Toronto homecoming for renowned law and economics scholar: Meet new faculty member Professor Gillian Hadfield

Wednesday, August 15, 2018
photo of Gillian Hadfield

Global authority on the intersection between law and technology returns to Canada to join a vibrant and thriving powerhouse for AI research and legal tech

By Sheldon Gordon

Gillian Hadfield, a leading scholar and advocate for legal reform and redesign, is the latest pioneering academic to be drawn by Toronto’s growing reputation as an advanced technology hub.

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin

Jean-Christophe Bédard Rubin
SJD Candidate
Thesis title:
Claiming Constituent Authority in Non-Revolutionary Constitutionalism: State, Sovereignty and Representation in the formation of French-Canadian Constitutional Culture
Office in Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, M5S 2C5
Email: john.bedardrubin@mail.utoronto.ca

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin (LL.B. Laval, LL.M. Toronto) is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholar. His doctoral dissertation titled Claiming Constituent Authority in Non-Revolutionary Constitutionalism: State, Sovereignty and Representation in the formation of French-Canadian Constitutional Culture provides a genealogical account of the intellectual history of public law thought in the French-Canadian liberal tradition. His research draws on a variety of methodological approaches to explore Canadian constitutional culture from a comparative perspective writ large. His work has appeared or is forthcoming, in English or French, in the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the Review of Constitutional Studies, the International Journal of Canadian Studies, the Bulletin d’histoire politique, Constitutional Forum, Linguistic Minorities and Society as well as an edited collection by Brill. In 2020-2021, Jean-Christophe was the R. Roy McMurtry Fellow of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. In 2021-2022, he is a visiting assistant in research at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

Education
Visiting Assistant in Research, Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies (2021-2022)
LL.M. University of Toronto (2016)
LL.B. Laval University (2013)
Cert. Philosophy Laval University (2013)
Awards and Distinctions
SSHRC Michael-Smith Foreign Study Supplement
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2021-2022 (10 000$)
R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Legal History of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History 2020-2021
Dean's Graduate Student Leadership Award 2019
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholarship 2018-2021 (105 000$)
FRQSC Quebec Government Scholarship 2018-2022 (80 000$) (declined)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in International Law University of Toronto (2018-2019)
Central European University visiting scholarship (2018)
DAAD (German Academic Exchange Fund) and Goethe University Frankfurt-am-Main scholarship (2018)
W.C.G. Howland Prize for best overall performance in the LL.M. University of Toronto (2016)
Nathan Strauss Q.C. Graduate Fellowship in Canadian Constitutional Law University of Toronto (2015-2016)
Lieutenant-Governor Tribute Laval University (2014)
Dean's Honour List Laval University (2013)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Quebec Bar
Member of the Canadian Political Science Association
Member of the Quebec Political Science Society
Member of the Quebec Constitutional Law Association
Member of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Selected Publications

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "L'analyse comportementale du jugement judiciaire dans l'angle mort des études sociojuridiques francophones au Canada", [Judicial Behavior Studies in the Dead Angle of French Canadian Socio-legal Studies] (2022) Revue de droit de l'Université de Sherbrooke (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin & Tiago Rubin, "The Elusive Quest for French on the Bench: Bilingualism Scores for Canadian Supreme Court Justices, 1985-2013", (2022) Canadian Journal of Law & Society (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Comparing Regimes of Constitutional Historicity: The Case of Precedents in Canada and the United States", in Jason Mazzone, Justin Frosini & Francesco Biagi, eds., The Uses of History in Constitutional Adjudication: Comparative Perspectives, Leiden, Brill, 2022 (forthcoming).

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "L'émergence inattendue de la dualité institutionnelle à la Cour suprême du Canada depuis Pepin-Robarts" [The Unexpected Emergence of Institutional Duality at the Supreme Court of Canada since Pepin-Robarts], (2021) 29:2 Bulletin d'histoire politique 125, online: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/bhp/2021-v29-n2-bhp06227/1079767ar/

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "La Couverture médiatique du bilinguisme à la Cour suprême du Canada: entre légalisme, pragmatisme et polémique", [Media Coverage of Supreme Court Bilingualism: Between Legalism, Pragmatism and Polemics] (2019) 59 International Journal of Canadian Studies 51, online: https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/epdf/10.3138/ijcs.59.x.50

Book review of Samuel V. LaSelva, Canada and the Ethics of Constitutionalism: Identity, Destiny, and Constitutional Faith, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018, 324 p., in (2020) 14 Linguistic Minorities and Society 101, online: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/minling/2020-n14-minling05565/1072314ar/

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Senate Reform and the Political Safeguards of Canadian Federalism in Québec", (2019) 28:1 Constitutional Forum constitutionnel 19, online: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29375

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, "Des Causes et des Conséquences du Dialogue Constitutionnel" [Causes and Consequences of Constitutional Dialogue] (2018) 23:2 Review of Constitutional Studies/Revue d'études constitutionnelles 287, online: https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/03_Bedar...

Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin & Tiago Rubin, "Assessing the Impact of Unilingualism at the Supreme Court of Canada: Panel Composition, Assertiveness, Caseload, and Deference", (2018) 55 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 715, online: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol55/iss3/3/

Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Administrative Law
Canadian Constitutional Law
Comparative Law
Economic Analysis of Law
International Law
Judicial Decision-Making
Law and Globalization
Legal Ethics
Legal History
Legal Process
Legal Theory
Political Philosophy and Theory
Supervisor
David Schneiderman
Committee Members
David Dyzenhaus
Ron Levi

The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights' Public Interest Litigation Conference

 

The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is a Centre within the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law devoted to advocacy, research and education in the area of constitutional rights in Canada. Since its inception in 2008, the Centre has intervened in several significant Charter litigation cases and has keenly observed the successes and challenges of public interest litigation.

Prof. Brenda Cossman writes "We must do better for sexual assault survivors. The answer isn’t rocket science"

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Brenda Cossman discusses ways to address the issue of the large number of sexual assault complaints being dismissed by police forces as "unfounded" ("We must do better for sexual assault survivors. The answer isn’t rocket science," February 6, 2017).

Read the commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

 

Bringing AI to tax law: profile of startup Blue J Legal, with CEO Prof. Benjamin Alarie

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Startup Blue J Legal and its CEO, Prof. Benjamin Alarie, are profiled in a U of T Magazine article, "Helping Machine-Learning Startups Succeed" (Winter 2017). Launched in 2014 by Profs. Benjamin Alarie, Anthony Niblett and Albert Yoon, with veteran software engineer Brett Jansen, Blue J Legal has created sophisticated AI software that provides lawyers and judges with guidance on resolving tax disputes.

Prof. Brenda Cossman writes "For Judge ‘knees together’ Camp: Education is power"

Thursday, December 1, 2016

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Brenda Cossman discusses her experience working with Justice Robin Camp after his sexist remarks at a sexual assault trial, and argues for the value of education in overcoming sexism in the judiciary ("For Judge ‘knees together’ Camp: Education is power," December 1, 2016).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail website, or below.

 

Pages