Erika Chamberlain
Academic Degrees:
LLB (Dist), University of Western Ontario, 2001;
PhD, University of Cambridge, 2009
| Email: | echambe@uwo.ca |
| Phone: | 519 661-2111 x80036 |
| Office: | LB 102 |
Erika Chamberlain served as Dean of Western Law from 2017 to 2024, following five years as Associate Dean (Academic). She graduated as gold medalist from Western Law in 2001 and first joined the Faculty in 2005. Prior to her appointment, she served as law clerk to Mr. Justice Major at the Supreme Court of Canada, and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2002. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Cambridge, where she held a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship, SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, and the WM Tapp Studentship at Gonville and Caius College.
Chamberlain has published widely in tort law, with a particular focus on the tort liability of public authorities. She is the author of Misfeasance in a Public Office (2016), co-author of Fridman’s The Law of Torts in Canada, 4th ed. (2020), Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts, 11th ed. (2023), Hogg's Liability of the Crown, 5th ed. (2024), and The Law of Defamation: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States, 2d ed. (looseleaf). She is a co-editor of Emerging Issues in Tort Law (2007) and Tort Law: Challenging Orthodoxy (2013), and has been the General Editor of the Canadian Cases on the Law of Torts since 2019.
Chamberlain has also published extensively in the field of impaired driving law and alcohol-related civil liability. She has provided research and advocacy to MADD Canada since 1999, and currently services as Vice-Chair of MADD Canada’s National Board of Directors. Her work in this field has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, and has influenced legislative amendments at the federal level and in several Canadian provinces and territories.
Chamberlain has won multiple teaching awards during her time at Western Law.. She is the former Chair of the Ontario Law Deans group and served three terms on the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance. In 2021, she was appointed to the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. She has also completed 6 full Ironman races.
Seeking graduate students in the following areas: Torts
Research Highlights
R. Kostal and E. Chamberlain, “The Reinvention of Canadian Tort Law, 1945-1995: Jordan House as Case Study” (2023) 73:2 University of Toronto Law Journal 133-173. https://utpjournals.press/eprint/Z8KYHKUZNUAVJSISTEXH/full
E. Chamberlain & S.G.A. Pitel, General Editors, Fridman’s The Law of Torts in Canada, 4th ed (Toronto: Carswell, 2020) (co-authors: A. Botterell, E. Chamberlain, M. McInnes, J. Neyers, S.G.A. Pitel & Z. Sinel).
E. Chamberlain, Misfeasance in a Public Office (Toronto: Carswell, 2016).
E. Chamberlain, “Affirmative Duties of Care: A Distinctly Canadian Contribution to the Law of Torts” (2018) 84 Supreme Court Law Review (2d) 101.
E. Chamberlain, “Clarifying and Enforcing the Fiduciary Obligations of University Boards of Governors” (2017) 26:2 Education & Law Journal 181.
E. Chamberlain, “Snooping: How Should Damages be Assessed for Harmless Breaches of Privacy?” in Barker, Fairweather & Grantham, eds, Private Law in the 21st Century (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2017).
E. Chamberlain, “To Serve and Protect Whom? Proximity in Cases of Police Failure to Protect” (2016) 53:4 Alberta Law Review 977.
E. Chamberlain, "Lord Buckmaster: The Reluctant Villain in Donoghue v Stevenson" (2013) 3 Juridical Review 245.
E. Chamberlain, “Lord Atkin’s Opinion in Donoghue v Stevenson: Perspectives from Biblical Hermeneutics” (2010) 4 Law and Humanities 91.
E. Chamberlain, "Negligent Investigation: A New Remedy for the Wrongly Accused: Hill v. Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police Services Board" (2008) 45 Alberta Law Review 1089.
E. Chamberlain & R. Solomon, "Minimizing Impairment-related Youth Traffic Details: The Need for Comprehensive Provincial Action" (2008) 99 Canadian Journal of Public Health 267.
E. Chamberlain & R. Solomon, "The Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Hard Core Drinking Driver" (2001) 7 Injury Prevention 272.
