Nadia C. S. Lambek

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Law, Resistance and the (Re)Making of the Rural
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: nadia.lambek@mail.utoronto.ca

Nadia Lambek is a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) candidate at the University of Toronto, and a human rights lawyer, researcher and advocate focused on food system transitions and the rights of working people.  Her current research explores how the law and legal claims are framed by transnational agrarian movements and how law can (and cannot) be mobilized in the pursuit of more equitable, just and sustainable food systems.  In particular, she looks at claims for the right to food sovereignty and peasants' rights, and the possibility and limitations of institutionalizing these emerging rights in domestic and international fora.  She is also interested in questions of workers' rights and the governance of food systems more broadly.

Nadia is a Non-Residential Fellow at the Institute for Global Law and Policy (Harvard Law School) and a Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute (University of Toronto).  She is also adjunct faculty at Vermont Law School where she teaches courses on global food security governance.  In fall 2019, she hosted the 4th Canadian Food Law and Policy conference at the University of Toronto.  She is a founding member of the Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy.  She regularly collaborates with civil society organizations on issues of food system governance, including working with the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism to the UN Committee on World Food Security on a 2018 report monitoring realization of the right to food and helping to facilitate civil society youth engagement in the Committee.

Before beginning her SJD, Nadia practiced law, focusing on the promotion and protection of workers' rights, union-side labour law, and human rights.  She also worked in a research and advocacy capacity on issues relating to food systems transitions, including serving as an advisor to former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter and collaborating with a number of organizations, including Food Secure Canada, FIAN International, Oxfam (Bangladesh), the Global Network on the Right to Food and Nutrition, and Canada Without Poverty.  Nadia is a former clerk of the Ontario Court of Appeal and served as co-Editor-and-Chief of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal.

Education
BA, Brown University (2006)
JD, Yale Law School (2010)
Awards and Distinctions
SSHRC Impact Talent Award, Finalist (2019)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2019-2021)
Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, SSHRC (2019)
SSHRC Connection Grant (2019) (collaborator)
SSHRC Connection Grant (2017) (collaborator)
Dean’s Graduate Student Leadership Award, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2017)
John Peter Humphreys Fellowship, Canadian Council on International Law (2017-2018)
Canada Graduate Doctoral Scholarship to Honour Nelson Mandela, SSHRC (2016-2019)
Doctoral Fellowship, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2016-2019)
The Robina Foundation Human Rights Fellowship, Yale Law School (2011-2012)
Ambrose Gherini Prize, Yale Law School (2010)
Francis Wayland Prize, Yale Law School (2010)
Kirby Simon Human Rights Fellowship, Yale Law School (2008, 2009)
Phi Beta Kappa, Brown University (2006)
William Gaston Prize, Brown University (2006)
Professional Affiliations
Ontario Bar
New York Bar
Selected Publications

Books

Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (eds. N. Lambek, P. Claeys, A. Wong & L. Brilmayer, Springer, 2014)

Journal Articles

Nadia Lambek, “The UN Committee on World Food Security’s Break from the Agricultural Productivity Trap”, Transnational Legal Theory (2019)

Sarah Berger Richardson & Nadia Lambek, "Federalism and Fragmentation: Addressing the Possibilities of a Food Policy For Canada", 5(3) Canadian Journal of Food Studies 28 (2018)

Nadia Lambek, "A Transformational Potential: The Right to Food’s Contribution to Addressing Malnutrition", 43 UNSCN News 75 (2018)

Nadia Lambek & Priscilla Claeys, "Institutionalizing a Fully Realized Right to Food: Progress, Limitations and Lessons Learned From Emerging Alternative Policy Models," 40(4) Vermont Law Review 743 (2016)

Stephen Moreau & Nadia Lambek, “The Record on Judicial Review: Federal Court”, 29(1) Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice 71 (2016)

Shaun O’Brien, Nadia Lambek & Amanda Dale, “Accounting for Deprivation: The Intersection of Sections 7 and 15 of the Charter in the Context of Marginalized Groups”, 35 National Journal of Constitutional Law 153 (2016)

Nadia Lambek, “The Right to Food: Reflecting on the Past and Future Possibilities”, 2(2) Canadian Journal of Food Studies 68 (2015)

Freya Kristjanson & Nadia Lambek, “Applying the Charter in Everyday Administrative Decision-Making”, 26(3) Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice 195 (2013)

Nadia Lambek, “Imposing IP Compliance: Trends in the USTR Special 301 Reports for India and China from 2000-2008”, The Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 2 (2009) 129-153

Chapters in Books

Jessica Duncan, Nadia Lambek & Priscilla Claeys, “The Committee on World Food Security: Politics Under Threat”, in Un monde sans faim? Gouverner la sécurité alimentaire au 21e siècle (Delphine Thivet and Antoine de Raymond, eds., forthcoming 2020)

Nadia Lambek, “Social Justice and the Food System”, in Canadian Food Law and Policy (eds. McLeod-Kilmurray, H., et. al., 2019)

Claire Debucquois & Nadia Lambek, “Extraterritorial Obligations of States and the Right to Food”, in Justice Beyond Borders: The Extraterritorial Reach of African Human Rights Instruments (eds. L. Chenwi & T. Bulto, Intersentia, 2018)

Nadia Lambek & Claire Debucquois, “National Courts and the Right to Food”, in Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (eds. Thompson, P.B., et al., Springer, 2014)

Nadia Lambek, “Respecting and Protecting the Right to Food: When States Must Get Out of the Kitchen”, in Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (eds. N. Lambek et al., Springer 2014)

Priscilla Claeys & Nadia Lambek, “In Search of Better Options: Food Sovereignty, the Right to Food and Legal Tools for Transforming Food Systems”, in Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (eds. N. Lambek et al., Springer 2014)

Reports and Submissions

“Civil Society Report on the Use and Implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines”, for the Global Network on the Right to Food and Nutrition and the Civil Society Mechanism to the Committee on World Food Security (to be presented at the 45th meeting of the UN Committee on World Food Security, 2018) (lead author)

“Meeting Canada’s Human Rights Obligations: Integrating the Right to Food into the National Food Policy”, submitted to Agriculture and Agro-Food Canada as part of the consultation process for the first national food policy (2017) (lead author) (co-signed by Food Secure Canada, Amnesty International, Canada Without Poverty and others)

Nadia Lambek,"Farm Workers in Ontario: How the Law Creates Insecurity for Agricultural Workers and the Importance of Building Democracy through the Food System", in Ecological Farm Internships: Modes, Experiences and Justice (C. Levkoe and M. Ekers, eds., 2017)

“10 Years of the Right to Adequate Food Guidelines: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead” (Global Network on the Right to Food and Nutrition: 2014) (presented at the UN Committee on World Food Security) (lead author)

Priscilla Claeys & Nadia Lambek, “Creating an Environment for a Fully Realized Right to Food: Progress, Challenges and Emerging Alternative Models: A Ten-Year Retrospective on Voluntary Guidelines 1-6”, (Global Network on the Right to Food and Nutrition: 2014)

Research Interests
Administrative Law
Charter of Rights
Critical Legal Theory
International Law
Labour Law
Law and Globalization
Law and International Development
Supervisor
Kerry Rittich
Committee Members
Jutta Brunnée
Sally Engle Merry, Silver Professor of Anthropology, NYU College of Arts and Sciences
External links
Academia.edu

Supreme Court cites faculty, UofT Law conference in right-to-strike decision

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Supreme Court of Canada, in its decision on the case Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, cited work by faculty members and also several articles that came out of a conference organized by Prof. Brian Langille at the Faculty of Law.

Getting into UofT Law - JD Admissions

JD Admissions visits UofT Department of Criminology

JD AdmissionsGet the inside scoop on applying to our JD program directly from the Faculty of Law Admissions Office and hear from current law students. 

Learn about our whole-person admission process and how to improve your application to our JD program. 

Report by JD student Josh Mandryk on Ontario’s fair wage policy published by think tank

Friday, May 9, 2014

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has published a report by graduating JD student Josh Mandryk, titled "The Case for a Stronger Fair Wage Policy in Ontario."  The research for this project was conducted under the Faculty of Law's directed research program during the Winter 2013 term.

Grafstein Lecture: Crowdsourcing industries spawn global pool of digital workers with no labour rights

Monday, March 10, 2014
black and white image of turn of the century mother working at home menial labour

By David Kumagai, 2L

“Crowdsourcing industries are wiping away over 100 years of labour struggles overnight,” Professor Trebor Scholz told his audience during the 2014 Grafstein Lecture in Communications.

JD student Josh Mandryk co-authors "Ontario must take urgent action on unpaid internships"

Thursday, November 7, 2013

JD student Josh Mandryk has co-authored, with labour lawyer Andrew Langille, a commentary in the Toronto Star arguing that Ontario needs to address the problem of unpaid internships ("Ontario must take urgent action on unpaid internships," November 4, 2013).

University of Toronto law students are also involved in a related initiative, the website www.payyourinterns.ca.

Prof. Brian Langille and JD student Josh Mandryk: "Ontario PC labour reforms violate core democratic principles"

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

In a commentary published in the Toronto Star, Prof. Brian Langille and JD student Josh Mandryk analyze the Ontario Labour Relations Act reforms being proposed by the opposition Ontario Progressive Conservative party ("Ontario PC labour reforms violate core democratic principles," June 10, 2013).

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

JD student Josh Mandryk in the Toronto Star - "Bill C-377: An invasion of privacy and attack on dissent"

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

JD student Josh Mandryk has published a commentary in the Toronto Star arguing that the private member's bill C-377 now in front of the House of Commons, which would establish heavy Income Tax disclosure requirements for Trade Unions, is a punitive invasion of privacy ("Bill C-377: An invasion of privacy and attack on dissent," Oct. 18, 2012).

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

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