Oliver Chan

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Laying the Administrative Foundations for a Constitutional Right to Adequate Housing in Canada
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: oliver.chan@mail.utoronto.ca

Oliver is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law with research interests in public law, political and legal theory, and comparative legal studies. His thesis explores the interpretation and enforcement of positive rights globally as well as the moral purposes of public law and the administrative state. He argues that the constitutional rights to life and equality place obligations on the state to provide safe and affordable housing. Oliver is a graduate of the combined BCL/JD program at McGill University where he received a Lieutenant Governor's Youth Medal from the Honourable J. Michel Doyon for his high academic standing and his work towards improving access to justice in the greater Montréal community. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Oliver completed an LLM at Queen's University and worked as the Director of Research for a legal information clinic in Montréal.

Education
LLM, Specialization in Political and Legal Thought: Queen’s University (2023)
BCL & JD: McGill University (2022)
BA (First Class Honours) Political Science & Philosophy: McGill University (2018)
Awards and Distinctions
The Mary And Louis Anisman Fellowship In Law And Fairness (2023-2024)
Lieutenant Governor of Québec Youth Medal (2022)
Fern Gertrude Kennedy Prize in Jurisprudence (2021)
Allan Neil Assh Memorial Award in Business Associations (2021)
Michael L. Garmaise Prize in Political Science (2018)
Maldoff Family Arts Research Internship Award (2017)
Research Group on Constitutional Studies Student Fellow: Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds (2016-2019)
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Judicial Decision-Making
Legal Theory
Supervisor
Richard Stacey
Committee Members
Christopher Essert
David Dyzenhaus

U of T Law event, March 2 & 3, delves into climate change from a legal and policy perspective

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Man in a suit holding a green leaf

How is climate change affecting the law, and the role of law in society?

On March 2 & 3, the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, aims to broaden legal and policy discussions and explore how climate change is impacting law, and the legal profession at Law in a Changing World: The Climate Crisis.

Kate Mitchell

SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Comparing the Levers of Prison Law Reform in Canada and the United States
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Tel:
236-334-6034
Email: kate.mitchell@mail.utoronto.ca
Education
Master of Laws - University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (2021-2022)
Juris Doctor - Queen's University (2014-2017)
Master of Public Administration - Queen's University (2014-2015)
Bachelor of Arts - Dalhousie University (2011-2014)
Awards and Distinctions
Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral (CGS-D) (2022-2025)
C. David Naylor University Fellowship (2022-2023)
University of Toronto Centre for Ethics Doctoral Fellow in Ethics (2022-2023)
UCLA Dean's Tuition Fellowship (2021-2022)
Torkin Manes LLP Academic Excellence & Community Service Award (2017)
Fred S. Fountain Scholarship (2011-2014)
Lockward Scholarship (2011-2014)
H.C. (Kip) Roberts Scholarship (2014)
Margaret Nicholl Pond Memorial Award (2014)
Professional Affiliations
Member, Law Society of Ontario
Member, Canadian Prison Law Association
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Criminal Law 
Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Judicial Decision-Making
Supervisor
David Dyzenhaus
Committee Members

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)

Steve Lorteau

Steve Lorteau
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
The Institutional Challenges of Adjudicating Climate Change Zoning
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: steve.lorteau@mail.utoronto.ca

Steve is an SJD student at the University of Toronto and a Long-Term Appointment Professor at the University of Ottawa. Steve has a bijural education with degrees in common law and civil law from the University of Ottawa. During his legal studies, Steve participated and later coached in the Jessup International Law Moot Court competition for 3 years. In 2020, Steve completed a judicial clerkship at the Federal Court under Justice Peter Pamel. Following his clerkship, Steve completed his Master of Laws (LLM) thesis at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dean Jutta Brunnée. His SJD thesis focuses the political economy of zoning reforms.

Steve's primary research interests relate to zoning law, climate litigation, wine law, and the psychology of climate change.  Steve's research on these themes has been published in Energy Policy, Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL), Journal of Wine Research, Jus Vini: Journal of Wine & Spirits Law and the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law. Since 2022, he has served as the Canadian reporter for Jus Vini annual chronicles.

Steve is also interested in the real-world implications of his research, having (co)authored five op-ed pieces for The Conversation Canada and served as an expert interviewee for Reuters and The Globe and Mail, among other outlets. Steve has also advised environmental non-governmental organizations and sitting politicians on matters of climate law.

In his spare time, Steve enjoys reading, playing board games, watching sports, cooking, and discovering new wines.

Education
University of Toronto, LL.M. (Long Thesis), 2021
University of Ottawa, J.D., 2019
University of Ottawa, LL.L. (Civil Law) 2018
University of Ottawa, B.Soc.Sc. (International Development), 2018
University of Ottawa, B.A. (Philosophy), 2015
Awards and Distinctions
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS-D (2021-2024)
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS-M (2020-2021)
Robert Law Fellowship in Legal Ethics (2020-2021)
Environmental Law Essay Contest Prize, Center for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (2019)
Me Anwar Chami Scholarship for excellence in studies in international law (2018)
Second Best Oralist, Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2017)
Professional Affiliations
Law Society of Ontario
Earth System Governance Project Research Fellow
Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics, International Expert Group Canada
Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

· Steve Lorteau, Parker Muzzerall, Audrey-Ann Deneault, Emily Huddart Kennedy, Rhéa Rocque, Nicole Racine, & Jean-François Bureau, "Do climate concerns and worries predict energy preferences? A meta-analysis" (2024) 190 Energy Policy 114149

· Steve Lorteau, “The Potential of 'State-as-Polluter' Litigation” (2023) 1 Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 259.

· Steve Lorteau, “Canada 2022: Place of Origin Descriptors, Amarone, and More Cowbell” (2023) Jus Vini: Journal of Wine & Spirits Law 117.

· Steve Lorteau, “Canada 2021: Disputed Territories, Comparative Advertising, and Trademarks” (2022) 1 Jus Vini: Journal of Wine & Spirits Law 87-102.

· Steve Lorteau, “Contractual Carbon Fees: A Proposal” (2020) 15:2 McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law 176-201.

· Steve Lorteau, “A Purposive Approach to Wine Regulation: Royal Demaria v Lieutenant Governor in Council” (2019) 2 Jus Vini: Journal of Wine & Spirits Law 231-240.

· Steve Lorteau, “La philosophie du droit systématique de l’encyclopédiste Antoine- Gaspard Boucher d’Argis [The Systematic Jurisprudence of l’Encyclopédiste Antoine-Gaspard Boucher d’Argis]” (2019) 54 Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie 147-164.

· Steve Lorteau, “A Comparative Analysis of Skin-Contact Wine Definitions in Ontario and South Africa” (2018) 29:4 Journal of Wine Research 265-277.

· Steve Lorteau, “China’s South China Sea Claims as Unprecedented – Skeptical Remarks” (2018) 55 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 1-41.

Book Chapters

· Steve Lorteau & Rakhyun E Kim, “Transnational Litigation Norms” in Daniel J. Fiorino, Todd A. Eisenstadt, & Manjyot Kaur Ahluwalia, eds, Elgar Encyclopedia of Climate Policy (Cheltenham: Elgar Publishing, 2024), pp 209–212.

· Steve Lorteau, “Regulatory Controls in the Canadian Wine Sector” in Theodore Georgopoulos, ed, Administrative controls in the wine sector (Paris: Mare & Martin, 2021), pp 341-367.

Opinion Pieces

· Parker Muzzerall, Audrey-Ann Deneault, & Steve Lorteau, "Emotions may matter more than facts in shaping individual support for renewable energy, new study shows"The Conversation Canada, 20 June 2024. https://theconversation.com/emotions-may-matter-more-than-facts-in-shapi...

· Steve Lorteau, "Fossil fuel subsidies cost Canadians a lot more money than the carbon tax" The Conversation Canada, 1 April 2024. https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-subsidies-cost-canadians-a-lot-m...

· Steve Lorteau & Andrew Green,"How Canadian courts are taking on climate change" The Conversation Canada, 4 January 2024. https://theconversation.com/how-canadian-courts-are-taking-on-climate-ch...

· Steve Lorteau, Audrey-Ann Deneault, Jean-François Bureau & Nicole Racine, "Educate and Empower: The 3 Es to discuss climate change with children" The Conversation Canada, 9 July 2023. https://theconversation.com/engage-educate-and-empower-the-3-es-to-discu...

· Steve Lorteau, “For Fossil-Fuel Reliant Governments, Climate Action Should Start At Home" The Conversation Canada, 19 April 2023. https://theconversation.com/for-fossil-fuel-reliant-governments-climate-...

Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Economic Analysis of Law
Environmental Law
Feminist Analysis of Law
Intellectual Property Law
International Law
Legal Theory
Property Law
Supervisor
Andrew Green
Committee Members
Larissa Katz
Kate J. Neville, Department of Political Science
External links
Twitter
SSRN
Earth System Governance Project

Symposium at U of T Law examining remedies for violations of human rights is focus of new issue of U of T Law Journal

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

A new issue of the University of Toronto Law Journal focuses on examining remedies for violations of human rights (Vol. 69, No. supplement 1, November 2019).

Edited by Prof. Kent Roach, the issue brings together papers presented at a symposium examining remedies for violations of human rights held at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in September 2018. 

 

 

Cara Locke*

Cara Locke (*née Mouland)
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Remedial Justice: The Legitimacy of Remedies for Unconstitutional Laws
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: cara.locke@mail.utoronto.ca

Cara is interested in how judges act like legislators, and how legislators act like judges.

Her doctoral project focuses on remedies for unconstitutional criminal legislation. Cara's previous work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in support of a disciplined approach to suspended declarations of invalidity.

Outside of academia, Cara has front-line experience as a lawyer in both courtrooms and legislative chambers. This concrete grounding continues to shape her work on the proper boundaries between judges and legislators.

Education
LLM - Long Thesis
JD (Distinction)
BA (Hons) - Psychology and English
Awards and Distinctions
C. David Naylor Fellow
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Scholar
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellow in Canadian Constitutional Law
Raoul Wallenberg Scholar
Doctoral Fellow, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
LLM Fellow, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Professional Affiliations
Law Society of Ontario
Nova Scotia Barristers' Society
Canadian Bar Association
Selected Publications

“Remedying the Remedy: Bedford’s Suspended Declaration of Invalidity” (2018) 41:3 Man LJ 281. (Cited in G v Ontario, 2020 SCC 38)

"Debating the Rule of Law: The Curious Re-Enactment of the Solicitation Offence" (2021) 58:3 Alta L Rev 687.

 *née Mouland

Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Charter of Rights
Comparative Law
Criminal Law 
Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Critical Legal Theory
Election Law
Judicial Decision-Making
Legal Ethics
Legal Process
Legal Theory
National Security Law and Anti-Terrorism Law
Political Philosophy and Theory
Supervisor
Kent Roach
Committee Members
Yasmin Dawood
Richard Stacey
External links
SSRN

Asper Centre Immigration Detention Symposium

On Friday March 15th 2019 the Asper Centre will convene a one-day Immigration Detention Symposium focused on advancing litigation and advocacy strategies to address the challenges within Canada’s immigration detention system. This Symposium will also highlight immigration practitioners’ and civil society’s current advocacy efforts, recommendations and resources for achieving meaningful solutions to the challenges.

See the bottom of the page for the video.

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