Hai Tran

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Land Taking Conflict in East Asian Postsocialist Countries as The Misapplication of Institutional Reform
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: phuchai.tran@mail.utoronto.ca

Hai Tran is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law. He holds a dear interest in the historical evolution of land law, and property rights in general. His doctoral thesis is the explanation of the unique and turbulent property rights compromise between socialist and free market legal norms in postsocialist East Asia. With his research, he seeks to solve the welfare question for the public regarding land redistribution and de-escalate the new ideological cold war of the 21st century. This is tied to his broader investigation of the developments of legal institutions in developing countries which are often ideologically nonconforming and self-contradicting.

Beyond his academic endeavor at the University of Toronto, he is an active member of social activism. He has been involved with the feminist HeForShe project in Japan; CPRE for the protection of the English countryside; Power For People and Repowering London to campaign for and build the capacity of community energy groups in the U.K.

Education
S.J.D University of Toronto (2023-present)
LL.M. King’s College London, United Kingdom (2021-2022)
LL.B. Nagoya University, Japan (2017-2021)
Awards and Distinctions
Best undergraduate thesis, Nagoya University Graduate School of Law (2021)
JASSO Honors Scholarship for Privately Financed International Student (2020-2021)
Selected Publications
Tran, Phuc Hai. “Vietnam’s Land Law Evolution” East Asia Forum, March 13, 2024. https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/03/14/vietnams-land-law-evolution/.
Research Interests
Civil Law
Comparative Law
Environmental Law
Law and Globalization
Legal History
Political Philosophy and Theory
Property Law
Supervisor
Mariana Mota Prado
Committee Members
Larissa Katz
Kerry Rittich
External links
Academia.edu

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

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)

Dimitrios Tsilikis

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Justifications of Recourse Rules (working title)
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: dimitrios.tsilikis@mail.utoronto.ca

 I am a third year SJD student working on Bankruptcy Law and Private Law Theory. My main project is focused on the normative foundations of personal bankruptcy law in the U.S. and Canadian legal orders. I also research on corporate bankruptcy especially in the U.S., currently working on mega-bankruptcy case-studies, the intersection of mass tort litigation and bankruptcy, and third-party releases.

 I hold an LL.M. in Legal Theory from NYU School of Law, having written a thesis on corporate asset partitioning. I studied for my LL.B. in Greece and France.

I am a lawyer in Greece and I spend some time lawyering in Greek and E.U. law, especially on restructuring consultation.

 

Education
LL.B. - National and Capodistrian University of Athens - Faculty of Law
LL.B. (Erasmus+) - Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne - École de Droit
LL.M. - New York University School of Law
S.J.D. - University of Toronto - Faculty of Law
Professional Affiliations
Athens Bar Association (Greece)
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Bankruptcy/Insolvency Law
Business Corporations
Competition Law
Legal Theory
Moral Philosophy
Political Philosophy and Theory
Private Law Theory
Property Law
Supervisor
Larissa Katz
Committee Members
Edward Iacobucci
Christopher Essert
Peter Benson

'Completely misunderstood' – University Professor Arthur Ripstein explores Immanuel Kant's views on war

Friday, April 30, 2021

Arthur Ripstein

A colleague of Arthur Ripstein’s once described the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant as “the philosopher for people who like philosophy too much.”

Ripstein freely admits belonging to this group.  He’s spent decades researching and teaching Kantian legal and political philosophy and is currently finishing his latest book about the philosopher, Kant and the Law of War. It will be available in September.

Pages