By Lucianna Ciccocioppo
SJD student Joanna Langille and alumni Rebecca Sutton, JD 2013, and Aaron Mills, JD 2010, were awarded notable Trudeau Foundation scholarships today, out of 14 recipients across Canada. The University of Toronto in total landed a record four Trudeau prizes this year. Considered Canada’s most prominent doctoral award aimed at the social sciences and humanities, the Trudeau scholarship supports exceptional graduate students researching “issues of critical importance to Canada and the world."
“This cohort consists of the best minds studying crucial and complex questions for Canadians and the world, from Aboriginal issues to climate change in Canada," said Tim Brodhead, interim president of the Foundation, in a statement.
Joanna Langille
Langille is researching the legitimacy of courts of law, specifically the application of foreign private law in contractual and property disputes, and family law matters that are related to multiple jurisdictions.
“My work examines international economic law from a philosophical perspective,” said Langille. “I ask whether the structure of the international trading system and private international law can be normatively justified. I hope that my work results in a better understanding of the normative and philosophical implications of international law.”
Rebecca Sutton
Sutton, currently completing her articles as a clerk at the Ontario Court of Appeal, plans to study "the international community’s response to armed conflict today through the new lens of law, war, and aid combined" as a doctoral student at the London School of Economics.
"International humanitarian law constitutes an attempt by the international community to regulate what is essentially a complex and chaotic phenomenon: war," said Sutton. "It is this effort to impose order on chaos that intrigues me. In light of the novel approach I am taking to my project, I hope to challenge received wisdom in this field."
Her field research will take her into the heart of conflict to ask some tough questions. "For example, to investigate the validity of the legal rule distinguishing civilians from combatants, I plan to go to areas of armed conflict and ask a local person: 'When you look at these international interveners, what do you see? Is that person a humanitarian to you?' This kind of creative, on-the-ground investigation will enable me to develop useful recommendations for international legal reform. I also hope to advise Canadian policy-makers planning for interventions abroad."
Aaron Mills
Mills, a PhD student at the University of Victoria, is a Bear Clan Anishinaabe from Couchiching First Nation, Treaty 3 Territory, and from North Bay, Ontario, Robinson-Huron Treaty territory. A member of the board of directors of the Indigenous Bar Association, Mills is "examining the Anishnaabe legal tradition and how a revival of Indigenous legal orders will help Canadians to better understand Aboriginal issues."
Recipients not only receive a grant of up to $60,000 over three years, but also access to a vast and outstanding network of Foundation fellows and mentors.
Mill said he is looking forward "to sharing my ideas with an incredible community of thinkers and actors committed to social change. I’ll have the opportunity to test and strengthen my arguments with many of Canada’s most creative students and leaders dedicated to making Canada a better home for all. I think my scholarship also indicates the tremendous contemporary relevance for all Canadians of learning about indigenous legal orders within their own normative frameworks."
Langille said she is thrilled to have received this award, which, in addition to financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Faculty of Law, will enable her to complete her doctorate.
“Second, the support for travel and research provided by the Trudeau will allow me to engage with lawyers and philosophers in a much wider circle. Without this funding, it is difficult for graduate students to travel to conferences and to conduct research overseas (although SSHRC and the Faculty of Law have both been very supportive of my work as well). The Trudeau will allow me to discuss my work with scholars in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, which I hope will enrich the quality of my scholarly contribution.”
Sutton called the Trudeau Scholarship "an absolute game-changer" and said the award makes her research project possible. "My interdisciplinary PhD project is admittedly ambitious: it brings together the study of law, the practice of aid, and the realities of armed conflict. While the Trudeau Scholarship will provide me with the necessary resources to execute and disseminate my research, the meaning of this award for me goes far beyond financial resources. I am particularly excited to join this incredible community of scholars who are thinking about how their academic work can have a real-world impact."
Mills hopes his research "inspires many Canadians to decolonize Canadian constitutionalism. This would empower Anishinaabe and other indigenous peoples to revitalize contemporary forms of their traditional systems of law, and thus to build healthy political communities reflective of their own ways of being and knowing, and conceptions of freedom."
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation was established in 2001 as an independent and non-partisan charity by family, friends, and colleagues of the former prime minister. Four major themes direct the Foundation’s actions: Human Rights and Dignity, Responsible Citizenship, Canada in the World and People and their Natural Environment.
“I was honoured and humbled to receive the Trudeau,” said Langille. “It is an incredible privilege to have one's work recognized with this type of award, and I only hope that I can live up to the expectations of the Foundation. It is also an honour to have received an award in the name of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, whose writings have long inspired my commitment to philosophical liberalism and the importance of working to create a just society.”
University of Toronto doctoral students Geoffrey Cameron (political science), Nathan Lemphers (comparative politics) and Tammara Soma (planning) also received Trudeau Foundation Scholarships today.
More information on each Trudeau scholar is available on the Foundation’s website.
Read about our 2013 Trudeau scholars, Kyle Kirkup and Ryan Liss.
Read about our 2012 Trudeau scholar, Michael Pal.
