A look back at the 2019 moot season; Julien Tremblay-Gravel receives McGill Sustainability Office’s 2019 Emerald Key award; Tiran Rahiminian Bajgiran decorated with the Médaille du Lieutenant-gouverneur pour la jeunesse; students weight in on the debate around Bill 21; and a profile of LLM candidate Florence Ashley, who will be the first trans law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Julien Tremblay-Gravel receives McGill Sustainability Office’s 2019 Emerald Key award

The Office of Sustainability is proud to recognize the diverse efforts that take place at McGill to grow toward campus sustainability. Bravo to BCL/LLB candidate Julien Tremblay-Gravel, who received the Emerald Key award in recognition of his outstanding and enduring contribution to the sustainability movement at McGill University. Keep reading…

Consider the indirect effects of Bill 21, Muslim law student urges

Montreal Gazette, 15 April 2019

Divisive religious symbols issue has become entangled in every part of society since the PQ’s Charter of Quebec Values, law student Basir Naqvi says. “I feel we’re talking a lot about the direct effects of this bill, but it’s also very important to talk about the indirect effects  — what it actually does even if it doesn’t pass (into law).” Keep reading…

Laïcité: la dissidence est une condition essentielle au débat

Marie-Laurence Desgagné, étudiant au BCL/LLB, Le Devoir, 13 avril 2019

« Dans une ambiance universitaire où le débat est de plus en plus dirigé, il est devenu très difficile pour un étudiant d’affirmer son désaccord avec la position prise par son établissement d’enseignement», croit l’étudiante en droit Marie-Laurence Desgagné. Poursuivre la lecture…

Comment réussir à McGill !

Droit Inc, 9 avril 2019

Le 14 avril, Tiran Rahimian Bajgiran, un étudiant de quatrième année de la Faculté de droit de l’Université McGill, a reçu la Médaille du Lieutenant-gouverneur pour la jeunesse des mains de l’honorable Michel Doyon. Droit-Inc s’est entretenu avec le futur juriste ambitieux qui parvient à garder son calme malgré un emploi du temps bien garni. Lire l’entrevue

Tiran prendra également la direction de la Cour suprême en 2020-2021 avec quatre autres McGillois pour y travailler comme auxiliaire juridique pour le juge-en-chef Wagner. Lire son entrevue avec Focus

Un panel sur la Loi sur la laïcité à la Faculté

En réaction au Projet de loi 21, qui vise à interdire le port de symboles religieux dans certaines fonctions, l’Association des étudiants en droit musulmans de McGill a organisé une table ronde avec Charles Taylor, co-auteur de la Commission Bouchard-Taylor, Catherine McKenzie, BCL’99, LLB’99, avocate chez IMK qui a agi à titre de conseillère juridique dans plusieurs affaires relatives aux symboles religieux, et Nadia Naqvi, professeur d’école qui porte le hijab. Lire le compte-rendu dans la Montreal Gazette (en anglais) et un retour sur les déclarations du philosophe Carles Taylor par La Presse.

Magistrature et intelligence artificielle : demain, qui jugera qui?

Annick Poitras, candidate au BCL/LLB, et Katarina Daniels, BCL/LLB’15, Blogue du CRL, 12 avril 2019

« Alors que de plus en plus d’outils de recherche et d’analyse juridiques sont propulsés par l’intelligence artificielle, de nombreux juristes et chercheurs réfléchissent à l’avenir de la profession d’avocat. Mais jusqu’à présent, peu semblent s’intéresser aux répercussions de l’introduction de ces outils sur la magistrature, sur qui reposent l’équité et la justice. » Poursuivre la lecture

We Must Respect Trans People’s Expertise Beyond Their Personal Experience

Florence Ashley (LLM candidate), Huffington Post Canada, 3 April 2019

“As a visible transfeminine scholar, I am often invited to speak at events or to journalists on trans issues. When those invitations come from outside LGBT communities, they almost invariably come framed as an opportunity to share my personal experience as a trans person. It’s one of the great clichés of representation; despite an expertise in law and bioethics as they relate to trans communities, I get asked to spread not my knowledge, but my personal story.” Keep reading

New book: The Space Treaties at Crossroads: Considerations de Lege Ferenda

DCL candidate Maria Manoli and Visiting Professor George D. Kyriakopoulos from the University of Athens have co-edited a new book, entitled “The Space Treaties at Crossroads: Considerations de Lege Ferenda”. Read more about their book…

Missile destroys low-orbit satellite

G.S. Mudur, The Telegraph, 28 March 2019

In March, India used a homegrown missile to destroy a satellite 300 km above the Earth. IASL DCL candidate Upasana Dasgupta provides insight on how Article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty, 1967 might apply to the use of this technology. Keep reading

Une 1ère auxiliaire juridique trans à la Cour suprême!

Droit Inc., 27 février 2019

Universitaire et militante, l’étudiante au diplôme de 2e cycle en droit à McGill Florence Ashley vient de se voir reconnaître par la profession. Elle entrera bientôt au service de la juge Sheila Martin, de la Cour suprême, à titre d’auxiliaire juridique. « Ce sera une occasion de côtoyer des juges, d’apprendre et d’alimenter mes travaux », dit-elle. Poursuivre la lecture

Geopolitics of the Venezuelan Crisis

J. Mauricio Gaona, DCL Candidate, CTV Power Plan with Don Martin, 26 February 2019

DCL candidate and O’Brien Fellow at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism J. Mauricio Gaona was invited to speak about the Geopolitics of the Venezuelan Crisis in relation to Russia, China, the United States, Canada and other regional actors. Listen to the interview [starts at minute 33:40].

In other news, Mauricio Gaona also won the Principal’s Prize for Public Engagement through Media in the Graduate Students, Research Associates and Post-Doctoral Fellows category in February.

McGill in the moot spotlight

Students Pierre-Gabriel Grégoire, Jessica Cytryn, Dylan Gibbs and Wei Bin Tan, had an outstanding performance at the Davies moot, where they took home the Third Place Factum and Third Place Team Overall awards.

At the Winkler Class Actions Moot, Hilary Chu, Noémie Ducret, John Lenz and Emily MacDonald won the prize for best plaintiff factum. “Moreover, the many lawyers who were there to judge the moot – who consisted of former and sitting justices, seasoned practitioners of the plaintiff and defence bars, and in-house counsel of some of the country’s leading corporations and institutions – remarked on the quality displayed by the McGill team as a whole, who had a clear command of the material and comported themselves with grace and composure,” commented their proud coach Shaun E. Finn, BCL/LLB’02.

Laura Davis, Sara Gold, Abra Martin and Simcha Walfish represented the Faculty at this year’s Kawaskimhon National Moot. They shared having had a wonderful experience at the non-competitive negotiation moot, and having learnt a lot from their coaches Lysane Cree, BCL’00, LLB’00, and Karina Kesserwan, BCL/LLB’07, as well as from the other students and fellow McGillian Dr. Cindy Blackstock.

Valérie Black St-Laurent, Alexandra Klein, Lucas Mathieu and Julia Redmond have much to be proud of for their performance at the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot, where Mathieu and Redmond took home third place and best respondent factum. Redmond was also one of seven students to be given a distinguished oralist award.

LLM students Polly Averns, Nivedita Raju and Mike Bilodeau, won the North American Regional Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Cached by DCL candidate Aram Daniel Kerkonian, the team also took home the Best Brief Award, and will be competing in the World Finals in October.

Steve Lyberopoulos and Andrew Rintoul won first place at the Canadian National Negotiation Competition. They will represent Canada at the International Negotiation Competition in Tokyo.

Julien Tremblay Gravel, Adam Casey, Eric Abrams, and Kevin Pinkoski made the Faculty proud at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. They took home the Second Best Memorials Overall award. Abrams and Pinkoski also tied for Best Applicant Memorial, and Tremblay Gravel and Casey were awarded the Fifth Best Respondent Memorial prize.

Alicia Blimkie, Karine Bédard, June Mills and Maia Stevenson proudly represented the Faculty at the Wilson Moot, held in Toronto. Stevenson took home the First Place Oralist award.

Andréa Daigle, Youssef Kabbaj, Siddhartha Beausoleil et Alexis Leray se sont distingués au concours de plaidoirie en droit civil Pierre-Basile-Mignault. Le tandem Daigle-Kabbaj a remporté le prix du meilleur tandem de plaideurs et plaideuses non finaliste. Andréa Daigle a aussi reçu la Coupe Lavery pour la 3e meilleure plaideuse.

The Shakespeare Moot returns!

Students Tania Nguyen (English) and Angèle Poupard (Law), counsel for the respondent, prepare to plead their case before the judges.

On April 5, McGill Law students participated in the Shakespeare Moot, which was the crowning activity of a session-long specialized topic course at the Faculty. The Shakespeare Moot is not about the law in Shakespeare’s time, or what Shakespeare says about law: rather, by a process of dramatic invention and indirection, the Shakespeare Moot seeks to model and to explore the nature of interpretation, the development of a legal tradition, and the way in which value and meaning intersect in the creation of law and literature alike. In this edition of the Moot, students debated what constitutes “consent” for an Alzheimer’s patient seeking medical aid in dying, using only the texts of Shakespeare as source of law. They pleaded their case before three judges: Lecturer Jennifer Drouin, BCL/LLB’18 (Law), Prof. Paul Yachnin (English), and Prof. Marie Manikis (Law). Learn more about the Shakespeare Moot.