51吃瓜网

Biography

Professor Nichols is on sabbatical leave until Fall 2026

Dr. Joshua Nichols is an Associate Professor at 51吃瓜网鈥檚 Faculty of Law where he teaches Constitutional Law and Legal Theory. His scholarship is interdisciplinary drawing from philosophy, history and the social sciences. His current research focuses on the role that systems of internal colonization have played in the development of liberal democracies in the 20^th century and the challenges these systems pose to constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law going forward.

Professor Nichols is happy to supervise graduate students who are interested in the history and philosophical development of constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law. This includes questions broadly related to the history of British colonial imperialism, the development of practices and theories of constitutionalism from the early-modern period to the 19^th century (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Mill), modern projects of constitutional reconciliation (Aboriginal Law in Canada and Federal Indian Law in the United States and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), the application of pragmatism and ordinary language philosophy to legal theory (Dewey, Wittgenstein, Austin, Hart, Brandom, Misak and Dyzenhaus), democratic constitutionalism and neo-republicanism (Tully, Skinner and Pettit), theories of authoritarianism (Arendt, Benjamin and Paxton) and plurinational federalism (Gagnon and Tierney). He is particularly interested in supervising students working on issues relating to constitutionalism and reconciliation.

Employment

• Associate Professor, 51吃瓜网, Faculty of Law, 2024 -
• Assistant Professor, 51吃瓜网, Faculty of Law, 2021-2024
• Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Faculty of Law, 2018-2021
• Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University, Public Administration, 2017-2018

Education

• PhD, University of Victoria (law), 2017
• JD, University of British Columbia, 2014
• PhD, University of Toronto (philosophy), 2009
• MA, University of Alberta (sociology), 2004
• BA (Hons.) University of Alberta (political science), 2003

Research Areas

• Legal and Political Philosophy, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law, History of the British Empire, Aboriginal Law, Federal Indian Law, Constitutional Reconciliation.

Selected publications

Monographs

• , (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020).
  Finalist for the 2021 Donald Smiley Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association.
• , (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2013).

Edited Collections

• , Amy Swiffen and Joshua Nichols eds (University of Toronto Press, 2024).
• , James Tully, Keith Cherry, Fonna Forman, Jeanne Morefield, Joshua Nichols, Pablo Ouziel, David Owen and Oliver Schmidke, eds (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022). DOI:
• , Joshua Nichols, Ryan Beaton, John Borrows and Robert Hamilton, eds (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021).
• , Joshua Nichols and Amy Swiffen, eds (New York: Routledge Press, 2017).
• , Joshua Nichols and Amy Swiffen, eds (New York: Routledge Press, 2013).

Journal Articles

• 鈥淩espect and Submission in Contexts of Transition: Reviewing Judicial Interpretation from R v Drybones to R v Montour鈥� (2025) 62:2 Osgoode Hall L J
• 鈥淯ndoing the Colonial Double-Bind: Interpretation and Justification in Aboriginal Law鈥� (2023) 27:2 Rev Const Stud. 41-75 (co-authored with Amy Swiffen)
• 鈥淩econciliation and the Straitjacket: A Comparative Analysis of the Secession Reference and Sparrow鈥� (2021) 52:2 Ottawa L R. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• 鈥淚n Search of Honorable Crowns and Legitimate Constitutions: Mikisew Cree First Nation v Canada and the Colonial Constitution鈥� (2020) 70:3 UTLJ 341. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• 鈥淭he Tin Ear of the Court: Ktunaxa Nation and the Foundation of the Duty to Consult鈥� (2019) 56:3 Alta L Rev 729. (co-authored with Robert Hamilton)
• 鈥淎 Narrowing Field of View: An Investigation into the Relationship between the Principles of Treaty Interpretation and the Conceptual Framework of Canadian Federalism鈥� (2019) 56:2 Osgoode Hall LJ 350.
• 鈥淔igures of History, Foundations of Law: Ac茅phale, Angelus Novus, and the Katechon鈥� (2017) 31:1 J Historical Sociology 98.
• 鈥淎 Reconciliation without Recollection? Chief Mountain and the Sources of Sovereignty鈥� (2015) 48:2 UBC L Rev 515.
• 鈥淐laims of Sovereignty-Burdens of Occupation: William and the Future of Reconciliation鈥� (2015) 48:1 UBC L Rev 221.

Book Reviews

• Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment by Charles Taylor (2025) Review of Constitutional Studies (forthcoming).
• Sovereignty: The Biography of a Claim by Peter H. Russell (2022) 26.1 Review of Constitutional Studies.
• A Spirit of Trust: A Reading of Hegel's Phenomenology by Robert B. Brandom (2022) 59:1 Society.
• Making Trouble: Surrealism and the Human Sciences by Derek Sayer (2017) 25:8 Literary Rev Can.
• Canada鈥檚 Odyssey: A country Based on Incomplete Conquests by Peter H. Russell (2017) 25:6 Literary Rev Can.