Yasmin Dawood, J.D. (Columbia), Ph.D. (Chicago), is Professor of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Electoral Law at the Faculty of Law, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science. She was named a member of the Royal Society of Canada College in 2018. Professor Dawood was awarded the Mewett Award for Teaching Excellence by the Graduating Class of 2020, and she was the recipient of the Truth and Reconciliation Teaching Award, as selected by all JD students, in 2023. In addition, she was the co-recipient of the 2020 Legal Excellence Award from the South Asian Bar Association.
Professor Dawood specializes in election law, comparative constitutional law, and democratic theory. Her scholarship, which is broadly concerned with improving electoral fairness and democratic governance, has addressed such topics as the right to vote, campaign finance, free speech, social media and disinformation, redistricting, electoral reform, constitutional design, political dysfunction, partisanship, corruption, and the oversight of the democratic process by the courts. She is the co-editor, with Vicki Jackson, of Constitutionalism and a Right to Effective Government? (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Her work has been published in leading journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, NYU Law Review Online, American Review of Political Science, Election Law Journal, ICON International Journal of Constitutional Law, Boston University Law Review, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy, University of Toronto Law Journal, McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Supreme Court Law Review, and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, among others. She co-edited, with Lori Ringhand, a special issue of the Election Law Journal on foreign election interference. Her work has also appeared (or is forthcoming) in edited volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Oxford University Press), The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting (Cambridge University Press), Comparative Election Law (Edward Elgar), The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (Oxford University Press), and Democracy by the People: Reforming Campaign Finance in America (Cambridge University Press). She was awarded a five-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant for her research on democracy and election law. Her research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Connaught Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
Professor Dawood has testified as an election law expert before the Parliamentary House committee examining The Fair Elections Act Bill C-23, and before the Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform. She has been interviewed on election law issues by various media, including The New York Times, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, National Post, CTV News, The Agenda, Power & Politics, Metro Morning, Toronto Star and The Huffington Post, among others. She regularly presents her work at national and international conferences and workshops. Professor Dawood is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law. She is also a Faculty Associate of the Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies (UBC) and an Associate Member of the International Association of Electoral Law. In addition, she serves on the International Board of Advisors of the Federal Law Review, the Editorial Board of the University of Toronto Law Journal, and the Editorial Board of Global Constitutionalism: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law.
Professor Dawood received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she served as Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review, and an Honours B.A. in political science from the University of Toronto. She is admitted to the Bar of New York and she practiced law with the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, she was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto.
See Prof. Dawood's profile, Department of Political Science
