This book is a collection of seventeen scholarly articles and personal reminiscences that examine the life and career of the late Bora Laskin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. The essays are written by family members, judges, law professors, and lawyers whose recollections about Laskin flesh out the life of a man "at the summit of Canada's political and legal life," with commentary from some whose paths crossed his. The book includes examinations of Laskin's contribution to legal education and scholarship, as well as to jurisprudence in constitutional law, administrative and labour law, and private law. As well, it provides discussion of Laskin's impact on the Supreme Court of Canada itself.

Neil Finkelstein obtained his B.A. and LL.B. from McGill (1973, 1979) and his LL.M. from Harvard (1980). He became a chartered accountant in 1975. He was former law clerk to the Hon. Bora Laskin, Chief Justice of Canada (1980–81). He was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1982. He served as senior policy advisor to the Attorney General of Canada (1985–86). He served as a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada from 1991 to 2007. His practice at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP includes broad corporate, commercial, competition, and public law (constitutional and administrative) litigation practice. He served as co-counsel for the Gomery Commission. His national litigation practice includes seventy-three major trials and hearings at courts, tribunals, and commissions of inquiry across Canada; thirty-eight appeals in five provinces and the Federal Court of Appeal; and twenty-two appeals in the Supreme Court of Canada. His publications include Laskin's Canadian Constitutional Law (5th edition) and Finkelstein and Finkelstein, Constitutional Rights in the Investigative Process.

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Constance Backhouse is a professor of law, distinguished university professor, and university research chair at the University of Ottawa. She obtained her B.A. from the University of Manitoba (1972), her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall (1975), and her LL.M. from Harvard Law School (1979). She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978. She teaches feminist law, criminal law, human rights, and labour law. She is the author of many award-winning legal history books, including Petticoats & Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991), Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canadian Law, 1900–1950 (1999) and The Heiress vs. the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell's Campaign for Legal Justice (2004). She received the Law Society Medal in 1998 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2002. She has served as an elected bencher of the Law Society from 2002. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004.

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