades of his academic career, see Risk, R. C. B., “The Many Minds of W.P.M. Kennedy” (Summer 1998) 48 U.T.L.J. 353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

₄₉ Humphrey had moved to Toronto in 1925 to attend Osgoode Hall Law School but stayed less than a week as he quickly developed a strong aversion to the city. Humphrey, supra note 41, “Montreal: I Become a Quebecer,” chapter 2 at 46-48. See also Hobbins, A. J., ed. On the Edge of Greatness: The Diaries of John Humphrey, First Director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights (Montreal: McGill University Libraries, 1994), chapter 1 at 14–15,Google Scholar and Hobbins, supranote 38 at 757.

₅₀ Horn, Michiel, The League for Social Reconstruction: Intellectual Origins of the Democratic Left in Canada, 1930–1942 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980) at 21.Google Scholar

₅₁ Macdonald, R. St. J., “Leadership in Law: John P. Humphrey and the Development of the International Law of Human Rights” (1991) 29 C.Y.I.L. at 10, note 6.Google Scholar

₅₂ Humphrey’s letters to his sister during his undergraduate years contain many admiring references to Scott. See Hobbins, supra note 38 at 759–60, 762–63, and 764. Scott’s biographer states he “taught a number of young men whose future careers were, to some degree, influenced by concepts of law absorbed from Scott” including Humphrey. Djwa, Sandra, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F.R. Scott (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987) at 236.Google Scholar Scott’s first year as a professor was 1928/1929, which was also Humphrey’s last year as a student.

₅₃ Charles “Charley” Gordon (1940-), Canadian journalist and author, was returning with his family from Egypt, where they had resided since 1956, to Canada. Owing to the political uncertainties caused by the Suez Crisis he had been obliged to complete high school education in Beirut. He was about to begin his studies in political science at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After graduating from university he was managing editor of the Brandon Sun, before joining the Ottawa Citizen in 1974, where he is still a columnist. He has written four books, the most recent being The Canada Trip (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1997). He married Nancy Thain in 1965.

₅₄ “Humphrey Diaries,” July 6, 1958, McGill University Archives, MG 4127, Cont. 20, File 414. Humphrey gave a job in the UN Division of Human Rights to Gordon in 1949. He was hurt that Gordon left the division in 1954, causing great difficulties in what Humphrey considered its hour of greatest need. As a result, Humphrey revised his opinion of the man he had so greatly admired in the 1930s, and the diary entry concludes with the sentence “And how disappointing my experience with him turned out to be.”

₅₅ Corbett had recently re-instituted the Master of Civil Law (M.C.L.) programme with a view to enhancing legal scholarship in the faculty. Macdonald, supra note 5 at 266.

₅₆ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, May 30,1935.

₅₇ Sir Samuel Hoare, Viscount Templewood (1880–1959) was British secretary of state for Foreign Affairs in 1935. On September 11, he made a major policy speech to the League of Nations Assembly in which he pledged that Great Britain would “maintain their support of the League and its ideals as the most effective way of ensuring peace.” Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, volume 2 (1935–36) at 1788–1790. Over the next few days, the majority of members, including France on September 13, followed Hoare’s lead and declared their support for the covenant.

₅₈ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, September 12, 1935.

₅₉ Ibid., October 8, 1935.

₆₀ Corbett, supra note 36, “McGill,” chapter 6.

₆₁ Corbett, P. E., “Isolation for Canada?” (1936–37) 6 University of Toronto Quarterly 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

₆₂ Ibid, at 130.

₆₃ F.R. Scott clarified Corbett’s position in an obscure footnote in a work prepared in 1938, stating that “Professor P.E. Corbett has expressed his opinion to the author that Canada now has a right to declare neutrality but agrees that unless she does so there will be a presumption of belligerency against her.” Scott, F. R., Canada Today: A Study of Her National Interests and National Policy (London: Oxford University Press, 1939) at 131,Google Scholar note 1.

₆₄ Hobbins, supra note 49, vol. 2 at 262–63.

₆₅ For a more complete examination of this question, see Hobbins, A. J., “Humphrey and the Old Revolution: Human Rights in the Age of Mistrust” (1995) 8 Fontanus 121.Google Scholar Although Humphrey did not realize it for many years, Scott felt Humphrey had let him down at this point and also when Humphrey accepted the deanship after Scott had been passed over in 1946. Humphrey, supra note 41, “My Initiation As an International Official,” chapter 6 at 117.

₆₆ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 267 and 289, note 17g.

₆₇ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 11.

₆₈ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, December 13, 1935.

₆₉ A.E. Morgan.

₇₀ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, January 23, 1936.

₇₁ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 11, note 17.

₇₂ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, February 22, 1936.

₇₃ The full text of this letter of February 14, 1937 is published in Hobbins, A. J., “A Frank Scott Letter from 1937” (1998) 11 Fontanus at 112–15.Google Scholar

₇₄ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, January 8, 1937.

₇₅ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 567.

₇₆ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, March 9, 1937.

₇₇ Corbett, supra note 8, chapter 8 at 5-6.

₇₈ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 11.

₇₉ Letter of Corbett to Professor F. de Zulueta, April 26, 1934. In this letter, Corbett confesses that he had not been able to work on his research project — a textbook — for two years. Complete letter appears in D. Corbett, supra note 36, “McGill,” chapter 6.

₈₀ Kathy Fisher (see first unnumbered note) said that he still did chin-ups in his seventies. Professor J.E.C. Brierley recalls going with F.R. Scott to visit Corbett when he was in his late eighties, at which time they found Corbett outside chopping wood.

₈₁ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 289. Many people found Scott to be something of an enigma. On the one hand, he was a passionate and compassionate poet and libertarian, but on the other hand, as a legal educator, he was often conservative, narrow-minded, and authoritarian. As Macdonald aptly put it in a recent conversation: “Scott did not have a fully integrated personality — keeping these two aspects of his life compartmentalized.”

₈₂ Brierley, supra note 27.

₈₃ Forsey, Eugene, A Life on the Fringe: The Memoirs of Eugene Forsey (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990) at 27.Google Scholar

₈₄ Collard, supra note 36 at 227. There is some evidence that Corbett needed little persuading to come to McGill (see the text contained in note 36).

₈₅ MacLennan, Hugh, ed. McGill: The Story of a University (London: Allen and Unwin, 1960) at 101.Google Scholar

₈₆ Frost, Stanley B. used the phrase as a chapter heading in his McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning, volume 2 (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1984), chapter 7 at 187–209.Google Scholar Horn, Michiel, Academic Freedom in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999),CrossRefGoogle Scholar devotes a chapter entitled “Socialism and Academic Freedom at McGill” to this period.

₈₇ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 190.

₈₈ David Lewis, an unashamed and outspoken socialist even as a student, gives some credit for his successful Rhodes scholarship application to Beatty. Beatty chaired the Rhodes committee and deflected some of the hostility aimed at Lewis by the more conservative elements on the committee, thereby winning Lewis’s “respect and gratitude.” Lewis also relates that when Beatty asked what was the first thing he would do if he became the first socialist prime minister of Canada, he replied that he would nationalize the CPR. David Lewis, supra note 5 at 32-36. Beatty articulated his own views on academic freedom in a speech at Queen’s University on October 16, 1937, when he stated that there should be “freedom of thought and speech but within the limits of accurate knowledge; sound logic; a sense of responsibility, and the ordinary amenities of public life in a civilized community.” This speech was published as “Freedom and the University” (Winter 1937) 44 Queen’s Quarterly 463.

₈₉ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 195-96, cites this as being from McGill University Archives, “Chancellor Sir E. Beatty-Morgan,” MG 641/276.

₉₀ Ibid, at 197.

₉₁ Forsey, supra note 83 at 28.

₉₂ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 196.

₉₃ For a more complete description of the Douglas plan and its results, see Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 200–5. Part of the plan was a redefinition of tenure, which was given to the rank of full and associate professor. Below the rank of associate professor, only assistant professors over forty with ten years’ service, or over forty-five with five years’ service, were deemed to have it.

₉₄ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 209, note 19. Forsey suspected James had more to do with it than that. Forsey, supra note 83 at 28.

₉₅ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 271.

₉₆ This was especially in the Faculty of Arts where a number of people lost their jobs. The Faculty of Law shared the same building as Arts until it was moved to Purvis Hall in 1942 in an apparent attempt to separate the dissident elements in the two faculties and to align Law with the more conservative Faculty of Commerce. Macdonald, supra note 5 at 273, note 135.

₉₇ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 13–14.

₉₈ Corbett, supra note 36, “McGill,” chapter 6.

₉₉ Gillett, Margaret, We Walked Very Warily: A History of Women at McGill (Montreal: Eden Press, 1981) at 192.Google Scholar Grant was a formidable woman not shy to voice her feelings and she “could have run the whole British Empire at the height of its power single-handed.” Forsey, supra note 83 at 30.

₁₀₀ Humphrey, J. P., “Thank you Percy Corbett” (September 1984) 11 Canadian Council on International Law Bulletin 5.Google Scholar The full text of an earlier draft of this testimonial appears later in this article.

₁₀₁ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 13. Macdonald presumably meant 1937 and based his understanding on information received from Humphrey.

₁₀₂ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 265 and 271. Although this article uses the date 1937, it is a typographical error. Macdonald was referring to 1935 when he said Corbett was de facto acting principal.

₁₀₃ Humphrey, supra note 100 at 5.

₁₀₄ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 1 at 79.

₁₀₅ Corbett, P. E., “The New Statutes” (Spring 1935) 16 McGill News 39–40 and 45.Google Scholar

₁₀₆ McMurray, Dorothy, Four Principals of McGill: A Memoir 1929–1963 (Montreal: Graduates Society of McGill University, 1974) at 40.Google Scholar See also Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 197. Frost does not mention Corbett having any role, but he also covers the second interregnum in two sentences.

₁₀₇ Corbett, supra note 105 at 40.

₁₀₈ Governors W.M. Birks and W.W. Chipman had gone to England the previous fall to recruit a principal and had already selected Morgan. Bakopanos, Eleni, “Arthur Eustace Morgan: The Wrong Man at the Wrong Time?” (March-September 1980) 9 McGilliana 5.Google Scholar

₁₀₉ SirBeatty, Edward, “The Appointment of McGill’s New Principal” (Winter 1937) 19 McGill News 7.Google Scholar

₁₁₀ Corbett, supra note 36, “McGill,” chapter 6.

₁₁₁ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 271.

₁₁₂ Ibid, at 270.

₁₁₃ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 30, note 86.

₁₁₄ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 203.

₁₁₅ Corbett, supra note 36, “Canadian Controversies: American Leanings,” chapter 5. David Corbett suggests his father’s views changed, among other things, because of a disappointment with British policy vis-à-vis the League of Nations and a growing belief that Canada should join the Pan American Union.

₁₁₆ Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, January 9, 1939; Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 203; and Corbett, supra note 36, “Canadian Controversies: American Leanings,” chapter 5, reproduces the entire editorial.

₁₁₇ Arthur Guy Penny (b. 1886) was a McGill graduate (B.A. 1908) and had been editor-in-chief of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph since 1925.

₁₁₈ Penny was alluding to the McGill football cheer: “What’s the matter with Old McGill? She’s all right!”

₁₁₉ Frost, supra note 86, vol. 2 at 205.

₁₂₀ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 2 70-71. It is clear from Macdonald’s text (in note 130) that Frost’s narrative formed the basis for his conclusions.

₁₂₁ Frost was writing a substantial two-volume history of McGill University in which the Corbett affair was the merest sidebar. R.A. Macdonald only examined the history of the Faculty of Law to lay the groundwork for his main theme, which was the establishment of the National Law Programme in 1968, and, in any event, referred readers to Frost for a “brief review of the hostilities.” Horn, supra note 86 at 117–18, also mentioned Corbett’s speech although he was more interested in the administrative response to issues of academic freedom than to what Corbett had actually said. Horn was sufficiently cautious to use the word “reportedly” when attributing remarks to Corbett, but he does not mention the final conclusion of Beatty and Douglas that Corbett had been misquoted.

₁₂₂ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 30, note 86, is the only authority who cites the transcript of the broadcast. It is perhaps significant that Macdonald states (in note 30) that “ [u]nfortunately, Frost’s account does not do Corbett justice.”

₁₂₃ Letter of Beatty to Douglas, January 12, 1939. McGill University Archives, “Freedom of Speech: Radicalism: Correspondence: Principal Douglas and Chancellor Beatty on Staff Speeches: 1937-1940,” Record Group 002, File 303.

₁₂₄ Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, January 19, 1939. Horn, supra note 86 at 117, notes that Mackenzie claimed to have been misquoted in an interview, although no source is given for this information. P.B. Waite, in his biography of Mackenzie, terms the reading of the positions of both MacKenzie and Corbett as grossly distorted, referring particularly to the press coverage in the Saint John Times-Globe, which editorialized about “two dangerous professors.” See Lord of Point Grey: Larry MacKenzie of U.B.C. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1987) at 86–87. MacKenzie protested this editorial as he had with Penny and with the same result — an apology. Waite, who termed MacKenzie and Corbett the two leading Canadian academic international lawyers between the wars (70–71), for some reason lists Corbett’s death date erroneously as 1955.

₁₂₅ Letter of Beatty to Douglas, supra note 123, January 20, 1939.

₁₂₆ Letter of Douglas to Beatty, supra note 123, January 12, 1939.

₁₂₇ Ibid. April 27, 1939.

₁₂₈ Macdonald, supra note 51 at 30, note 86. Macdonald suggests that a great deal of Canadian diplomacy in the 1930s was directed towards getting the British and the Americans to take Canada seriously as an independent nation.

₁₂₉ The full text of both speeches appear in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) National Forum as broadcast January 12 [i.e., January 8], 1939, over the national network of the CBC; “Canada and War” (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1939), 6. MacKenzie’s text incorrectly gives the date as January 12, and this error was carried over to the tide page of the publication. One of the ironies of the suggestion that Corbett, and by extension Humphrey, were advocating closer ties with the United States is that both men were Canadian nationalists brought up in the New Brunswick Empire Loyalist tradition. When they were boys playing “war,” for them the “enemy” was always the Americans. Macdonald, supra note 51 at 31, quotes Humphrey as advocating “at least one week’s official neutrality” after a British declaration of war. In his speech, MacKenzie agreed with Corbett on all the legal points raised but felt that politically Canada should not declare neutrality because it would be a sign of weakness, and it was not something the Canadian people wanted.

₁₃₀ Escott Reid, who advocated neutrality throughout any conflict during the 1930s, discusses some of these problems in his autobiography Radical Mandarin: The Memoirs of Escott Reid (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989) at 122–25. Reid states that five of seven key civil servants in the Department of External Affairs were in favour of some form of declaration of neutrality.

₁₃₁ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 270. Macdonald was attempting to understand why the Faculty of Law suffered funding losses in comparison to other faculties, notably Medicine, in the second half of the decade. While he understood Corbett’s position on neutrality, he felt the general misunderstanding prevalent at the time might have had a negative impact on funding. Having read a draft of this article, he now accepts the fact that the neutrality controversy occurred too late and was of too short a duration to be the cause. One possibility, which is also speculative, is that as a dean Le Mesurier was less effective than Corbett had been at securing funding.

₁₃₂ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 2 71. It is possible of course that Corbett’s unwavering advocacy of academic freedom throughout the 1930s may have drawn some negative reaction from the upper echelons at McGill.

₁₃₃ Humphrey offered his services to the Canadian government on several occasions. Humphrey, supra note 41 at 103–4, 111–12.

₁₃₄ Though Humphrey was now an international servant he remained an academic at heart and continued to publish. Corbett, the academic lawyer, remained committed to many of the ideals he had first espoused when he was an international servant. The Humphrey-Corbett correspondence is found in McGill University Archives MG 4127, Cont. 021, File 418.

₁₃₅ Margaret Corbett’s sister, daughter and best friend, Helen Penfield, all shared the same first name. In this case, Corbett is referring to his daughter.

₁₃₆ Humphrey-Corbett correspondence, supra note 134.

₁₃₇ McGill University Archives, “Humphrey Diaries,” MG 4127, Cont. 20, File 414, February 8, 1958.

₁₃₈ Hobbins, supra note 49, vol. 3 at 50.

₁₃₉ Humphrey-Corbett correspondence, supra note 134.

₁₄₀ The term “universal” was only formally adopted as part of the title on December 7, 1948.

₁₄₁ Humphrey correspondence, supra note 48, November 11, 1948.

₁₄₂ I am indebted to Professor Mary Ann Glendon (first unnumbered note) who has patiently explained in several e-mails that the frequently made claim that the declaration has become part of customary international law, and therefore binding, is too broad. The explanation in the text has been distilled, hopefully accurately, from her most helpful comments many of which are paraphrased or quoted verbatim. She also recommends as further reading on the topic: Goldsmith, Jack, “International Human Rights Law and the United States Double Standard” (Summer 1998) The Green Bag 365.Google Scholar

₁₄₃ Wilder Graves Penfield (1891–1976), Canadian neurologist and neurosurgeon, was the founding director of the Montreal Neurological Institute (1934–60). He also taught in the Faculties of Medicine of Columbia University (1921–26) and McGill University (1926–54). He married Helen Kermott in 1917.

₁₄₄ These letters were not sent out until August 25, 1958. Humphrey-Corbett correspondence, supra note 134.

₁₄₅ McGill University Archives, “Humphrey Diaries,” MG 4127, Cont. 020, File 414, May 1, 1958.

₁₄₆ Letter of David Corbett to John Humphrey, undated, received June 16, 1958 by United Nations Record Control. Humphrey-Corbett correspondence, supra note 134.

₁₄₇ Ibid.,July 9, 1958.

₁₄₈ Ibid.,July 21, 1958.

₁₄₉ Humphrey’s appointment was actually extended for one year, and he did not retire until April 1966.

₁₅₀ Humphrey-Corbett correspondence, supra note 134, February 28, 1964.

₁₅₁ Ibid., October 29, 1965.

₁₅₂ Humphrey was remarried in 1981 to Margaret Kunstler, a medical doctor. I have not found evidence of any correspondence between Humphrey and Corbett after 1974, when Humphrey asked Corbett for advice about a course he was being asked to teach at Dalhousie Law School.

₁₅₃ E-mail from Fisher to the author (April 9,1999). Fisher provided the information to both men that made the last meeting possible, but she was not present at the meeting. Humphrey, with Margaret Kunstler, drove down to Vermont on his own initiative, where he found Corbett with his daughter Helen. Kunstler reports that the two talked animatedly for hours about old times, pausing courteously every so often to explain matters to her.

₁₅₄ Fisher, Kathleen E., “After First Meeting Percy Corbett” (November 2, 1983) Quid Novi 7.Google Scholar Quid Novi is a student newsletter of the McGill Faculty of Law. A version of the poem, modified by Fisher, , is reproduced in A Noble Roster: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Law at McGill (Montreal: McGill University Faculty of Law, 1999), 68.Google Scholar I am grateful to the editor, Ian Pilarczyk, for drawing it to my attention.

₁₅₅ McGill University Archives, “Tributes to PEC, 1983,” MG4195, Cont. 001,Acc. 96, October 27, 1983.

₁₅₆ In 1991, Judge R. St. John Macdonald, in conversation with the author, suggested (possibly because that was what Humphrey then believed) that this tribute had been read by Humphrey in the McGill Senate. Macdonald felt that a comment by one outstanding legal figure on another should be published. He had used a copy of it for his article, supra note 51 at 7, note 8, terming it an “undated three-page tribute.” In fact, it was Dean J.E.C. Brierley, supra note 27, who read the Senate resolution, and Humphrey’s tribute was indeed prepared for the Canadian Council on International Law. A version of it was published in the Council’s Bulletin, supra note 100. The Bulletin is basically a mimeographed newsletter with a relatively small circulation. Humphrey’s tribute was not indexed in the standard reference sources, including Index to Canadian Legal Periodicals. Under these circumstances, Judge Macdonald’s suggestion that the tribute get a broader circulation seemed well worth following and provided the inspiration for this lengthier article.

₁₅₇ “Tributes to PEC, 1983,” supra note 155, August 12, 1984.

₁₅₈ Humphrey also gave this earlier version to R. St. J. Macdonald for his article, supra note 51.

₁₅₉ In the Bulletin version, this sentence began: “And although, like too many gifted Canadians, he became an expatriate, his name …” Humphrey was probably unsure whether Corbett actually became an American citizen or was merely a resident. In fact, Corbett became a naturalized American in 1948.

₁₆₀ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads: “There was a tendency indeed to put “PEC” down as a somewhat difficult and cold intellectual.”

₁₆₁ In the Bulletin version, this sentence ends after “… his lectures.”

₁₆₂ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “… study at the Sorbonne for a year …”

₁₆₃ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “… special pleasure and gratitude the summer…”

₁₆₄ Kaufman, George S. (1889–1961), You Can't Take it With You, was first produced in December 1936.Google Scholar

₁₆₅ Actually Corbett, along with F.R. Scott, attended the second Commonwealth Relations Conference in Sydney, Australia, in 1938. This conference was sponsored by the various Commonwealth institutes of international affairs, including the Australian institute. See Hodson, H. V., ed., The British Commonwealth and Its Future: Proceedings of the Second Unofficial Conference on British Commonwealth Relations, Sydney, 3rd-17th September, 1938 (London: Oxford University Press, 1939 Google Scholar). F.R. Scott presented the official position of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, which was later published (see Scott, supra note 63). Corbett recalled the trip for other reasons: “As our ship was coming into harbour under the famous Sydney bridge, we were boarded by a squad of reporters. The one who got me said: “I understand you’re from McGill University. How’s Stephen Leacock?’” Collard, supra note 36 at 61–62.

₁₆₆ In the Bulletin version, these last two sentences are collapsed into one, reading “When shortly afterwards, Percy went to Australia to attend a meeting of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, I in my jealousy, because I would have dearly liked to go along, sent him a telegram with these same words, ‘it stinks.’”

₁₆₇ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “otherwise and, after a year when an American businessman and politician was appointed to the post, Percy left Canada.” Humphrey either accepted the conventional but erroneous wisdom on the question of Corbett as candidate for principal in 1937 or was possibly partially responsible for creating some of the confusion. He was studying in Europe when Morgan resigned and only returned from Europe during the last phase of the recruitment period that resulted in the hiring of Douglas.

₁₆₈ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “… more and more books came out with his name on the covers. At the time of his death …”

₁₆₉ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “… the development after the Second World War of an international law…”

₁₇₀ In the Bulletin version, this sentence begins “Percy Corbett was amongst other things, the kind of writer …”

₁₇₁ In the Bulletin version, the last two sentences read “He was a world figue [sic] who appropriately also had a world outlook. His motto might well have been, civis mundi sum.”

₁₇₂ In the Bulletin version, this sentence reads “… Corbett for all that you did to build up an effective system of international law, and I thank you personally…”

₁₇₃ In the Bulletin version, “O.C.” is wrongly changed to “Q.C.” Humphrey never practiced law long enough in the 1930s to become a King’s Counselor, but he was extremely proud to be named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1974. While entitled to put many different initials after his name, he only used O.C. for the last twenty years of his life. In a legal journal it is not, however, surprising that someone changed this to Q.C.

₁₇₄ Humphrey, John P., Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y: Transnational Publishers, 1983).Google Scholar Earlier drafts, including one with the title Civis Mundi Sum, are in the McGill Archives.

₁₇₅ This type of intellectual history would need to be carried out by a scholar with formal qualifications in international law.

₁₇₆ Macdonald, supra note 5 at 273.

₁₇₇ Corbett’s ideas were summed up in his The Individual and World Society (Princeton, NJ: 1953).