Kate Mitchell

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Comparing the Levers of Prison Law Reform in Canada and the United States
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Tel:
236-334-6034
Education
Master of Laws - University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (2021-2022)
Juris Doctor - Queen's University (2014-2017)
Master of Public Administration - Queen's University (2014-2015)
Bachelor of Arts - Dalhousie University (2011-2014)
Awards and Distinctions
Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral (CGS-D) (2022-2025)
C. David Naylor University Fellowship (2022-2023)
University of Toronto Centre for Ethics Doctoral Fellow in Ethics (2022-2023)
UCLA Dean's Tuition Fellowship (2021-2022)
Torkin Manes LLP Academic Excellence & Community Service Award (2017)
Fred S. Fountain Scholarship (2011-2014)
Lockward Scholarship (2011-2014)
H.C. (Kip) Roberts Scholarship (2014)
Margaret Nicholl Pond Memorial Award (2014)
Professional Affiliations
Member, Law Society of Ontario
Member, Canadian Prison Law Association
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Criminal Law 
Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Judicial Decision-Making
Supervisor
Committee Members

Megan Pfiffer

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Administrative Law as a Source of Rights
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5

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
Committee Members

Yukiko Kobayashi Lui

Yukiko, wearing a grey sweater, smiles in a photograph taken in the Jackman Law Building
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Dependence and redistribution in family life/law
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5

I am a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Law with a collaborative specialization in sexual diversity studies at the Mark S. Bonham Centre. I also teach at the Women and Gender Studies Institute.

My research interests are in family law, poverty law, feminisms, and critical legal theories. My doctoral project is about the law and politics of relationship recognition in the context of Ontario's welfare state. I am interested in how law and social assistance policy constitute and reproduce the borders of 'the family', paying attention to how material conditions affect the choices people have about their relational lives and how they do socially reproductive work for themselves and others.

Prior to commencing my doctoral studies, I worked in the non-profit sector and in publishing. 

Education
LLM (Distinction), The University of Hong Kong
BA (Hons) in Law, University of Cambridge
Awards and Distinctions
Mary H. Beatty Fellowship (2024-2025)
Centre for Ethics Doctoral Fellowship (Returning) (2024-2025)
David Rayside Graduate Students Award (2024)
Centre for Ethics Doctoral Fellowship (2023-2024)
Mary H. Beatty Fellowship (2023-2024)
Graduate Fellowship in Women's Rights (2022-2024)
Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence (2015-2018)
Other information

Co-organizer, Feminist Legal Theory and the Family conference, hosted at the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies, Osgoode Hall Law School (May 2024)

Organizing committee, Sex Salon speaker series, Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies (2023-2024)

Co-organizer, Toronto Law and Political Economy Reading Group (Spring 2023)

Organizer, SJD works-in-progress group (Fall 2022-Fall 2024)

Research Interests
Administrative Law
Comparative Law
Critical Legal Theory
Family Law
Feminist Analysis of Law
Labour Law
Political Philosophy and Theory
Sexuality and the Law
Supervisor
Committee Members
Linda White (Department of Political Science)

'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.

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

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 Gauet 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
Committee Members
Sara Grimes (Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy, McGill University)

Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtable with Prof. Ran Hirschl

 

EVENT REGISTRATION CLICK HERE

The Asper Centre is pleased to present a Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Ran Hirschl about his new book: City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford: 2020).

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