Freya Kodar
Position
Status
On leave until 06/30/22
Contact
Credentials
BA – McGill (1990), LLB – UVic (1995), LLM - Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (2002)
Area of expertise
Pension (public and private), consumer law and policy, debt and credit regulation, income security, care work, disability and the law.
Biography
I joined the Faculty in 2005 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012. I served as Associate Dean, Administration and Research from 2016 to 2021. Before I decided to pursue graduate studies, I articled and practiced with two legal aid clinics in British Columbia's Lower Mainland.
My research and writing focuses on two core areas: pension law and policy, and the regulation of debt and credit. In the pension field, I have written about pension fund investment practices, and their role in both corporate regulation and financial markets. More recently my research has centred on the question of how to provide retirement security for those engaged in precarious work and / or providing unpaid care work over their life cycle. I also have an interest in disability and the law, and have presented on pension security for persons with disabilities.
In the debtor and creditor field, my work centres on regulatory responses to rising levels of consumer debt, with a particular focus on vulnerable consumers and the alternative consumer credit market. In this context I have looked at financial literacy measures and payday loan regulation. I was recently awarded a research grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia for a project looking at regulatory responses to consumer vulnerability in the mainstream and alternative financial markets.
My work has been published in legal and interdisciplinary journals such as the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, the Dalhousie Law Journal, and the University of British Columbia Law Review. I also contributed to Law and Film on the Small Screen, edited by Peter Robson and Jessica Silbey and Money on the Line: Workers’ Capital in Canada, edited by Isla Carmichael and Jack Quarter.
I regularly teach Pension Law and Policy, Debtor and Creditor Relations, Torts, and Law Legislation and Policy. I have also taught Disability and the Law, and Social Welfare Law. I have written or co-authored pieces about some of my teaching practices in the Alberta Law Review, the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, and Constitutional Forum.