Malcolm Thorburn

Malcolm Thorburn, B.A. (Hons.) (Toronto); M.A. (Pennsylvania); J.D. (Toronto); LL.M. (Columbia); J.S.D. (Columbia) is a Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

Prior to joining the Faculty of Law in 2013, he was Canada Research Chair in Crime, Security and Constitutionalism at Queen’s University. In 2000-2001, he served as Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada for Mr. Justice Louis LeBel. He has held visiting fellowships at Sciences Po, Paris, France (2019), the Australian National University (2008), Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany (2011), and the French National Centre for Criminology (CESDIP) in Paris, France (2011). In the 2011-2012 academic year, he was the Robert S. Campbell visiting fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK.

His writing focuses on theoretical issues in criminal justice and public law including criminal law and procedure, sentencing, policing, constitutional rights and proportionality reasoning. He is the editor of two books: The Philosophical Foundations of Constitutional Law (with David Dyzenhaus) and The Dignity of Law (with Dwight Newman). His work has appeared in such publications as the Yale Law Journal, Ratio Juris, the Boston University Law Review, the University of Toronto Law Journal, Criminal Law and Philosophy and several books at Oxford University Press and Hart Publishing. 

He is co-convenor of the Legal Theory Workshop, an associate editor of the New Criminal Law Review and a member of the editorial boards of Law and Philosophy and Criminal Law and Philosophy.

See also the Law & Philosophy focus area.