Alvin A. J. Esau

Alvin Esau, B.A. (Alberta.); G. Dip. C.S. (Regent): J.D. (Alberta); LL.M. (Harvard) taught law for more than 30 years at the University of Manitoba. At various times he was the Head of the University of Manitoba Legal Research Institute, Director of Graduate Legal Studies, Bencher of the Law Society of Manitoba, and Chancellor of the Diocese of Keewatin. He has also been a visiting professor at U.B.C Law School, St. John’s College, and the University of Victoria.

He is one of the Canadian pioneers in the development of the mandatory teaching of professional ethics at law school using a more critical approach that focuses on lawyer’s lives and professional community contexts. He delivered the first Murray Fraser Lecture on Professional Responsibility at the University of Victoria on “Conscientious Objection in the Practice of Law.”

His work in the field of law and religion includes various publications on human rights in the context of employment in religious organizations, and generally deals with the theme of whether there is space within a model of legal pluralism for illiberal groups to function within their own private sphere without having to conform to liberal individualistic legal norms. He is particularly interested in Anabaptist groups, and his book, The Courts and the Colonies, The Litigation of Hutterite Church Disputes, UBC Press, was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Prize for “Best Scholarly Book on Manitoba History” in 2006.

In the field of legal history, his main passion is famous trials, especially true crime. His book The Gorilla Man Strangler Case: Serial Killer Earle Nelson, has recently been published, and he is working on a follow up book which chronicles the probable murders of Earle Nelson in the United States.

He has been married to fused glass artist Sandra Fowler for more than 40 years, and since his retirement they have lived in Victoria, B.C. and have a second home in Vancouver. They have four grown children: Leah, a professor in Montreal; Rebecca, an architect in New York, Benjamin, a lawyer in Port Hardy, and Daniel, a medical doctor in Victoria.