Announcements and events

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Indigenous scholar Val Napoleon has been appointed interim Dean of Law from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022. Napoleon is the director of the Indigenous law degree program at UVic and of the Indigenous Law Research Unit, which she co-founded in 2012 to partner with Indigenous communities, helping them to research, re-articulate and rebuild their laws. She also holds the Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance, has been named a Canadian Indigenous Bar Association People’s Counsel—a rare distinction awarded to a First Nations, Inuit, or Metis lawyer for “outstanding achievements in the practice of law"—a L’expert Zenith Award, and was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars in 2017. In 2021 she received a national Indspire Award and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from UNBC.

Supriya Routh is a co-investigator on a SSHRC Insight Grant with McMaster Faculty of Social Science’s Judy Fudge (Principal investigator) and UVic Faculty of Political Science’s Marlea Clarke (Co-investigator), and is a co-investigator in an international socio-legal project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) (2021-2024) led by Julie Motte-Baumvol (Université de Paris), titled: Social Protection for Ageing Migrants in a Globalized World: Building Bridges between National, Regional, and International Law for Old-Age Pension Rights.

We are delighted to welcome Darcy Lindberg (back) to the faculty of Law. Darcy completed his Ph.D at UVic and has been teaching at the University of Alberta for the past few years. Darcy is mixed-rooted Plains Cree, and has taught courses at the University of Alberta on constitutional law, Indigenous legal traditions, treaties, and Indigenous environmental legal orders.

Professor Val Napoleon received the 2021 Indspire Award for Law & Justice, and has been awarded an honorary degree from UNBC. Both very well deserved honours! An APTN/CBC special aired on June 22, highlighting the accomplishments of the 2021 Indspire award winners, including Napoleon.

More than 10 years in the making, the national centre, set to complete construction in 2023, will be home to the Indigenous Law Research Unit, the joint degree program in Canadian Common law and Indigenous legal orders (JD/JID), as well as ceremonial and community spaces. But more than that, it will be a centre for dialogue, gathering, teaching and furthering the resurgence of Indigenous laws. How the centre will facilitate and build those conversations and connections has been the focus of a national outreach and engagement process which included an online engagement hub, a national survey and a series of open forums.

It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of Joseph Arvay. He was a wonderful, greatly loved human being and an exceptional and tireless advocate for individuals and groups whose basic human rights were being infringed. He was a committed champion of access to justice by, for example, taking on many public interest cases pro bono and initiating innovative litigation to provide pre-authorized costs for public interest cases.

Congratulations to our three SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship Recipients – PhD in Law and Society graduate students - Lana Lowe (2020-21 Year 4 PhD) - Dechinta nats'edeh / Witaskewin / Living on the land: revitalizing Indigenous law and environmental governance in Denendeh - $40,000 - Eva Linde (2020-21 Year 2 PhD) - Climate Litigation and the Legislative Powers of Courts: Redrawing the Boundaries between Law and Politics? - $80,000 - Esteban Vallejo Toledo (2020-21 Year 2 PhD) - A legal geography case for land value taxation and the right to the city $80,000

Deborah Curran, Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies (Social Sciences) and Faculty of Law, is a collaborator on a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant – COVID 19 Special Initiative - awarded to Professors Van Wagner (York U) and Flynn (UBC). With the academic team comprises most of the municipal law scholars in Canada, they are working with community partners The Shift and others to develop an implementation strategy for the: National Protocol on Homeless Encampments in Canada: A Human Rights Approach.

Supriya Routh received a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for the research proposal Regulating Sustainable Development in Canada: exploring spaces of non-hegemonic legal imagination in collaboration with Alan Hanna.

The UVic Faculty of Law presents: Indigenous Law: Today and Tomorrow with John Borrows and Val Napoleon 7:30 p.m. Farquhar Auditorium, University of Victoria. Join Chancellor Shelagh Rogers, Indigenous leaders, community members, and scholars to mark this historic moment as we celebrate the launch of the world’s first Indigenous law degree. Dr. Borrows will explore Salish Law and Land: Lessons Learned and Dr. Napoleon will look at the future of Indigenous Law: Fast Forward. This free public lecture has reserved seating.

Shiri Pasternak presents "What is colonialism that does not dispossess? Ecologies of Care and Supply at Barriere Lake." This presentation examines the materialities of colonialism from the perspective of a present-day Algonquin community in northern Quebec.

Join us in celebrating the Law Class of '93! This reunion will be a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with fellow grads! Saturday, September 15, 2018 4:00 pm: Meet and greet with classmates and former professors in the Fraser Building 6:00 pm: Dinner & Dance at the University Club Cost: $125 per person (includes catering, gratuity and taxes) Sunday, September 16, 2018 10:00 am: Golf (optional, not included in above price) at Cordova Bay Golf Course If you have any questions, please contact Liz Eby, Law Alumni Relations Officer at lawalum@uvic.ca or 250-853-3518.