Professor Emeritus

Jackman Law Building
78 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C5 

Tel.: 416-978-8581

Ernest J. Weinrib, B.A. (University of Toronto, 1965), Ph.D. (Classics, Harvard University, 1968) J.D. (University of Toronto) 1972, is University Professor and Cecil A. Wright Professor of Law.  Professor Weinrib has taught at the University of Toronto in the Department of Classics since 1968 and in the Faculty of Law since 1972.  In 1984 he was Visiting Professor of Law, Yale Law School.  He has also been a frequent visitor at the Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Tel Aviv University, and from 2014 to 2017 he was Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at Tel Aviv University.  Professor Weinrib’s teaching and scholarship have concentrated on Tort Law, the Law of Restitution, and Legal Theory, and he is recognized internationally as a leading figure in the theory of private law.  Among his books are The Idea of Private Law (Harvard University Press 1995, Oxford University Press 2012) and Corrective Justice (Oxford University Press 2012).  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In 2014 he gave the Clarendon Lectures in Law at Oxford University on “The Jurisprudence of Corrective Justice.”  In 2007 he was a recipient of the Ontario Confederation of Faculty Associations teaching award.   In 2009 the Canada Council for the Arts awarded him the Killam Prize, Canada’s highest honour for scholarly achievement.

Research areas
Legal Theory
Political Philosophy and Theory
Tort Law and Tort Theory