Michael Lynk

Michael Lynk

Academic Degrees:

BA (Hons.) Dalhousie 1974, LLB (Dalhousie) 1981, LLM (Queen's)

Email: mslynk@uwo.ca
Phone: 519 661-2111 ext. 88436
Office: LB 101a

 Michael Lynk is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Western University, in London, Ontario. He joined the Faculty in 1999, and has taught courses in labour, human rights, disability, constitutional and administrative law. He served as Associate Dean of the Faculty between 2008-11.

Professor Lynk has also taught labour law courses at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). He is a native of Halifax, and a graduate of Dalhousie University (LL.B.) and Queens’ University (LL.M.). Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law in Ottawa and Toronto for a decade. Professor Lynk is a labour arbitrator with the Ontario Grievance Settlement Board, and has served as a vice-chair with the Ontario Public Service Grievance Board. He has written widely on the issues of labour law and human rights in the unionized Canadian workplace, and is a frequent speaker at industrial relations and labour law conferences across the country.
 
Professor Lynk is the co-author, with Michael Mac Neil and Peter Engelmann, of Trade Union Law in Canada (Canada Law Book). He is  the co-editor, with John Craig, of Globalization and the Future of Labour Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and the co-editor, with Susan Akram, Michael Dumper and Iain Scobbie, of International Law and the Middle East Conflict (Routledge, 2011).  He is part of the academic team that produced the Labour Law Casebook (9th ed.), which is the national casebook used in law schools across the country. As well, he is the revising author of the human rights chapter in Employment Law in Canada (4th ed.) (LexisNexis), whose lead revising author is Peter Barnacle.  Prof. Lynk was also an editor of the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal from 2000 to 2008. His academic work has appeared widely in law review journals and edited book collections.

In January 2015, Professor Lynk was named to the Mayor of London’s Honours List for his work on humanitarian issues.

In March 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Professor Lynk as the 7th Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967. During his six years as Special Rapporteur, he regularly addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the 3rd Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. His UN reports have been widely cited, he has frequently spoken to UN, academic and institutional conferences in North America, Europe and the Middle East and he has regularly published opinion pieces on the role of international law respecting the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.  

Research Highlights

Articles:

Lynk, M., Book Review, From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 by Victor Kattan, published in the (2011), 48:3 Osgoode Hal Law Journal.

Lynk, M., Book Review, Partitioning Palestine: Legal Fundamentalism in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by John Strawson (London: Pluto Press, 2010), published in (2011), 40:3 Journal of Palestine Studies.

Lynk, M., "The Right to Restitution and Compensation in International Law and the Displaced Palestinians". December 2002.

Lynk, M., Book Review, The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law by Albie Sachs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), published in (2011), 89:1 The Canadian Bar Review.

Lynk, M. & Akram, S., "The Wall and the Law: A Tale of Two Judgements", published in (2006) 24 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 61.

Lynk, M., Book Review, Work on Trial: Canadian Labour Law Struggles, edited by Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker (Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History & Irwin Law, 2010) 422 pages.

Lynk, M., "Disability and Work; The Transformation of the Legal Status of Employees with Disabilities in the Canadian Workplace&",in R. Echlin & C. Paliare (eds.), /Law Society of Upper Canada Special Lectures 2007: Employment Law/ (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2008).

Lynk, M., "Conceived in Law: The Legal Foundations of Resolution 242" (2007), 37:1 /Journal of Palestine Studies/ 7.

Books:

International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Rights-Based Approach https://www.routledge.com/International-Law-and-the-Israeli-Palestinian-Conflict-A-Rights-Based/Akram-Dumper-Lynk-Scobbie/p/book/9780415573221
 
Globalization and the Future of Labour Law: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/globalization-and-the-future-of-labour-law/B75E0249803B8FF0261E7DF1A84D6639
 
Trade Union Law in Canada: http://store.thomsonreuters.ca/product-detail/trade-union-law-in-canada/
 
Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary (8th ed.): https://www.irwinlaw.com/titles/labour-and-employment-law-cases-materials-and-commentary-8e