New Canada Research Chair in Private Law Theory awarded to Prof. Larissa Katz

The Faculty of Law’s Professor Larissa Katz is the new Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Private Law Theory, one of 11 new  and eight renewed chairs at U of T to receive a total of $17.6 million in funding from the Government of Canada.

Prof. Katz has been instrumental in the academy’s renewed scholarly interest in property theory.  This Canada Research Chair recognizes her significant impact in private law theory, and will support her continuing and important scholarship this area.

• Read Prof. Katz's oped in the Globe and Mail, "It’s not ‘Who took my bike,’ but 'Who really controls the sidewalk?'"
• Read Professors Katz and Thorburn join the Faculty of Law

Katz’s development of an account of the idea of property has shaped a new understanding of property doctrine, has significant implications for theoretical debates about the nature and structure of property rights, and debates in political and legal theory about the proper division of labour between private actors and public institutions. 

Her research areas also include private law, legality and private/public distinction. She is cited in books and articles around the world, and her scholarship on ownership has been taught at law schools in Canada, the U.S.A., and Israel. She has had Visiting Professorships and fellowships at some of the top universities in the world, including Sciences Po (Paris), University of Oxford and Australia National University.

In addition, her work is published in the Yale Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Legal Theory, Jurisprudence, University of Toronto Law Journal, McGill Law Journal and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence.

Prof. Katz officially joined the Faculty of Law in July 2013, after a sabbatical at the University of Oxford, and a final year of teaching at Queen’s University. She has undergraduate degrees in philosophy and law from the University of Alberta and graduate degrees in law from Yale Law School.