phd in law york university

Professor Ahmad is interested in supervising topics related to business and human rights, transnational law, social justice and climate change litigation, corporate accountability, civil and administrative procedure, access to justice, class actions, colonial corporations, and international human rights.

I am interested in supervising projects in the following areas: legal history, law and religion, Islamic law, law and colonialism, comparative constitutional law, and Public International law, especially as it pertains to Africa’s place in the world. Potential students may send an email, attaching their CV and a brief research proposal.

On leave for the current academic year.

I will not be taking new students until 2024.

I am interested in supervising students in the following areas:

International environmental law and politics
Law and disaster risk management
War/conflict and the environment
Climate/environmental degradation and human displacement
International humanitarian law and politics
Copyright law

Please note, I do not supervise projects related to Energy Law or Natural Resources Law. Interested students should send a brief, introductory email with their resume and a description of the proposed research including an explanation of how the project is related to my areas of expertise identified above. I do not reply to inquires that do not include this information or requests for general information about graduate studies at Osgoode. All such inquiries should be addressed to Osgoode’s Graduate Program.

Professor Ben-Ishai has supervised graduate level research in bankruptcy, banking, contracts, corporate/commercial law, and financial regulation. She is willing to read novel proposals in this area from strong students interested in working with her.

Professor Berger welcomes the opportunity to supervise graduate work in his principal fields of research, including law and religion, criminal and constitutional law and theory, and the law of evidence. Projects that adopt methodological or theoretical frames drawn from socio-legal studies, law and the humanities, and legal history are particularly appealing.

Professor Berger is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Berger welcomes the opportunity to work with graduate students working in the areas of administrative and constitutional law, with particular interest in projects dealing with questions of administrative constitutionalism, the administrative state, procedural fairness, judicial review, constitutional amendment, and structural constitutionalism. Professor Berger is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Bhabha is open to a wide variety of projects in the substantive areas of constitutional law, international human rights, administrative law, legal theory, legal ethics or legal education. He is interested in working with deep thinkers and rigorous researchers. While he is not the right fit for research employing anything beyond elementary empirical methods, normative, descriptive, critical, doctrinal and discursive projects are all welcome.

Professor Bhatia is interested in supervising research on topics at the intersection of migration, Aboriginal, and Indigenous law. He is also interested in supervising students working on topics related to Canadian immigration & refugee law, aspects of Canadian property law, the laws and policies of transnational migrant work, and community lawyering.

Professor Andrée Boisselle is particularly interested in supervising research involving Indigenous legal orders and traditions, Indigenous-Settler legal relations, and constitutional arrangements (such as federalism) pertaining to the conciliation of Indigenous and settler jurisdictions.

More broadly, she is interested in research projects that require (or would benefit from) a strong reliance on primary sources and/or ethnographic work, and on projects seeking to develop insights on the decolonization and Indigenization of legal frameworks, including legal pedagogy.

Comparative; China; Empirical Research; Gender.

Professor Buchanan has research interests in law and development, law and the humanities (in particular law and film) as well as critical and postcolonial approaches to international law and international economic law. In addition to a willingness to consider supervisions in areas of past research, Prof. Buchanan is currently recruiting strong graduate students who are interested in working with her on a recently funded project "Visualizing Law and Development", located at the intersection of the fields of law and development and visual legal studies.

Professor Chiodo is interested in supervising research in civil justice, including issues of access to justice and reform, as well as comparative civil procedure, class actions, and legal history. She is particularly interested in research projects that analyze these fields through a theoretical or normative lens. Her current research interests include civil justice reform, the history of class actions and class action reform, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to justice.

Professor Chiodo is willing to read serious preliminary proposals in her areas of research expertise, and comment on her interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

I am interested in supervising topics related to corporate law and international economic law, particularly if the proposal has a human rights, environmental, or other social focus

Professor Condon is interested in supervising topics related to financial markets, financial regulation, securities law, pensions and pension policy. Professor Condon is open to a variety of methodologies that could be used to analyze problems or issues in these fields but especially interested in socio-legal approaches, feminist analysis, political economy or behavioural economic approaches.

Professor Craig is interested in supervising graduate research in the area of intellectual property (IP) law (domestic, comparative and/or international), with a focus primarily on copyright and/or trademark law and related fields. Her own scholarship in this area covers a wide variety of topics including concepts of authorship and ownership, fair dealing and user rights, freedom of expression, digital locks, technological neutrality, open access and open licensing models, trademark registration requirements, etc. While tackling particular doctrinal and policy issues at the forefront of IP law, Professor Craig's scholarship employs a critical theoretical approach (drawing on, e.g. feminist legal theory, critical race theory, cultural and literary theory). Current projects include work on critical theories of IP, racially disparaging trademarks; authorship and artificial intelligence; choreographic copyright; copyright's substantial similarity doctrine; moral rights, parody and satire.

Professor D'Agostino is interested in supervising students who have a keen interest in any of her research areas. Students should have a strong interest in evidence-based research, comparative and international approaches and enjoy participating in the wider IP Osgoode and York community.

Professor De Stefano is willing to supervise in Labour and Employment Law, with a particular interest in Artificial Intelligence and Work, the intersection of Law and Technology, Platform Work, and International and Comparative Labour law.

Professor Drake is interested in working with LLM and PhD students on projects involving Anishinaabe constitutionalism, Canadian and international law as they affect Indigenous peoples (such as constitutionally protected rights, human rights, language rights, rules of evidence and rules of civil procedure), the interplay between state law and Indigenous law, the role of liberalism in delineating section 35 rights, and epistemologies and pedagogies of teaching Indigenous law.

Professor Drummond is interested in supervising students proposing interdiscplinary research in a variety of substantive areas, including legal anthropology, comparative law, civil law, family law, and wills and estates.

Professor Dufraimont is interested in supervising excellent graduate students in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. She is particularly interested in the psychological aspect of evidence rules, and her current research interests include expert evidence, witness credibility, evidence problems in sexual assault, and the regulation of interrogation and confessions. Professor Dufraimont is currently involved in funded research studying the interplay of the use of language interpreters with questions of witness credibility and the detection of deception.

Professor Faraday's research interests include precarious employment, migrant labour, intersectional equality rights, human rights, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and social justice and political activism. She engages in participatory action research. She is currently involved in research projects on migrant labour; a critical examination of "trafficking" and "modern slavery"; and systemic gendered economic coercion in migration.

Professor Farrow is interested in supervising students in research related to legal process, access to justice, and legal ethics.

Professor Geva is interested in supervising projects in the following areas: Commercial banking law (particularly negotiable instruments, trade finance including transport records, and letters of credit - but also secured transactions); monetary and payment law: payment systems and funds transfers; money, digital currencies, digital assets and fintech; Commercial and financial law in general; Legal history (doctrine): common law; comparative (civil liability); commercial law; Jewish and Islamic Laws (commercial, civil, and finance).

Professor Haigh is interested in constitutional law matters including federalism, charter of rights (particularly fundamental freedoms of expression and religion; equality; section 7), constitutional procedures (particularly role of interveners). Recent publications include chapters on legislating statutory interpretation, freedom of conscience vs. religion and empirical observations regarding interventions at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Professor Hewitt likes to take an interdisciplinary approach with graduate students and is interested in supervising those who are engaging with or wish to engage with any of his research areas of interest.

Professor Hoffman is open to supervising excellent graduate students with legal, public health, social science, or statistical backgrounds who are interested in being actively involved with the Global Strategy Lab (www.globalstrategylab.org) and undertaking projects aligned with its ongoing efforts. The Lab's interdisciplinary research and policy activities are currently organized around three interrelated programs focused on the 1) global governance of antimicrobial resistance, 2) global legal epidemiology, and 3) public health institutions. Professor Hoffman is additionally open to supervising students interested in all aspects of global health law, including doctrinal, empirical, applied and theoretical work. Students with and without law degrees are welcome to apply.

Professor Hutchinson is willing to supervise projects in the areas of jurisprudence/legal theory, legal ethics, torts, constitutional.

Professor Shelley Kierstead’s research interests lie in the areas of family law, access to justice, and dispute resolution. She has also conducted research in the conflict of laws area.

Sonia works on Canadian constitutional law, particularly although not exclusively in relation to section 15 equality rights, the relationship between law & social change, and bringing anti-racist / feminist analysis to law and legal inquiry.
Professor Lawrence is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Note: Professor Lawrence will be on sabbatical from June 2022 to June 2023.

Professor Li is interested in supervising projects in the areas of tax law and policy, and social income support.

Professor Matthews is interested in supervising research projects asking questions relevant to: International Criminal Law; Law of War/International Humanitarian Law; International Human Rights Law; and Gender/Sexuality and the Law. Projects that engage critical methodologies, political and feminist theory, intellectual histories and aesthetic theory are particularly welcome. Potential students are welcome to send an introductory email outlining their academic history and a preliminary research proposal.

Professor McGregor would like to work with students interested in Indigenous environmental governance, including; Indigenous knowledge systems; Indigenous legal traditions/laws; water justice/security; climate justice/change; and environmental justice and policy. Professor McGregor is interested in students with excellent research, writing skills and keen interest in Indigenous scholarship. Opportunities for community based research/data gathering are possible through her grants relating to conservation, climate justice, language and culture.

Professor McGregor is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

On leave for the current academic year.

Professor McMahon’s interests lie in the field of legal history, particularly Canadian and British legal history, private law topics involving equity, as well as civil procedure and legal process. Her recent work deals with the fusion of law and equity, law reform in historical context, and legal biography, including oral history.

Professor McMahon is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Mgbeoji is interested in research on Patents, Public International Law, Trademarks, and North-South Relations. Research in international aspects of intellectual property law is equally welcome.

He is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application

Professor Mosher is particularly interested in supervising projects related to how law is implicated in gender-based violence; community-grounded conceptions of access to justice; law and social change; and poverty law. She welcomes qualitative projects, including those deploying community-based participatory action methodologies. Her current research grants include domestic violence and access to justice at the intersections of various areas of law and legal processes (family, child welfare, criminal, immigration, etc) and the criminalization of women victims of domestic violence.

Professor Mosher is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Mykitiuk welcomes the opportunity to supervise strong graduate students in her principal fields of research interest. Students with an interest in interdisciplinary approaches, socio-legal studies, science and technology studies, qualitative methods, including arts-based approaches and law and the humanities are also encouraged to apply.

Professor Nadler is most interested in supervising work in the theory of contract law, the theory of property law, the theory of tort law, and the theory of the law of unjust enrichment, or any work that approaches private law more generally from within a theoretical perspective.

Professor Nedelsky is currently particularly interested in three research areas: 1. The organization of care and of work, as she has recently finished a co-authored book, part-time for all: a care manifesto (oxford, 2023). 2. The role of property law in the climate emergency and its link to inequality. This includes issues of care for the earth. 3. Theories of judgment. She is working on a book MS on Arendtian judgment. She is also interested in legal theory topics generally, with a particular interest how a relational approach to law helps analyze topics in many different areas PF law (Law's Relations, Oxford 2011). She is also interested in the ways that gender and feminist theory intersect with multiple fields of law. Although Indigenous law is not an area of her research expertise, she has previously supervised dissertations in this area and would be keen to join committees. She has also supervised dissertations on mental health law, legal education, judgment, sex trafficking, and human rights, and has been part of doctoral committees on administrative law and political theory.

Professor Nedelsky is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Okafor is most interested in supervising excellent students who have already demonstrated a strong capacity for academic research and writing, and who also have an interest and experience in international human rights law (especially human rights in Africa), and public international law (especially students who work within and with Third World Approaches to International Law or TWAIL).

Professor Okafor is currently on leave and not accepting new students.

I am interested in supervising topics related to Private International Law, International Arbitration, Contract Law, International and Domestic Sale of Goods Law, and Regional Economic Integration in Africa.

Professor Ozai is interested in supervising students on projects relating to national, international and comparative tax law and policy. He is also interested in research projects focusing on legal theory, jurisprudence, deontic logic and statutory interpretation.

Professor Ozai is willing to read preliminary proposals from prospective students and comment on interest in supervision before submission of an official application. Potential students may send an email, attaching their cv and a brief research proposal.

Professor Paciocco conducts research in the areas of criminal law and theory, criminal procedure, criminal sentencing, the law of evidence, and professional ethics. Her current research interests include trial delay, expert evidence, plea bargaining, and the exercise of discretion within the criminal justice system. She is particularly interested in working with students whose projects use methodological or theoretical frameworks grounded in socio-legal studies or law and the humanities. She is also interested in doctrinal analyses of recent developments in the criminal law and the law of evidence.

Professor Paciocco is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application. She will be away on sabbatical in 2023-2024.

Professor Adam Parachin is willing to supervise graduate students in his core areas of research, estates, trusts, charities and personal income tax. His current and recent research projects examine the legal definition and regulation of "charity". He is also interested in the interaction of public law and private law, specifically in relation to "public policy" limitations on trusts and estates. He is active in continuing legal education programs for members of the bar. He is able to supervise doctrinal and theoretical methodological approaches.

Technology Law, Privacy/Surveillance, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Human Rights, Online Abuse/Harassment, Disinformation/Manipulation, Empirical/Computational Legal Studies, Private Law.

Professor Penney welcomes the opportunity to supervise graduate work in his principal fields of research (noted above).

Legal theory, private law (doctrine and theory), welfare state and the law, history of legal ideas.

Professor Priel is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application

Professor Poonam Puri is interested in supervising students who wish to pursue advanced studies in corporate law, corporate governance and capital markets regulation including topics in corporate accountability, diversity in leadership, ESG, regulatory enforcement, and the legal and regulatory aspects of cryptocurrencies.

Professor Rehaag is interested in working with students on projects involving refugee law, immigration law, access to justice, judicial/administrative decision-making, and law & technology. He is especially eager to supervise projects in these areas that use research methods that go beyond standard doctrinal legal research, including: quantitative empirical research, data scraping, machine learning, predictive algorithms, artificial intelligence, and experimental methods. In addition to students with law degrees, students with backgrounds in data science, computer science, software engineering, statistics, experimental psychology, or related fields, who are interested in exploring intersections between their discipline and law are welcome to apply. Projects with the potential to enhance social justice will be prioritized.

Professor Rehaag is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Ryder is available to supervise students with interests in Canadian, foreign or comparative constitutional law, including fundamental constitutional principles; Canadian constitutional history (including the history of colonization and decolonization); division of legislative powers in federal states; Aboriginal and treaty rights; statutory and constitutional prohibitions on discrimination; freedom of expression; freedom of religion; and remedies for human rights violations.

Professor Hengameh Saberi’s main areas of interest are international law ,international legal theory and history, jurisprudence, disability law and human rights, philosophy of pragmatism, and Islamic political and legal thought.

Apart from possible interest in supervising in any area of past scholarship, Professor Scott is most interested in supervising theses or dissertations in the following areas of current research interest:

1. Individual criminal responsibility and state/corporate civil liability for torture, especially in the context of intelligence operations in the 'war on terror' and even more especially in the context of US, UK and Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan.

2. Intersections between law and political theory in relation to transforming the responsiveness of institutional democracy and government policy-making to various forms and manifestations of social knowledge and social initiative, especially in the context of responses to climate change.

3. Legal history -- national, transnational, comparative -- on the role of military judges in wartime and civilian judges in authoritarian regimes, most especially in the context of France/Germany in World War II and with special interest in historicizing ethical dilemmas, philosophies of judging, and concepts like honour and loyalty.

4. The theory and practice of social democracy and/or democratic socialism, and conceptions of the role of law, human rights and institutions within such theory and practice.

Professor Scott is unlikely to be available to supervise new students during his tenure as Associate Dean (Academic), which is expected to end June 30, 2025.

Professor Scott is particularly interested in supervising critical projects employing community-based participatory methods in the areas of environmental law and justice, resource extraction and Indigenous resistance, gender and environmental health, and imagining alternative legal futures in the green economy.

Professor Slinn is willing to supervise in labour, employment and human rights law. She is able to supervise a variety of methodological approaches including doctrinal, theoretical, qualitative & quantitative empirical methods.

Professor Smith is keen to supervise projects at the intersection of labour and law, and projects with strong social justice and/or activist components.

Professor Smith is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Sutherland's research interests are Legal Theory and Feminist Legal Studies.

Professor Tanguay-Renaud is broadly interested in supervising analytical philosophical research on criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, administrative law, and international law. He is especially interested in research that investigates these fields through the lens of moral and political philosophy. In terms of specific issues, his current interests relate to issues of collective and corporate responsibility, accountability of state actors through the criminal process and otherwise, policing and prosecution, the use artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system, the rule of law, emergencies, and liability in war.

Professor Tanguay-Renaud is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Van Harten may be available to supervise research projects on topics related to international investment law including investor-state arbitration, international monetary law, administrative law, inquiries and investigations, and the political economy of law.

Professor Van Wagner is interested in supervising graduate students working in the areas of property law, housing and homelessness, land use planning, natural resources, and place-based and experiential legal education, including projects grounded in critical property theory and feminist legal theory. She is currently involved in grants examining private land and Indigenous land, impact assessment, and the right to housing.

On leave for current academic year.

Professor Wai's research interests are International Law, Globalization, International Economic Law and Contracts.

Professor Walker is interested in supervising projects in the areas of international commercial arbitration, private international law, and comparative procedure.

Professor Walker is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed, and comment on interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.

Professor Kidd White is interested in supervising philosophical research in constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, human rights, and public international law. She is particularly interested in research projects that analyze these fields through the lens of political philosophy, and/or legal reasoning and argumentation. Her current research interests include the legal concept of human dignity, judicial reasoning, theories of legitimacy, and the role of emotions in legal reasoning. Professor Kidd White is willing to read serious preliminary proposals in her areas of research expertise, and comment on her interest in supervision prior to submission of an official application.