On March 31, McGill University celebrated its 200th birthday. Bicentennial celebrations will continue online, and you can visit the Faculty of Law’s Bicentennial Timeline website starting April 28!
Corps professoral
McGill Law Dean comments on Bill 21 court ruling
Dean Robert Leckey was interviewed by CBC News, City News and The New York Times following the Quebec Superior Court ruling on Bill 21, the province’s secularism law. Dean Leckey discussed the notwithstanding clause and the constitutionality of the ban on religious symbols.
Du neuf à la direction de la Faculté
Le prof. Daniel Weinstock entamera un mandat de trois ans en tant que vice-doyen à la recherche en septembre 2021. Il prendra la relève de la professeure Allison Christians, Chaire H. Heward Stikeman en droit fiscal, qui termine un mandat de quatre ans dans le rôle.
La professeure Rosalie Jukier, qui occupe le poste de vice-doyenne à l’enseignement depuis septembre 2019, a accepté de prolonger son mandat pour une autre année universitaire.
Youth Justice Reforms Offer Model for Ending ‘Merciless’ Punishment of adults
Emily Riley, The Crime Report, 15 March 2021
The growing acceptance that juveniles deserve more humane treatment in the U.S. criminal justice system should establish a template for treating adults the same way―and for ending the “draconian” sentences that have contributed to mass incarceration. In a forthcoming paper, entitled “Juveniles Are Not So Different: The Punishment of Juveniles and Adults at the Crossroads,” Professor Mugambi Jouet says that “children are different” doctrines used to justify less harsh treatment for juveniles are based on principles of humane treatment that have long since been deployed by many other countries towards adult offenders. Keep reading.
Allison Christians in top 50
Stikeman Chair in the Law of Taxation Allison Christians once again made the International Tax Review’s Global 50 list. Notably, Professor Christians shared the OECD blueprints on the pillar one and pillar two proposals on her blog before they became public, offering tax professionals beyond a privileged few valuable time to assess the plans. However, Christians has done much more than that over the past year and secures a place in ITR’s Tax 50 for her work in international tax matters. Christians has strong views on what the OECD could do better, suggesting alternative solutions to the digital tax proposal, such as a third pillar, and is keen to see the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be achieved through tax policy advancements. Read the article.
Johanne Poirier citée à deux reprises
La professeure Johanne Poirier, titulaire de la Chaire Peter MacKell sur le fédéralisme, a été citée à deux reprises dans l’arrêt de la Cour Suprême du Canada sur la constitutionalité du régime de tarification de la pollution causée par les gaz à effet de serre. Lire le jugement sur Lexum.
New papers and books
Rebel Courts. The Administration of Justice by Armed Insurgents
René Provost, Oxford University Press, 2021 (forthcoming)
Warzones are sometimes described as lawless, but this is rarely the case. Armed insurgents often replace the state as the provider of law and justice in areas under their authority. Prof René Provost has a new book on this rarely studied phenomenon, with unique insights drawing on extensive field work on the courts established by non-state armed groups, and comparing the realities of a number of different armed groups across the world. Find out more.
The fall of the innovation empire and its possible rise through open science
Richard Gold, Research Policy, Volume 50, Issue 5
There is growing concern that the innovation system’s ability to create wealth and attain social benefit is declining in effectiveness. Professor Gold explores the reasons for this decline and suggests a structure, the open science partnership, as one mechanism through which to slow down or reverse this decline. Read the article.
Conceptualising the Victim in England and Wales and the United States within a Spectrum of Public and Private Interests
Marie Manikis, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Spring 2021
The conception of the victim in criminal justice systems has changed across history and legal systems. A framework that considers the private and public along a spectrum and offers nuances between private and public interests illuminates the ways victims have been conceived within mechanisms of participation in various criminal justice systems and the ways they can oscillate and have oscillated within these categories. Read the article.
The Changing Face of Protection of the State’s Nationals Abroad
Frédéric Mégret, Melbourne Journal of International Law 21 (2), forthcoming.
The theme of the protection of the state’s nationals abroad may have seemed a bit passé, but is now witnessing a resurgence. It raises questions about the nature of the obligations that states owe to their extraterritorial nationals. The commentary explores the origins of that regime in the international law of protection of aliens, tainted as it was by its association with imperialism, as well as its decline… protection of nationals abroad is witnessing a renewal as states in the Global South increasingly become concerned with the fate of their nationals in the Global North, and as international human rights law turns out not to have provided the full protection one might have expected. Read the article [.pdf].
Immunity Passports and Contact Tracing Surveillance
Ignacio Cofone, 24 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. (forthcoming)
In his paper, Professor Cofone examines four interrelated risks that immunity passports and contact tracing apps have introduced, and discusses how different versions of containment apps measure up in each of these risks, providing a roadmap for policymakers, legislators and judges to mitigate those key risks. Read his paper, or read our interview with Prof. Cofone.
Collage sur le droit et le savoir au temps de la pandémie / Law and Learning in the Time of Pandemic – A Collage
Numéro spécial dirigé par les professeur.e.s Shauna Van Praagh (McGill) et David Sandomierski (Western U.) Lex Electronica
In April of 2020, law teachers across Canada received a call to contribute their reflections on law and learning in the time of pandemic. That call suggested that, in a time of uncertainty and upheaval, we all continued to observe, think, imagine, adjust, participate, and contribute as legal scholars and law teachers. Colleagues were invited to share their voice and presence by submitting short pieces along a full spectrum of tone and content, and to do so according to a tight timeline. Read the collage.
Misgendering students is not ‘academic freedom.’ It’s an abuse of power.
Darren Rosenblum, Washington Post, 31 March 2021
Three years ago, Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University who typically addresses students with an honorific and their last name, called one of his students “sir.” The student insisted he refer to her as a woman, which the professor refused. At that point, his misgendering became intentional… The university warned him to adhere to respectful terminology, prompting him to sue the school in federal court because his First Amendment rights were violated. Keep reading.
Nouvelles étudiantes
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- Cinq futur.e.s étudiant.e.s au BCL/JD ont été sélectionné.e.s comme membres de la première cohorte de récipiendaires des Bourses McCall MacBain. Nous avons hâte d’accueillir Fatima Beydoun, Grace Ma, Nico Waltenbury, Somaya Amiri et Zeytouna Suleiman au Pavillon Chancellor-Day en septembre 2021.
- Les candidates au LLM Clara-Élodie De Pue et Camille Bérubé-Lepage sont deux avocates qui se sont rencontrées à la Faculté de droit et qui animent Légalement Parlant, un balado qui démystifie les enjeux juridiques derrière l’actualité.
- Derakhshan Qurban-Ali, BCL/JD’21, received a Pathy Fellowship following her project “Empowering Communities to Combat Mass Atrocities,” which aims to support and engage the Hazara community.
- BCL/JD student Efat Elsherif was Third Runner Up for the Martin Domke Award for Best Individual Oralist at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, placing 3rd out of 2500 competitors from around the world.
- BCL/JD student Riley Klassen-Molyneaux received the Runner-up Best Oralist – Respondent Award at the 2021 Adam F. Fanaki Competition Law Moot, organized by the Competition Bureau, Competition Tribunal, and Canadian Bar Association. Read the results.
- DCL candidate Vito Di MEI has published “Foreign investment restrictions on airports: from ownership to corporate governance,” which draws attention to the regulatory potential of private law instruments in the Annals of Air & Space Law.
- Ivan Ozai successfully defended his doctoral thesis, “Allocating rights between nations: Legitimacy and justice in international tax policy,” written under the supervision of Professor Allison Christians.
- Rokeya Chowdhury successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “From ‘Secular’ to ‘Islamo-secular’ Bangladesh: Mapping the constitutional trajectories through law, religion, and performing arts,” written under the supervision of Professor Daniel Weinstock.
- BCL/JD student Brandon Bonan accepted an offer for the Legal Excellence Program at the federal Department of Justice.
- Le regroupement étudiant Contours McGill a lancé un nouveau balado intitulé « Outspoken / Franc-parler ». Le balado met en vedette des étudiant·e·s et diplomé.e.s dont le parcours professionnel s’aligne avec le mandat de la revue. Listen here.