Patricia Cochran
Associate Dean, Administration and Research, and Associate Professor
- Contact:
- Office: FRA 238 law.assocdean.adm@uvic.ca 250-721-8183
- ORCID:
- 0000-0002-6727-831X
- Credentials:
- BA Hons. (McGill), MA (U of T), LLB (UBC), LLM (UVic) PhD (UBC)
- Area(s) of expertise:
- Constitutional law, theories of judgement, democracy and legality, multijuralism, law and humanities
- Related links:
Biography
Dr. Patricia Cochran joined the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria in 2014, where she has taught constitutional law, legal methodologies, feminist legal theories, statutory interpretation, equality and human rights law and evidence law. She has received graduate degrees in law and political theory, and continues to teach and research at the intersection of those disciplines. Her research focuses on theories of judgment as a resource for thinking about the demands of law and justice in the context of pluralism, inequality and colonialism.
Prof. Cochran’s book, Common Sense and Legal Judgment: Community Knowledge, Political Power and Rhetorical Practice (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017) is a critical and interdisciplinary engagement with questions of judgment, knowledge and rhetoric. This interest in legal judgment, and particularly its relational aspects, has continued to inform Prof. Cochran’s research. She is currently exploring these themes in a variety of subject areas including agonistic constitutionalism, multijural statutory interpretation, and the rhetorical aspects of legal texts such as judgments, application forms, and online processes.
Selected publications
Books
- Common Sense and Legal Judgment: Community Knowledge, Political Power and Rhetorical Practice (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017).
Journal articles
- "Jurisdictional relationships: Democracy and the administrative state through the lens of Caring Society v Canada" (2023) Social & Legal Studies, online.
- "Not Judging: Jurisdictional Hubris and Building a Common Legal World" (2019) No Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice 28-52.
- “Applying the Burden of Proof and Creating Connections to Communities” (2011) 19.3 Constitutional Forum 119-124.
- “Taking Notice: Judicial Notice and the ‘Community Sense’ in Anti-Poverty Litigation” (2007) 40:2 UBC Law Review 559-589.
Other publications
- “Jurisdictional Relationships: Exploring a statute that aims to structure relationships between state and non-state lawmaking authorities,” Social & Legal Studies blog, October 14, 2024:
- “Judgment by Thomas Giddens” (2023) 35:3 Law & Literature 539–542 [book review].
- “Review of Authorities: Conflicts, Cooperation, and Transnational Legal Theory by Nicole Roughan” (2017) 29:1 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 211-215.
Special projects
Organizing committee for the Victoria Colloquium on Political, Social and Legal Theory
- Prof. Cochran is a member of the organizing committee for the Victoria Colloquium on Political, Social and Legal Theory, a collaboration between Law, Political Science and Philosophy. Established over twenty years ago, the Victoria Colloquium brings six theorists to Victoria each year to provide a forum for interdisciplinary exchange on critical issues in political, social and legal theory.