Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin

Jean-Christophe Bédard Rubin
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Claiming Constituent Authority in Non-Revolutionary Constitutionalism: State, Sovereignty and Representation in the formation of French-Canadian Constitutional Culture
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: john.bedardrubin@mail.utoronto.ca

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin (LL.B. Laval, LL.M. Toronto) is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholar. His doctoral dissertation titled Claiming Constituent Authority in Non-Revolutionary Constitutionalism: State, Sovereignty and Representation in the formation of French-Canadian Constitutional Culture provides a genealogical account of the intellectual history of public law thought in the French-Canadian liberal tradition. His research draws on a variety of methodological approaches to explore Canadian constitutional culture from a comparative perspective writ large. His work has appeared or is forthcoming, in English or French, in the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the Review of Constitutional Studies, the International Journal of Canadian Studies, the Bulletin d’histoire politique, Constitutional Forum, Linguistic Minorities and Society as well as an edited collection by Brill. In 2020-2021, Jean-Christophe was the R. Roy McMurtry Fellow of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. In 2021-2022, he is a visiting assistant in research at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

Education
Visiting Assistant in Research, Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies (2021-2022)
LL.M. University of Toronto (2016)
LL.B. Laval University (2013)
Cert. Philosophy Laval University (2013)
Awards and Distinctions
SSHRC Michael-Smith Foreign Study Supplement
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2021-2022 (10 000$)
R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Legal History of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History 2020-2021
Dean's Graduate Student Leadership Award 2019
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholarship 2018-2021 (105 000$)
FRQSC Quebec Government Scholarship 2018-2022 (80 000$) (declined)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in International Law University of Toronto (2018-2019)
Central European University visiting scholarship (2018)
DAAD (German Academic Exchange Fund) and Goethe University Frankfurt-am-Main scholarship (2018)
W.C.G. Howland Prize for best overall performance in the LL.M. University of Toronto (2016)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in Canadian Constitutional Law University of Toronto (2015-2016)
Lieutenant-Governor Tribute Laval University (2014)
Dean's Honour List Laval University (2013)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Quebec Bar
Member of the Canadian Political Science Association
Member of the Quebec Political Science Society
Member of the Quebec Constitutional Law Association
Member of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Selected Publications

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "L'analyse comportementale du jugement judiciaire dans l'angle mort des études sociojuridiques francophones au Canada", [Judicial Behavior Studies in the Dead Angle of French Canadian Socio-legal Studies] (2022) Revue de droit de l'Université de Sherbrooke (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin & Tiago Rubin, "The Elusive Quest for French on the Bench: Bilingualism Scores for Canadian Supreme Court Justices, 1985-2013", (2022) Canadian Journal of Law & Society (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Comparing Regimes of Constitutional Historicity: The Case of Precedents in Canada and the United States", in Jason Mazzone, Justin Frosini & Francesco Biagi, eds., The Uses of History in Constitutional Adjudication: Comparative Perspectives, Leiden, Brill, 2022 (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "L'émergence inattendue de la dualité institutionnelle à la Cour suprême du Canada depuis Pepin-Robarts" [The Unexpected Emergence of Institutional Duality at the Supreme Court of Canada since Pepin-Robarts], (2021) 29:2 Bulletin d'histoire politique 125, online: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/bhp/2021-v29-n2-bhp06227/1079767ar/

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "La Couverture médiatique du bilinguisme à la Cour suprême du Canada: entre légalisme, pragmatisme et polémique", [Media Coverage of Supreme Court Bilingualism: Between Legalism, Pragmatism and Polemics] (2019) 59 International Journal of Canadian Studies 51, online: https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/epdf/10.3138/ijcs.59.x.50

Book review of Samuel V. LaSelva, Canada and the Ethics of Constitutionalism: Identity, Destiny, and Constitutional Faith, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018, 324 p., in (2020) 14 Linguistic Minorities and Society 101, online: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/minling/2020-n14-minling05565/1072314ar/

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Senate Reform and the Political Safeguards of Canadian Federalism in Québec", (2019) 28:1 Constitutional Forum constitutionnel 19, online: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29375

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Des Causes et des Conséquences du Dialogue Constitutionnel" [Causes and Consequences of Constitutional Dialogue] (2018) 23:2 Review of Constitutional Studies/Revue d'études constitutionnelles 287, online: https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/03_Bedar...

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin & Tiago Rubin, "Assessing the Impact of Unilingualism at the Supreme Court of Canada: Panel Composition, Assertiveness, Caseload, and Deference", (2018) 55 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 715, online: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol55/iss3/3/

Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Comparative Law
Economic Analysis of Law
International Law
Judicial Decision-Making
Law and Globalization
Legal Ethics
Legal History
Legal Process
Legal Theory
Political Philosophy and Theory
Supervisor
David Schneiderman
Committee Members
David Dyzenhaus
Ron Levi

Prof. Kent Roach co-authors "Secret evidence should not be allowed in civil cases"

Monday, October 23, 2017

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Kent Roach and the University of Ottawa's Craig Forcese analyze the issues around a federal government proposal to allow the use of secret evidence in civil proceedings ("Secret evidence should not be allowed in civil cases," October 20, 2017).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

SJD student Daniel Del Gobbo writes "In cases of sexual violence, justice can come from outside the courts"

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

In a commentary in the Toronto Star, SJD student and Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar Daniel Del Gobbo writes about rethinking the way that the law handles sexual violence and introducing the option of a restorative justice process ("In cases of sexual violence, justice can come from outside the courts," July 25, 2017).

Read the full commentary on the Toronto Star website, or below.

Prof. Kent Roach writes "Legislation to end stays is not the answer to court delays"

Thursday, June 22, 2017

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Kent Roach argues that a Senate committee's recommendation that Parliament remove stays as a remedy for violating the Charter right to a trial in a reasonable time is a flawed proposal ("Legislation to end stays is not the answer to court delays," June 21, 2017).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

 

Our Anxious Supreme Court

David Schneiderman
Wednesday, May 10, 2017

[cross posted from https://cfe.ryerson.ca/blog/2017/05/our-anxious-supreme-court]

One gets the sense that the Supreme Court of Canada does not have a good feel for free speech questions. It took some time, for instance, for a majority of the Court to acknowledge that legal constraints might ‘chill’ free speech. The Court confidently proclaimed, on more than one occasion, that civil and criminal legal prohibitions should not be expected to deter speakers. 

Only recently did the Court acknowledge this possibility and, accordingly, relaxed the law of libel so as to allow a new defence of responsible communication on matters of public interest. The Court did so only after other commonwealth Courts had taken a lead in relaxing the common law of libel. It was this reform that enabled the press to report freely on the misdeeds of the late Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford, without the worry of a lawsuit.

Prof. Kent Roach writes "Is Brad Wall really defending school choice with his use of the notwithstanding clause?"

Thursday, May 4, 2017

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Kent Roach analyzes Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall's use of the notwithstanding clause and the constitutional judicial decision about funding Catholic schools that triggered it ("Is Brad Wall really defending school choice with his use of the notwithstanding clause?", May 2, 2017).

Read the commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

SJD student Andrew Flavelle Martin writes "Targeting a judge isn't OK, whether in the U.S. or Canada"

Friday, February 10, 2017

In a commentary in the Ottawa Citizen, SJD student Andrew Flavelle Martin discusses the danger created by cases in both the US and Canada where judges have been targeted by elected officials ("Targeting a judge isn't OK, whether in the U.S. or Canada," February 9, 2017).

Read the full commentary on the Ottawa Citizen website, or below.

 

Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture: Alumnus Ontario Chief Justice Strathy calls on justices to embrace 'Gladue Spirit' in sentencing as part of reconciliation

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Humility and humanity are important virtues for judges to have in an evolving world

By Peter Boisseau / Photography by Oliver Salathiel

Judges should demonstrate “humility and humanity” when dealing with court cases involving Indigenous peoples, Ontario Chief Justice George Strathy, told a Faculty of Law audience at the Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture.

A Justice in action: Two JD students on watching SCC nominee Malcolm Rowe answer Parliament's questions

Friday, October 28, 2016

Two U of T Law JD students had the opportunity to attend the Parliamentary Q&A with Supreme Court of Canada nominee Justice Malcolm Rowe. They have each sent in observations about this rare experience.

Justice Malcolm Rowe at Parliamentary Q&A

By Julia Tory, 1L

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