Florence Robert

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Revitalizing the Ilnu Legal Order and Reclaiming Jurisdiction over Child and Family Services
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: florence.robert@mail.utoronto.ca

Florence Robert is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto with research interest in Indigenous legal orders, pedagogies and methods. Florence is a 2021 graduate of the LL.L. program at the University of Ottawa where she received the University Gold Medal for Civil Law for the highest cumulative grade point average in the entire civil law program and the Dean of the Civil Law Section’s Prize in recognition significant contributions made to the law school community. In 2022, Florence completed a judicial clerkship at the Federal Court under Justice Martine St-Louis and was called to the Québec bar in 2023. Following her clerkship, Florence completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) thesis at the University of Toronto on Indigenous legal pedagogy and the decolonization and Indigenization of Canadian legal education under the supervision of Professor John Borrows. Her SJD thesis seeks to document the values, principles, rules, and processes that govern group regulation and conflict resolution related to children, youth, and families within the Ilnu legal order.

Since 2022, Florence is a Part-Time Professor (Long Term Nomination) at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, where she teaches transsystemic courses in constitutional law, property law, family law and Indigenous legal orders.

Education
Licentiate in Law - University of Ottawa (2021)
Master of Laws (Long Thesis) - University of Toronto (2024)
Awards and Distinctions
2023-2024 Ontario Graduate Scholarship Recipient
University Gold Medal for Civil Law (2021)
Dean of the Civil Law Section’s Prize (2021)
Prix du Barreau du Québec de la Faculté de droit de l’Université d’Ottawa (2021)
Francine Lefebvre-Landry Prize (2021)
Cain Lamarre Prize (2021)
Dean’s Honour list (2018 – 2021)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Quebec Bar
Selected Publications

Sophie Thériault, Eva Ottawa & Florence Robert, “L’enseignement des traditions juridiques autochtones à la Section de droit civil de l’Université d’Ottawa : entre opportunités et défis pour une formation juridique décolonisée” (2024) 15 Cahiers Portalis (to be published). 

Sophie Thériault, Eva Ottawa & Florence Robert, “First Nations, COVID-19, and the Implications of Spatial Restrictions in a Settler Colonial Context” in Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi & Sophie Thériault, eds, Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (England: Routledge, 2024) 89 (Book Chapter).

Florence Robert, “Pierre Rousseau, Une véritable justice équitable, décolonisée, par et pour les peuples autochtones. Québec : Presses de l’Université Laval, 2023, 220 pp” (2023) 38:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société 292 (Book Review).

Aimée Craft, Florence Robert & Caitlin De Simone, “The Canada Water Agency as an Opportunity to Decolonize Water Governance” in Marie-France Fortin, Alexandre Lillo, Éric Champagne, Lauren Touchant & Thomas Burelli, eds, Canada Water Agency: Multisectorial Issues of Law and Governance (Montréal: LexisNexis, 2022) 39 (Book Chapter).

Research Interests
Aboriginal Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Comparative Law
Family Law
Indigenous Legal Traditions
Supervisor
John Borrows
Committee Members
Angela Fernandez

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
Email: y.kobayashilui@mail.utoronto.ca

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
Brenda Cossman
Committee Members
Kerry Rittich
Linda White (Department of Political Science)

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

#UofTLawOnline: Pandemic-Related Issues Facing Family Law

Faculty of Law Webinar
Pandemic-Related Issues Facing Family Law

June 29, 2021
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted significant changes to the practice of family law. New legal issues and precedents have rapidly arisen, and there has been a dramatic shift in how Ontarians are able to access legal services and the courts.

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series presents: Maneesha Mehra

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series

presents

Office of the Children’s Lawyer

Friday, February 26, 2021

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series presents: Andrea Caskey

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series

presents

Andrea Caskey

Friday, January 29, 2021 
1:00-2:30pm

This event will take place on Zoom.

PBSC is hosting a virtual speaker series to engage law students who are interested in family law. We hope to expose students to different areas of practice within the family law profession. On Friday, January 29th at 1:00pm, our featured speaker is Andrea Caskey.

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series Presents: Elizabeth Hyde

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series

PBSC Family Law Speaker Series Presents: Elizabeth Hyde

Friday, January 15, 2021
1:00pm-2:30pm

Co-parenting during COVID-19: Professor Michael Saini draws on virtual solutions to connect children and parents — and prevent escalating legal disputes

Monday, July 13, 2020

Professor Michael Saini

Some media reports depict families in the COVID-19 world baking bread, playing board games and bonding, while other stories paint a dark picture of domestic strife, emotional trauma and even abuse. U of T Professor Michael Saini is studying this disparity and using technology to ease the strain on parents and children in the latter group.

U of T Law students place first at Walsh Family Law Moot

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

U of T law students Ryan Chan, Lauren Wildgoose, Hanna Yakymova and Rory Smith

U of T law students Ryan Chan, Lauren Wildgoose, Hanna Yakymova and Rory Smith

The Walsh Family Law Moot and Negotiation Competition is named to recognize the late Supreme Court of Canada Justice George Tucker Walsh and his contributions to the growth and development of family law.

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