News and events

This year the University of Victoria’s Law Centre celebrates its 40th anniversary, which we will celebrate at the Law Centre on June 9th. As we look back to its beginnings and through its evolution, one thing remains clear: the Law Centre offers a critical service to a vulnerable segment of society, and at its heart is a robust student clinical program – arguably the best in the country. The Law Centre serves between 1,800 and 2,000 low-income clients per year and is the longest running common-law clinical program in Canada. What started from humble beginnings in 1977 has served over 80,000 clients in the Greater Victoria area and has become a pillar of student education at UVic Law, thanks in large part to the unwavering direction of Glenn Gallins.

Two UVic Ph.D. students have been awarded Trudeau scholarships, one of the biggest and most prestigious awards in the country. An impassioned community volunteer who knows what it’s like to live on the streets, and a legal scholar who wants to change how the legal system deals with Aboriginal land claims are two University of Victoria students receiving three-year doctoral scholarships announced today by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, with a total grant of approximately $250,000 between the exceptional duo. It is Canada’s most prestigious doctoral award in the social sciences and humanities.

UVic Law welcomed three new faculty members on July 1st of this year. Brad Bryan will be teaching taxation law, Asad Kiyani will be teaching criminal law and refugee law, and Sara Ramshaw will be teaching contracts and family law.

Vistas alumni magazine - Spring 2017 edition is online!

John Borrows' book Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism has won the Donald Smiley Prize for the 2017 best book in Canadian Political Science. His book demonstrates "how Canada’s constitutional structures marginalize Indigenous peoples’ ability to exercise power in the real world." He uses "Ojibwe law, stories, and principles to suggest alternative ways in which Indigenous peoples can work to enhance freedom." This is the second time John Borrows has won the prize; the first time was in 2003 for Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law. He was also shortlisted for the prize in 2010 for his book Canada's Indigenous Constitution.

UVic Law hosts Educating the Whole Lawyer, a joint conference of the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE) and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) from June 8-10, 2017. The Conference brings together legal educators and clinical professionals to discuss the contribution of law schools and law clinics in producing “the whole lawyer”, and the responsibility the “whole lawyer” has to respond to pressing social challenges such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and access to justice. The keynote address will be delivered by Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS). She will discuss the IAALS’s recent report, Foundations for Practice: The Whole Lawyer and the Character Quotient. Conference panels, workshops and roundtables will consider the meaning of “whole lawyer” and questions about curriculum, pedagogy, accessibility and graduate legal education. The Conference Plenary, Towards a Manifesto – Anchoring the Legal Education Curriculum in A Vision of the J.D., features faculty and students from a number of Canadian law faculties.

John Borrows is bringing about one of the quiet revolutions in our history, restoring Indigenous law to its place alongside Canadian common law. For his substantial and distinguished scholarship and commitment to furthering our knowledge about Indigenous legal traditions, John Borrows, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria, was named the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences by the Canada Council for the Arts. The prestigious prize honours outstanding career achievements of eminent Canadian researchers, whether in industry, government agencies or universities.

A complete round-up of the 2017 mooting season.

University of Victoria LL.M. candidate, Preeti Dhaliwal, received a 2017 Graduate Student Award of Merit from the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada. The annual award is given out to up to 4 recipients who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the university or general community while maintaining exemplary academic standing. Preeti is a critical race feminist, lawyer, writer, performer and facilitator.

Calvin Sandborn, Legal Director of UVic’s Environmental Law Centre, was awarded the 2017 Svitlana Kravchenko Environmental Rights Award at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (March 2-5) in Eugene Oregon. Here is an excerpt from the institution’s description of the award: “The award winner is chosen from those who carry on in Svitlana's spirit: having exquisite qualities of both head and heart; mixing academic rigor with spirited activism; and speaking truth to power, while exhibiting kindness toward all. Also in that spirit, the award winner inspires young adults to reach for the stars, while keeping their feet firmly planted in the Earth they want to protect, as Svitlana did. The award goes to a person who makes broad impacts in the law while working to support local communities. The award winner insists that environmental rights and human rights are indivisible, as did Svitlana Kravchenko, a daughter of Ukraine who became a citizen of America and the entire world.”