Three new books by recent doctoral graduates of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, developed from their dissertations and published by major academic presses, showcase the importance of the international and comparative law research conducted by students in the doctoral program.
"These three books show the caliber of the students recruited into our doctoral program, and the hard work that we put into providing them with the skills needed to make all their talents flourish," says Prof. Mariana Mota Prado, associate dean, graduate program.
Dr. Rayner Thwaites, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, has published The Liberty of Non-citizens: Indefinite Detention in Commonwealth Countries (Hart Publishing, 2014), which addresses the legality of indefinite detention in countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. The thesis on which the book is based, supervised by University Professor David Dyzenhaus, won the Faculty’s 2010 Marks Medal for the best graduate thesis.
A reviewer in the Modern Law Review praised The Liberty of Non-Citizens as “a must-read for academics and practitioners interested in immigration, human rights and national security law and provides a unique comparative contribution to scholarship on national security and immigration issues. Thwaites's attention to detail is impressive and indeed essential for illustrating the differences in interpretive approaches adopted in these jurisdictions.”
Dr. Umut Özsu, assistant professor at the University of Manitoba, has published Formalizing Displacement: International Law and Population Transfers (Oxford University Press, 2015), a study of the 1922-34 exchange of minorities between Greece and Turkey, in which nearly two million people were forcibly relocated. Dr. Özsu’s dissertation was co-supervised by Professors Jutta Brunnée and Karen Knop.
The London Review of International Law’s Assistant Editor heralded Formalizing Displacement as “an important and welcome new work” that is “rich in detail and trenchant analysis.”
Dr. Michael Fakhri, associate professor at the University of Oregon, has published Sugar and the Making of International Trade Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which traces the changing meanings of free trade over the past century through three sugar treaties and their concomitant institutions. His supervisor was Associate Dean Kerry Rittich.
As graduate students, Özsu and Fakhri were founders of The Toronto Group, which organizes a yearly graduate student conference on the study of international, transnational and comparative law in collaboration with Osgoode Hall Law School. The event has proven to be a long-lasting success, attracting graduate students from all over the world to present their ideas in Toronto every year.
