News

Prof. Albert Yoon has co-authored a comprehensive report with Tracey George of Vanderbilt University that examines whether US state judges reflect the demographics of their state in terms of gender and people of colour. "The Gavel Gap: Who Sits in Judgement on State Courts?" gives each US state a grade on this basis, with 26 states receiving an "F" grade because women and people of colour are severely under-represented among state court judges.

In a commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Prof. Trudo Lemmens and Dr. Scott Kim, a physician and bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) argue that offering medical assistance in dying to people in Canada on the basis of psychiatric illnesses could put vulnerable people at risk ("Should assisted dying for psychiatric disorders be legalized in Canada?," June 21, 2016).

Read the full commentary on the CMAJ website.

New report highlights how Mexico remains unsafe, particularly for people affected by HIV

(Toronto, June 20, 2016) — Canada should remove Mexico from its refugee ‘safe’ list because of the country’s serious human rights abuses, the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP) said in a new report released today. Failure to do so could place Canada in violation of its international legal obligations.

The Faculty of Law’s The Faculty of Law’s Arthur Ripstein, professor of law and philosophy, and a 2016 Killam Research Fellow, has been designated a University Professor. This designation recognizes remarkable scholarly achievement and pre-eminence, and is the University of Toronto’s most prestigious professorship. It is highly competitive in nature, since no more than two per cent of the professoriate may hold this distinguished designation at a time.