Megan Pfiffer

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Administrative Law as a Source of Rights
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: megan.pfiffer@mail.utoronto.ca

Megan Pfiffer is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law with research interests in public law, and legal, political, and moral philosophy. She is also the managing editor of the University of Toronto Law Journal, and a co-editor of the third edition of Edward Elgar's Comparative Administrative Law. During the 2024-2025 school year, Megan is a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at New York University's School of Law. Her thesis explores the idea of justification in administrative law and will reframe contemporary debates on substantive review. Megan received her JD from Queen's University where she was awarded the Silver Medal in Law for achieving the second highest academic standing in her graduating class, as well as the Dean's Key Award for best embodying the signature values of Queen's Law. She then articled at a leading Toronto litigation boutique and clerked for Justice Rosalie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Megan completed the BCL at the University of Oxford with distinction. 

 

Education
BCL, University of Oxford (with distinction)
JD, Queen's University
BA (Hons), Queen's University
Awards and Distinctions
Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral (CGS-D) (2023-2026)
University of Toronto Centre for Ethics - Doctoral Fellowship (2022-2023)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2022-2023)
The Mary And Louis Anisman Fellowship In Law And Fairness (2022-2023)
Onora O'Neill Prize in Philosophy, Law and Politics (2022)
Faculty of Law and Brasenose College Scholarship for the BCL (2021)
Medal in Law – Second Highest Standing (2019)
Dean's Key Award (2019)
Denis Marshall Contribution Award (2019)
Chief Justice McRuer Essay Prize in Constitutional Law (2019)
Christopher Riggs Administrative Law Scholarship (2019)
Queen’s Law Prize in Administrative Law (2019)
Queen’s Law Prize in Legal and Political Philosophy (2019)
Dean's Gold Scholar Award (2018)
Chief Justice McRuer Essay Prize in Constitutional Law (2018)
Queen’s Law Prize in Law and Poverty (2018)
Dean’s Silver Scholar Award (2017)
Aird & Berlis LLP Student Award for Overall Academic Achievement (2017)
R.W. Leonard Scholarship in Law (2017)
McCarthy Tétrault LLP Scholarship (2017)
David Sabbath Scholarship (2017)
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin Prize in Torts (2017)
Queen’s Law Prize in Constitutional Law (2017)
Queen’s University Entrance Scholarship in Law (2016)
Professional Affiliations
Law Society of Ontario
Selected Publications

Megan Pfiffer, "Administrative Law as a Source of Rights" (2024) Modern Law Review (forthcoming). 

Megan Pfiffer, "What's the Problem with Substantive Review?" (2024) 69:3 McGill Law Journal (forthcoming). 

Research Interests
Administrative Law
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law
Legal Theory
Moral Philosophy
Political Philosophy and Theory
Supervisor
David Dyzenhaus
Committee Members
Arthur Ripstein
Mariana Mota Prado

Asper Centre and IHRP Working Group Information Session

Dear U of T Law JD students,

Please attend this important Information session on September 13, 2022 @12h30 to find out about the volunteer opportunities available this year at the Asper Centre and the IHRP. Lunch will be provided!

Basema Al-Alami

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Inside the Courtroom: Litigating Islam and Muslimness in Canadian Entrapment Trials
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: basema.al.alami@mail.utoronto.ca

Basema Al-Alami is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, specializing in the intersection of counterterrorism, entrapment law, and anti-Muslim bias in Canada’s legal system. Her research examines systemic issues in national security practices, particularly the litigation and over-policing of Muslims in post-9/11 Canada. Basema has presented her work at national and international conferences, and she is currently teaching Constitutional Law at Windsor Law.

 

 

Education
Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) Candidate, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (Present)
Master of Laws (LL.M.), University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2022)
Juris Doctor (J.D.), Osgoode Hall Law School (2020)
Honours Bachelor of Arts (HBA), University of Toronto (2017)
Awards and Distinctions
University Of Toronto Fellowship - Law (2022-2025)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in International Law (2022-2023)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in International Law (2021-2022)
Benjamin Laufer Prize in International Law (2019-2020)
The Honourable N.W. Rowell Prize (2019-2020)
The Honourable N.W. Rowell Prize (2018-2019)
Dean's Graduation Award, University of Toronto (2017)
Joseph Alfred Whealy In-Course Scholarship (2016-2017)
University Of Toronto Scholar - Beatty (2015-2016)
The Erindale Admission Scholarships (2013-2014)
University Of Toronto Scholar (2013-2014)
Professional Affiliations
Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto
Canadian Association for Forced Migration and Refugee Studies
Other information

Conferences, Workshops, and Presentations (Selected)

Today’s Totalitarianism: Mobilizing Knowledge against Totalitarian Trends (SSHRC grant), hosted by the University of British Columbia (July 2024). 

Legal Contradictions: Identifying Iterations of Us versus Them, hosted by the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto (September 2023).

Interrogating Islamophobia in the ‘war on terror’ after two decades, hosted by the 12th National Conference of Critical Perspectives / Criminology & Social Justice in Ottawa (May 2023). 

United Nations Counter Terrorism Committee delegation visit to Canada, hosted by the Committee (February 2023). 

9/11 and the Canadian Settler Colony Conference, hosted by Windsor Law (October 2022). 

University of Toronto - Humboldt University Workshop, hosted by the Institute of Islamic Studies (September 2022).

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Taskforce, hosted by Humber College (July 2022).

 

 

Selected Publications

Basema Al-Alami, “Entrapped: John Nuttall, Amanda Korody, and Canada’s Counterterrorism Crisis“ (October 2024) Today’s Totalitarianism, online: <https://www.todaystotalitarianism.com/entrapped-canadas-counterterrorism-crisis>. 

Basema Al-Alami, "Is Canada finally taking far-right extremism seriously? Latest arrests are a positive sign" (6 June 2024), online: The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/is-canada-finally-taking-far-right-extremism....

Basema Al-Alami, "Israel isn’t complying with the International Court of Justice ruling — what happens next?" (6 February 2024), online: The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/israel-isnt-complying-with-the-international....

Basema Al-Alami, "The global call for accountability in Germany, Namibia, and Canada" (25 January 2024), online: The Hill Times <https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/01/25/the-global-call-for-accountab....

Basema Al-Alami, "The humanitarian crisis in Gaza: a cry for humanity" (18 October 2023), online: Toronto Star <https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-humanitarian-crisis-in-....

Basema Al-Alami. “Canadian law enforcement agencies continue to target Muslims” (12 July 2023), online: The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/canadian-law-enforcement-agencies-continue-t....

Lisa Forman, Basema Al-Alami & Kaitlin Fajber, “An Inquiry into State Agreement and Practice on the International Law Status of the Human Right to Medicines” (2022) 24:2 Health Hum. Rights 125.

Obiora Chinedu Okafor, Titilayo Adebola & Basema Al-Alami, “Viewing the International Labour Organization’s Social Justice Praxis  through a  Third World Approaches to International Law Lens: Some Preliminary Insights”, in George Politakis, et al. eds, ILO 100: Law for Social Justice (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2019), online: <https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---jur/documents/p....

Nathan Innocente, Basema Al-Alami, Amanda Borthwick, Alfred Pepushaj, & Harmehr Sekhon. 2018. “The Teaching Opportunity Program: Integrating Undergraduate Students in Course Design, Assessment, and Teaching.” Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education annual conference, Sherbrooke, QC, June 19-22.

Research Interests
Canadian Constitutional Law
Charter of Rights
Criminal Law 
Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law
International Law
Law and Religion
Legal History
National Security Law and Anti-Terrorism Law
Supervisor
Anver Emon
Committee Members
Kent Roach
Vincent Chiao
External links
LinkedIn
Twitter

'We have urgent work to do': New book by Professor Kent Roach on why Canadian policing needs to change

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Professor Kent RoachKent Roach has thought a lot about policing throughout his lifetime. He even aspired to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as a young boy. 

But rather than donning the red serge, the professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law has spent his career extensively studying policing – often from the perspective of an insider.

Powers to deal with convoy protest constrained by Charter, uncertainty: U of T Law profs

Friday, February 18, 2022

Legal issues of the convoy panel

On February 16, the Faculty of Law hosted a snap panel about the convoy and Canada's legal institutions: "How Freedom Rules and the Rules of Freedom: Convoys and Legal Institutions".

The Implications of Facial Recognition Technology

The Implications of Facial Recognition Technology
An Investigation through the lens of Constitutional, Privacy, and Human Rights Law

Tuesday, February 15th from 12:30pm-2:00pm

 

Michael J. S. Beauvais

Photo of smiling man with leaves in the background
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Transparent Youth
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: m.beauvais@mail.utoronto.ca

My dissertation develops an account of legal obligations platforms and other intermediaries have to protect young people's privacy from their parents in the digital environment. Beyond youth privacy, I am interested in how technologies and law structure and mediate interpersonal relationships. I also research and publish on the intersection of health law and privacy, where I focus on international data transfers and European data protection law in biomedical research.

My doctoral work is supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by a fellowship at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto. I am an affiliate of the Information Law Institute at New York University School of Law.

Education
Certificate in Childhood Ethics - Views On Interdisciplinary Childhood Ethics (VOICE), McGill University
Master of Science in International Planning - University College London (UCL)
Bachelor of Civil Law & Juris Doctor - McGill University
Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence with Senior Status - St Edmund Hall, Oxford University
Bachelor of Arts in Urban Systems - McGill University
Selected Publications

Books

Promoting the “Human” in Law, Policy, and Medicine: Essays in Honour of Bartha Maria Knoppers (Brill Nijhoff, 2025) with E Dove and V Rahimzadeh (eds).

Book chapters

"Introduction: Honouring the Humanity of Professor Bartha Maria Knoppers" in Promoting the “Human” in Law, Policy, and Medicine: Essays in Honour of Bartha Maria Knoppers, edited by E Dove, V Rahimzadeh, and M J S Beauvais (Brill Nijhoff, 2025) with E Dove and V Rahimzadeh.

“Biomedical Research Policy: Back to the Future?” in Law and Legacy in Medical Jurisprudence: Essays in Honour of Graeme Laurie, edited by E Dove and N N Shuibhne (Cambridge University Press, 2022) with B M Knoppers and R Chadwick.

“Frontline Ethico-Legal Issues in Childhood Cancer Genetics Research” in The Hereditary Basis of Childhood Cancer, edited by D Malkin (Springer, 2021) with K Sénécal, C V Fernandez, D Sinnett, et al.

Peer-reviewed articles

“Open Data governance at the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP): From the Walled Garden to the Arboretum” in GigaScience (2024) with A Bernier, B M Knoppers, P Bermudez, et al.

“Whither Health Research: The Missed Opportunities of the Child’s Right to Health” in The International Journal of Children’s Rights (2023) with D Patrinos, R McDougall, and B M Knoppers.

“The Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform—An open science framework for the neuroscience community” in PLOS Computational Biology (2023) with R Harding, P Bermudez, A Bernier, et al.

“Data and Tools Integration in the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform” in Scientific Data (2023) with J-B Poline, S Das, T Glatard, et al.

“A Proposal for an International Code of Conduct for Data Sharing in Genomics” in Developing World Bioethics (2022) with A Matar, M Hansson, S Skolkenberga, et al.

“Bridging the European Data Sharing Divide in Genomic Science” in Journal of Medical Internet Research (2022) with F Molnár-Gábor, A Bernier, M P N Jimenez, et al.

“Streamlining Ethics Review for International Health Research” in Science (2022) with M A Rothstein, M H Zawati, A Thorogood, et al.

“International Coordination of Research Ethics Review: An Adequacy Model” in Philosophies (2021) with A Thorogood.

“Three Decades of Genetic Privacy: A Metaphoric Journey” in Human Molecular Genetics (2021) with B M Knoppers [invited review].

“GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare” in Cell Genomics (2021) with H L Rehm, A J H Page, L Smith, et al.

“A Marathon, Not a Sprint – Neuroimaging, Open Science and Ethics” in NeuroImage (2021) with B M Knoppers and J Illes [invited review].

“Coming Out to Play: Privacy, Data Protection, Children’s Health, and COVID-19 Research” in Frontiers in Genetics (2021) with B M Knoppers.

“Centering inclusivity in the design of online conferences—An OHBM–Open Science perspective” in GigaScience (2021) with E Levitis, C S D G van Praag, R Gau, et al.

“Parental Access to Children’s Raw Genomic Data in Canada: Legal Rights and Professional Responsibility” in Frontiers in Genetics (2021) with A Thorogood, M J Szego, K Seńécal, et al.

“COVID-19 Research: Navigating the European General Data Protection Regulation” in Journal of Medical Internet Research (2020) with R Becker, A Thorogood, and J Ordish.

“Modeling Consent in the Time of COVID-19” in Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2020) with B M Knoppers, Y Joly, M H Zawati, et al.

"When Information Is the Treatment? Precision Medicine in Healthcare” in Healthcare Management (2020) with B M Knoppers [invited review].

Other articles

"Implementing the human right to science in the context of health: introduction to the special issue" in Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2024) with B M Knoppers.

“Navigating the Ethical Maze of Genomics in Canada’s Military” in BMJ Military Health (2021) with B M Knoppers and C Boscarino.

“Basta con il biolaw: What about knowledge and trust?” in BioLaw Journal - Rivista di BioDiritto (2021) with B M Knoppers.

Reports

"Children's Data Protection" for the Human Cell Atlas (2022).

“Building the Human Cell Atlas: Issues with Tissues” for the Human Cell Atlas (2019) with E Kirby and B M Knoppers.

Policy interventions

"Submission to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology Study of Bill C-27, The Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022" (2023) with L R Shade. (Appeared at Committee on November 23, 2023.)

“Children’s Privacy and Video Games: Comments on Commercial Surveillance ANPR, R111004” (2022) with S Grimes, D Jayemanne, and S Giddings.

“RE: Public consultation regarding data protection and international transfers of personal data to non-EU countries” (2020) with the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health.

Opinion pieces

“The World Health Organization Needs to Craft and Adopt an International Pandemic Regulation” in The Hill Times (2022) with B M Knoppers and D Turp.

“Liberté universitaire: La loi ne peut remplacer le dialogue” in La Presse (2021).

“Pour un traité mondial sur la riposte aux pandémies” in Le Devoir (2021) with B M Knoppers and D Turp.

“Opinion: Canada’s Tax Return System Jeopardizes the Privacy of Millions of Canadians” in The Globe and Mail (2021).

“COVID-19: Who’s Afraid of Data Sharing” in Canadian Science Policy Centre (2020) with B M Knoppers.

“Qui a peur du partage des données?” in Le Devoir (2020) with B M Knoppers.

Research Interests
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Family Law
Health Law
Legal Theory
Privacy Law
Supervisor
Lisa Austin
Committee Members
Brenda Cossman
Sara Grimes (Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy, McGill University)
External links
ORCiD

Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtable on City of Toronto et al. v. Ontario

Constitutional Roundtable Nov 9th 2021 descriptionAsper Centre Webinar on City of Toronto et al. v. Ontario

The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtable Series presents

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