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Edward W. McWhinney

(1924–2015)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2015

Abstract

Type
Notes and Comments / Notes et commentaires
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Yearbook of International Law/Annuaire canadien de droit international 2015 

The Editorial Board wishes to record the passing of Professor Edward W. McWhinney, a founding editor of this Yearbook and a frequent contributor to it. He was ninety-one years old.

Ted McWhinney was educated at the University of Sydney and at Yale where he received a doctorate. He taught at the University of Toronto and at McGill University, where he was for a period of time the director of the Air and Space Law Institute. The latter part of his career was spent at Simon Fraser University. Ted gave lectures at many institutions around the world. His work on peaceful co-existence and international law, and Soviet theories of international law was pioneering and his work on federalism and comparative constitutionalism was widely read. He was a constant student of the International Court of Justice, and he wrote about its process, elections to the Court, and judicial activism. He was elected to the Institut de droit international, later becoming its president and hosting a conference of the institute in Vancouver.

In later years, Ted was elected as the member of parliament for Vancouver Quadra, serving for two terms. He was parliamentary secretary for fisheries and subsequently parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs. Throughout his life, he remained an active observer of the international scene.

Ted McWhinney was part of an era in Canada when international law made great strides, professionally and academically, which laid the basis for the discipline as it is taught and studied today.