Article

Maxwell Cohen

Published Online January 24, 2008

Last Edited December 14, 2013

Maxwell Cohen, lawyer, scholar, jurist, public servant (b at Winnipeg 17 Mar 1910; d at Ottawa 30 Mar 1998). After serving as a major in the Canadian Army, Cohen began his teaching career in 1946 at the Faculty of Law of McGill, where he eventually became dean.

Cohen, Maxwell

Maxwell Cohen, lawyer, scholar, jurist, public servant (b at Winnipeg 17 Mar 1910; d at Ottawa 30 Mar 1998). After serving as a major in the Canadian Army, Cohen began his teaching career in 1946 at the Faculty of Law of McGill, where he eventually became dean. There Cohen developed the National Programme which, in its day, uniquely combined the teaching of civil and common law. He also played an important role in reforming Canadian university government and he pioneered in the creation of specialized legal studies institutes. Nationally Cohen served as chairman of 5 royal commissions, notably the Special Committee on Hate Propaganda, and acted as a constitutional adviser to the New Brunswick government. Internationally, he served as Canadian representative to the United Nations and Canadian chairman of the Canada-United States International Joint Commission. Cohen ended his career as judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and scholar-in-residence at the University of Ottawa.