Irehobhude O. Iyioha

Associate Professor

Ireh Iyioha

Ireh Iyioha
Tel: 250-721-6299
Fax: 250-721-6390
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 Faculty of Law, University of Victoria
PO Box 1700, STN CSC
Victoria, BC  V8W 2Y2
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Dr. Irehobhude O. Iyioha (‘Ireh Iyioha’), LL.B., LL.M., BL., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, a Full Professor, adj. at the Dossetor Centre for Health Ethics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, and a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University’s Professional Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program. She is currently serving as a Visiting Scholar in Philosophy at Harvard University (Spring Semester, 2023). She joined the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor in 2019 and was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure) in 2021. Prior to joining the University of Victoria, she held teaching positions at the Faculties of Law at Western University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Alberta, Canada. Her career has spanned research and senior policy positions with the governments of Ontario and Alberta, as well as non-profit leadership. She is Founder of UVic’s Black Professionals Leadership Program (BPL)​​—an educational support and leadership training program for Black students at the University of Victoria—and served as its inaugural director from 2021 to 2023. She has served as a Nathanson Visiting Fellow at the Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at Osgoode Hall Law School, Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and Visiting Academic at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Iyioha’s scholarship focuses on the limits and effectiveness of law in the fields of moral and legal philosophy, international human rights law, feminist legal theory, torts, comparative health law, and women’s health law and policy. In these areas, her work has advanced understanding of why law works and why it fails in various legal, social and geopolitical contexts. She is editor and co-editor of two books – Women’s Health and the Limits of Law: Domestic and International Perspectives, 1st Edition (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2020) and Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (London: Ashgate, 2015) (with R. N. Nwabueze), and is currently working on a third book on the moral limits of pandemic law. Her publications have appeared and are forthcoming in edited collections and leading Canadian and international law journals, including Oxford University’s Statute Law Review, Canadian Journal of Law and Society (Cambridge University), Dalhousie Law Journal, Edinburgh University’s African Journal of International and Comparative Law and York University’s Transnational Human Rights Review.

Dr. Iyioha is the recipient of the University of Victoria Law Students’ Society First Year Class Teaching Award, 2022 – an award “Presented annually to a professor who, in the opinion of the 1L class, has made a special contribution to legal education through effective and engaging classroom teaching and a demonstrated commitment to assisting and supporting the academic work of first year students”. In December 2022, she received a $690,000 Racial Justice Grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia to support the BPL Initiative. Her scholarship and service to the local and global communities have been recognized nationally and internationally through numerous awards and honours, including the 18th World Congress on Medical Law Award issued by the World Association for Medical Law for her formative work on legal effectiveness and a 2017 Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Award for Scholarly Work that Makes a Substantial Contribution to Legal Literature for her theory of Substantive (Legal) Effectiveness. She was honoured with a Top 40 under 40 in Edmonton Award by Avenue Magazine for “writing and teaching law with an unflinching commitment to human rights,” and received the 2018 Stars of Alberta Award from the Queen’s Representative, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and the Minister of Culture and Tourism for exemplary leadership in service and improving the overall quality of life of Albertans and the community.

She holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant for a multi-country study of populism and obedience to law in the context of public health restrictions, and was a 2021 Recipient of a Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Law for the Future Fund Grant (LFFF) to study inequality and the limits of pandemic law and policy.

Major Fields of Scholarly or Professional Interest 

  • Jurisprudence | Moral and Legal Philosophy
  • Comparative | Global Health Law and Policy
  • Women’s Health and the Law
  • International Human Rights Law
  • Anti-discrimination Law
  • Tort Law
  • Ph.D., University of British Columbia
  • LL.M., University of Toronto
  • BL, Nigerian Law School
  • LL.B. (Hons), University of Benin (Highest Honours)
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Western Ontario
  • Certificate of Qualification, National Committee on Accreditation, Federation of Law Societies of Canada

Books

  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Women’s Health and the Limits of Law: Domestic and International Perspectives (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2020).
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (and R.N. Nwabueze), eds, Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (London: Ashgate, 2015). 

Articles (Selected)

  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Caesar’s Gambit: Coherence, Justification of Legal Rules, and the Duty Test – Towards an Interactional Theory of Government Liability for Negligence in Disaster Management” (2023) Dalhousie Law Journal (In Press). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “This is Not Our House: Social Context Evidence and the Limits of Adjudication on Anti-Black Discrimination” (2023) Journal of Law and Social Policy (Forthcoming). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with C. Ngozi and E. Durojaiye), “The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, the Maputo Protocol and the Rights of Women in Nigeria” (May 2017) Oxford University Statute Law Review. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Women’s Health Rights in Canadian-Anglophone African Human Rights Engagement: Normativity, Indigeneity and the Spaces Beyond the Norm Life Cycle” (2017) Vol. 3 Osgoode Hall Transnational Human Rights Review. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Public Health, Cultural Norms and the Criminal Law: An Inconvenient Union? A Case Study of Female Genital Cutting (FGC)” (2012) 31:3 International Journal of Medicine & Law;
    • Won First Place Prize in World Competition on Medical Law for Best Research and Presentation.
    • Also published in Proceedings of the 18th World Congress on Medical Law (Zagreb, Croatia) [Refereed]. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with Y. Akorede), “You give me Welfare but Take My Freedom: Understanding the Mature Minor’s Autonomy in the Face of the Court’s Parens Patriae Jurisdiction” (2010) 13:2 Quinnipiac University Health Law Journal 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Medical Negligence and the Nigerian National Health Insurance Scheme: Civil Liability, No-Fault or A Hybrid Model?” (2010) 18:1 University of Edinburgh African Journal of International and Comparative Law 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Law’s Dilemma: Validating Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Clash of Evidential Paradigms” (2010) 2011 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “In Search of Law’s Residence: Towards the Creation of a Mosaic Healthcare State” (2009) 24:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 251 (Cambridge University Press). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Healthcare Systems Regulation and Traditional Medical Practice: A Comparative Analysis of Models” (2008) 4:1 ICFAI Journal of Health Care Law 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Informed Choice in Alternative Medicine: Expanding the Doctrine Beyond Conventional Alternative Therapies” (2007) 5:2 ICFAI Journal of Health Care Law.
  • Reprinted in S. Sudarshan, ed, Consent in Law: Problems and Perspectives (ICFAI University Press, 2008). 

Book Chapters (Selected)

  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Women’s Health Law and Policy” in Canadian Health Law Practice Manual (Lexis Nexis, 2022). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha: “Law, Normative Limits and Women’s Health: Towards a Jurisprudence of Substantive Effectiveness” (Chapter 2) in Women’s Health and the Limits of Law (Routledge).
  • Winner, 2017 Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for a Scholarly Paper that makes a Significant Contribution to Legal Literature (co-recipient). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha: “Within and Beyond the Hedge: Form, Substance and the Limits of Laws on Women’s Health” (Chapter 1, Introduction) in Women’s Health and the Limits of Law (Routledge). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with J. Lewis and Dexter Dias, QC): “On Feminism, Morality and Human Rights: Assessing the Effectiveness of United Kingdom’s FGM Act” (Chapter 3) in Women’s Health and the Limits of Law (Routledge). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with A. Shah and T. Akintola): “On the Margins of Law: Examining the Limits of Legislative Initiatives on Maternal Mortality in South Africa and Nigeria” (Chapter 10) in Women’s Health and the Limits of Law (Routledge). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Substantive Effectiveness, Women’s Health and the Limits of International Human Rights Law” in Anna Kirkland and Marie-Andree Jacobs, eds, Research Handbook on Socio-Legal Studies of Medicine and Health (Edward Elgar, September 2020). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Beyond the Act: Public Health, Human Rights, and the Impact of Laws on Violence Against Women in the African Region” in R.N. Nwabueze, Modern Essays on Nigerian and Comparative Law (Cambridge Scholars, 2019). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Pathologies, Transplants, and Indigenous Norms: An Introduction to Nigerian Health Law and Policy,” in Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (Ashgate, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “The Harm Principle and Liability for CAM practice: A Comparative Analysis of Canadian and United States Medical Freedom Acts” in Nicola K. Gale and Jean V. McHale, eds, The Routledge Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Perspectives from Social Science and Law (UK: Routledge, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with Y. Akorede and S. Metiboba), “Regulation of Medical Practice” in Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (Ashgate, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Medical Negligence” in Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (Ashgate, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with O. Aniaka), “Informed Consent” in Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (Ashgate, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Medical Integration: Law and Ethics of Integrated Medical Practice” in Comparative Health Law and Policy: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian and Global Health Law (Ashgate, 2015). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Inadmissibility on Health Grounds” in Sana Loue and Martha Sajatovic, Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health (Springer, 2012). 

 Law Reform and Funded Reports (Selected)

  • Irehobhude Iyioha, Populism, Individualism and the Value of a Right: Exploring Conceptual Shifts in the Right to Say No to Public Health Interventions (Complete report delivered at 26th World Congress on Medical Law), Gold Coast, Australia, December 5-8, 2022.
    • Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Inequality, Health Determinants and the Limits of Pandemic Law and Policy: Re-imagining the Future of Pandemic Law After Covid-19, Canadian Bar Association Final Report, March 31, 2022:
    • Funded by the CBA Law for the Future Fund (LFFF) Grant. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha and Renee Rogers, “Consequentialism, Equity, and COVID-19 in Canadian Long-Term Care Homes: Shifting the Focus from Efficiency to Effectiveness in Governance Regimes”.
    • Funded by the CBA Law for the Future Fund (LFFF) Grant. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Not Just Heroes, Humans Too: Inequality, Vulnerability, and the Limits of Pandemic Law and Policy (A Survey of Nursing Home Health Workforce Experience), Canadian Bar Association Summary Report, December 31, 2021.
    • Funded by the CBA Law for the Future Fund (LFFF) Grant. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Health Professions Governance: An International Analysis of Regulatory Models and Accountability Mechanisms: Policy Report for the Alberta Government (Alberta Health, June 2014). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Health Professions Regulation: Logic and Lapses: Policy Report for the Alberta Government (Alberta Health, December 2013). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Experimental and Integrated Therapies in Paediatric Chronic Care: Law, Ethics, and Policy in Canada, John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta (2012). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, “Funding the Alternative: The Conflict of Law, Science and Healthcare Choices and How the Courts (Should) Decide” in Proceedings of the 18th World Congress on Medical Law (Zagreb, Croatia, 2010). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, International Comparison of Drug Reimbursement Models in Ten Countries: Draft Policy Report for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (OMHLTC), 2007.
    • Co-Funded by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH). 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with Professor Mark Perry), Innovation and Patenting in Plant Genomics – Mapping and Analyzing Patents on Plants Engineered for Biotic Stress Tolerance (2011).
    • Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Genome Canada. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha (with Nicole Zeit, Matthew Frontini & Mark Perry), Freedom to Operate and the Experimental Use Doctrine in Patent Law: A Multi-Jurisdictional Analysis (2011).
  • Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Genome Canada. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Health Governance, Medical Pluralism and the Politics of Integration: A Legal Theory for Increasing Access to Healthcare (2010) (504 pages), University of British Columbia Libraries:
    • Funded by BC Law Foundation Fellowships, UBC Special Law Awards, the Pacific Century Graduate Scholarships, and UBC University Graduate Fellowships. 
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, The Deregulation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Science-Based Regulation (2007) (123 pages), University of Toronto Libraries:
    • Funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Training Program in Health Law and Policy Fellowship.
  • Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Obscenity and Sexual Deviance: A Comparative Discourse on Law and Morality (2003) (162 pages), University of Benin Law Library:
    • Funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria Scholarship Award. 

Media Articles (Selected)

  • “Put Childcare, Women’s Health on the Political Agenda,” Edmonton Journal, May 1, 2015:
    • Also published in the Ottawa Citizen, the Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun (“Let’s Solve Alberta’s Childcare Crisis”), April 25, 2015.
    • Cited by Premier Rachel Notley in support of her Childcare Policies in the 2015 provincial elections in Alberta. 
  • “Debate on the Legality of Organ Donation and Transplantation under the New National Health Act, 2014,” The Guardian (Nig.), February 26, 2015, online. Also published in The SUN (Nig.), February 12, 2015.

Media Commentaries and Profiles (Selected)

  • Law Foundation of British Columbia Racial Justice Grant – $690,000 (Requested $598,000, received $92,000 more than requested) – 2023-2026
  • Visiting Scholar (Concentration in Legal Philosophy), Department of Philosophy, Harvard University 
  • Murray and Anne Fraser Endowment (MAFE) Research Award – 2022-2023.
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant, 2021-2024
  • Strategic Framework Impact Fund (SFIF), 2021-2023 
  • University of Victoria Internal Research and Creative Project Grant (IRCPG), 2021-2023
  • Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Law for the Future Award, 2020-2022
  • University of Victoria Law Students’ Society First Year Class Teaching Award, 2022
  • Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Scholarly Paper Award(co-recipient)
    For a Scholarly Paper that Makes a Substantial Contribution to Legal Literature
  • Nathanson Visiting Fellow, Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
  • Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
  • World Congress on Medical Law Award – 1st Place Prize
    Awarded by the World Association for Medical Law (WAML), University of Zagreb, Croatia
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Program in Health Law and Policy Fellowship (CIHR)
  • British Columbia Law Foundation Fellowship
  • Star of Alberta Award
    Issued by Her Majesty the Queen’s Representative, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and the Hon. Minister of Culture and Tourism.
  • Top 40 Under 40 Award, Avenue Edmonton
  • TD Bank Immigrant of Distinction Award
    For Outstanding Achievements in Professional and Service Capacities
  • Ontario Ministry of Health and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH) Research Grant
  • Certificate of Achievement
    For Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
    Issued by the Deputy Minister of Executive Council, Government of Alberta and Assistant Deputy Minister, Alberta Health
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship in Health Law and Policy (Could Not Accept)
  • Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Award
    Ontario, Canada 
  • Liu Scholar
    Liu Institute for Global Studies, University of British Columbia
  • Special UBC Law Award (three-year term)
    University of British Columbia, Canada
  • British Columbia Law Foundation Fellowship (multiple awards)
    British Columbia, Canada
  • Dean’s Prize for best graduating student in law, University of Benin 
  • Departmental Academic Prize for best graduating student
    Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Benin 
  • First Atlantic Bank (PLC) Prize for contribution to peace and academic development at the University of Benin 
  • Chief (Justice) S.O. Ighodaro (Iyase of Benin) Award for overall best graduating student in law, University of Benin  
  • University Valedictorian
    University of Benin Convocation Ceremony, 2005                 
  • Osadebey Education (Trust Fund) Prize for best graduating student in law
    University of Benin                        
  • Law Class of 2002/03 Certificate of Excellence For overall best student in law, Faculty of Law, University of Benin  
  • Member, Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC)
  • Member, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)
Prof. Iyioha accepts LL.M. and Ph.D. students, as well as post-doctoral applicants interested in her areas of research interest, especially the limits and effectiveness of law in the areas of torts, women's health, international human rights law, anti-discrimination law, and Canadian and comparative health law. Graduate students interested in and willing to engage with critical legal perspectives on the capacity of law to ameliorate the experiences of or limit the realization of justice for vulnerable and historically marginalized groups are especially welcome to apply.