Pooja Parmar

Biography

Pooja Parmar is an Associate Professor and holds the President’s Chair in Law and Indigeneity in a Global Context at UVic Faculty of Law. Her research focuses on Indigeneity, the legal profession and ethical lawyering. Among her current projects are a SSHRC-funded study of Indigenous laws as sources of ethical legal practice in BC, and a GAC-funded collaborative project about Indigenous laws and transpacific trade. Much of Dr. Parmar’s research is informed by her interest in legal pluralism and legal history, and by questions of legal epistemology in multi-juridical spaces. In her published research Dr. Parmar has examined aspects of human right to water, Indigeneity and Indigenous claims, oral history, lawyers as translators across legal worlds, intersections of law and colonialism, land, law and development. Her book titled Indigeneity and Legal Pluralism in India: Claims, Histories, Meanings (Cambridge University Press) explores some of these issues in the context of Adivasi protests against a Coca-Cola facility. Her paper titled ‘Reconciliation and Ethical Lawyering: Some Thoughts on Cultural Competence’ critically examines competence in the context of the TRC Calls to Action and received the CALT Prize for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Parmar joined the Faculty of Law in 2015. She received a PhD in Law from UBC, and has previously taught at Carleton University, Osgoode Hall Law School, and UBC Faculty of Law. Prior to commencing graduate research, she practiced law in New Delhi for several years. At UVic Law Dr. Parmar teaches legal ethics and professionalism, property law, and international human rights law. 

Professor Parmar is the Vice president of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics (CALE), and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives (CAPI). She serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Law & Society, and on the CAPI Steering Committee.

Education

• BA (Honours) – Panjab University (1993)

• LLB – Panjab University (1996)

• LLM – UBC (2006)

• PhD – UBC (2013)

Selected books and chapters

• ‘The Lawyer-Client relationship’ in Woolley, et al, eds., Lawyers Ethics and Professional Regulation, 4^th Edition (Canada: LexisNexis, 2021) 77-166. Co-author: Richard Devlin
• ‘Water Justice & Indigenous Peoples’ in Mariana Velverde, et. al. eds. Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (London: Routledge, 2021) 245-248.
• Indigeneity and Legal Pluralism in India: Claims, Histories, Meanings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
• South Asian Edition: Indigeneity and Legal Pluralism in India: Claims, Histories, Meanings (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Selected publications

 Articles in Refereed Journals

• ‘A Mixed Bag: Critical Reflections on the Revised Ethical Principles for Judges’ (2022) 100:3 Canadian Bar Review 325-370 (Co-authors: Richard Devlin, Jula Hughes, Stephen G.A. Pitel, & Amy Salyzyn).
• ‘Lawyers in the ‘Slammer’ and in Hiding: The Pitfalls of Advocating for Unpopular Causes at the British Columbia Bar, 1900-1925’, (2020) 43:1 Manitoba Law Journal 59-94(Co-author: John McLaren)
• ‘Reconciliation and Ethical Lawyering: Some Thoughts on Cultural Competence’ (2019) 97:3 Canadian Bar Review 426-457
• ‘Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law and Indigeneity in India’ (2012) 49 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 491
• ‘Prairiecall: The Vulnerabilities of Outsourced Work on America’s Near-shore’ (2009) 26:4 Journal of Architectural Planning and Research – Special Issue: ‘Work Beyond Boundaries’ 313 (Co-author: Ruth Buchanan
• ‘Revisiting the Human Right to Water’ (2008) 28 Australian Feminist Law Journal 77
• ‘TWAIL: An Epistemological Inquiry’ (2008) 10:4 International Community Law Review 363

Edited Collections

• ‘Legal pluralism and globalization from the Himalayas to Southeast Asia’ (2022) 54:1 Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis 7-12. Co-authors: Victor V. Ramraj, Nima Dorji and Benjamin Schonthal.)
• ‘Situating Third World Approaches to International Law: Inspirations, Challenges and Possibilities’ International Community Law Review (2008) 10:4, Guest Editor, Special Issue (Co-authors: Karin Mickelson and Ibironke Odumosu)

Book Reviews

• Review of Rajshree Chandra, The Cunning of Rights: Law, Life, Biocultures (Oxford University Press, 2016) 52: 3 Contributions to Indian Sociology (2018) pp. 360-362
• Collective Review of Constance Backhouse, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé: A Life, (UBC Press, 2017) 56:1 Alberta Law Review, (2018) pp. 263-274 (With Adjin-Tettey, Calder, et. al.)
• Review of Narendra Subramaniam, Nation and Family: Personal Law, Cultural Pluralism, and Gendered Citizenship in India (Stanford University Press, 2014) 49:3 Law & Society Review (2015) pp. 807-809

Recognition and Awards

• President’s Chair in Law & Indigeneity in a Global Context, 2023
• Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Prize for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2020
• UVic Law Students Society First Year Class Teaching Award, 2017
• UBC Faculty of Law PhD Dissertation Prize, 2012-2013
• UBC’s nomination to Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts, 2013
• Osgoode Society Legal History Prize, 2008
• UBC Faculty of Law LL.M. Prize, 2006

Grants

PI:

• Global Affairs Canada - RCE, 2025-26
• SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2019
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubiliee - Advanced Scholars (QES-AS) Early Career Scholar Award, 2018-2020
• UVic Internal Research and Creative Project Grant, 2018
• Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiative Research Grant, 2018
• Law Foundation of BC Legal Research Fund, 2016

Co-investigator:

• SSHRC Connections Grant, 2023

Courses

• Law 106: Legal Process
• Law 108B: Property
• Law 360: Legal Ethics & Professionalism
• Law 373: International Human Rights and Dispute Resolution
• Law 390: Major Research Paper
• Law 690/ LAW 590: Directed Studies

Graduate supervision