Faculty
Douglas Harris
Name: Dr Douglas Harris
Office: Mary Bollert Hall, rm 209
Email: harris@law.ubc.ca
Phone: 604.822.1991
Fax: 604.822.8108
Website: Personal Web Page
Associated Faculty; Nathan T. Nemetz Chair in Legal History; Associate Dean Graduate Studies & Research
B.A. UBC 1990; LL.B. Toronto 1993; LL.M. UBC 1998; Ph.D. Osgoode Hall 2005
Research Interests
- First Nations Law
- Property Law
- Fisheries Law
- Legal History
- Law and Geography
Biography
Douglas Harris joined the Faculty of Law in 2001. He writes and teaches in the areas of property law, legal history, fisheries law, and Aboriginal rights. His written work includes articles on the legal relations between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state in early British Columbia, and on the title registration system. He is the author of Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia (U of T Press, 2001) and Landing Native Fisheries: Indian Reserves and Fishing Rights in British Columbia, 1849-1925 (UBC Press, 2008).
Harris is currently working on a study of the idea of property and of the role of property law in the transformations of urban centres. His particular focus is the City of Vancouver and the neighbourhoods surrounding False Creek, a site of enormous ecological, social, and economic transformation in the past 150 years.
After completing his B.A. (UBC History) and LL.B. (Toronto), Harris articled in Vancouver and was called to the British Columbia bar in 1994. He then returned to school to complete his LL.M. (UBC) and his PhD (York) in legal history. During his years as a university student Harris was a member of the Canada's field hockey team that competed at the Olympic Games (1988), the Pan American Games (1987, 1991, 1995), and the World Student Games (1991).
Courses
Courses Previously Taught
Selected Publications
Books
- Landing Native Fisheries: Indian Reserves and Fishing Rights in British Columbia, 1849-1925 (UBC Press, 2008)
- Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia (U of T Press, 2001)
Co-authored Books
- Bruce Ziff, Jeremy de Beer, Douglas C. Harris, & Margaret E. McCallum, A Property Law Reader: Cases, Questions and Commentary, 2d ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2008).
Articles & Book Chapters
- "A Court Between: Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in the British Columbia Court of Appeal" (2009) 162 BC Studies 137-164 (PDF full text).
- "The Boldt Decision in Canada: Aboriginal Treaty Rights to Fish on the Pacific" in Alexandra Harmon, ed., The Power of Promises: Rethinking Indian Treaties in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008) pp. 128-153 (PDF full text).
- "Indefeasible Title in British Columbia: A Comment on the November 2005 Amendments to the Land Title Act" (July 2006) 64 The Advocate 529. (PDF full text).
- "Historians and Courts: R. v. Marshall and Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial" (2003) 18 Cdn. J. Law & Society 123-131.
- "Territoriality, Aboriginal Rights, and the Heiltsuk Spawn-on-Kelp Fishery," (2000) 34 UBC L. Rev. 195-238.
- "The Nlha7kapmx Meeting at Lytton, 1879, and the Rule of Law", (1995-95) 108 B.C. Studies 5-25.
Publications listed on the UBC Law Library Faculty Research Publications Database
