Legal Philosophy Research Group
Legal philosophy asks basic questions about the nature of law. Among other things, it examines the relationship between law and morality; the grounds of legal authority; the source and content of legal obligations; and the normative structure of legal doctrine in different domains of law.
Western Law’s faculty has substantial expertise in numerous areas of legal philosophy, covering many aspects of analytic jurisprudence, private law theory, public law theory, and the theory of international law. Established in 2021 the Legal Philosophy Research Group is dedicated to encouraging collaboration among our colleagues through reading groups and workshops, connecting our faculty and our colleagues to leading legal philosophers from around the world through talks, workshops, and conferences, and supporting JD and graduate students who have interests in this area through public events, specialized courses, curricular development, and mentoring.
Members
- Prof. Andrew Botterell — private law theory, criminal law theory
- Prof. Dennis Klimchuk — private law theory, equity, history of political philosophy
- Prof. Joanna Langille — private international law, international trade law, private law, legal theory
- Prof. Ryan Liss — criminal law theory, International criminal law theory
- Prof. Margaret Martin — jurisprudence, constitutional law, constitutional law theory, legal positivism
- Prof. Jason Neyers — private law theory, contract law, tort law
- Prof. Manish Oza — legal theory, contract law, property law
- Prof. Zoe Sinel — private law theory, restitution, remedies
- Prof. Andy Yu — jurisprudence, constitutional law, Administrative law, property law
News and Events
Prof. Mark Walters
On November 14, 2023, Professor Kimberley Brownlee, Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political & Social Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, UBC, gave the Legal Philosophy Research Group’s Annual Public Lecture. Professor Brownlee spoke on the topic ‘Civil Disobedience and the Climate Necessity Defence (in Canada).'
On Monday, November 7, 2022, Western Law’s Legal Philosophy Research Group held its Inaugural Annual Public Lecture. The Lecture was given by the Dean of Queen’s Law, Professor Mark Walters, who is a leading expert in public law. The Lecture was on the topic, “Reconciling Sovereignty and Legality in Canada: Is A.V. Dicey Relevant Anymore?”
Past Speakers
2024-2025
- Evan Fox-Decent (McGill), “The Moral Authority of Rulings” (Oct 2024)
- Nina Varsava (Wisconsin-Madison), “Egregiously Erroneous Precedents” (Nov 2024)
- Martin David Kelly (Edinburgh), “From Instruction to Action: Rethinking Instruction-Governed Decision-Making” (Feb 2025)
- Vincent Chiao (University of Toronto), “Cooperation and the Retributive Sentiments” (Mar 2025)
- Amin Ebrahimi Afrouzi (UCLA), “Semantic Canons: their Contributions to Meaning and Interpretation” (Mar 2025)
Additional talks, co-hosted with the Legislative Intent and Ordinary Meaning project
- Elizabeth Allyn Smith (UQAM), “From Forensic Linguistics to AI: the Consequences of Different Understandings of ‘Ground Truth’ for the Courts” (Nov 2024)
- Jacques Lamarche (Western), “A Grammar that is Logic and Formal, but is not Formal Semantics nor Generative Grammar” (Jan 2025)
- Kevin Tobia (Georgetown), “Reading Law with Linguistics: The Statutory Interpretation of Artifact Nouns” (Feb 2025)
- Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers), “Commissioned Voices: Rethinking Authorship in Algorithmic Speech” (Mar 2025)
Relevant Publications
Professor Joanna Langille
“The Constitutive Demands of Corrective Justice” (forthcoming) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
“The Subjects of Tort Law” (forthcoming) Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence
Professor Ryan Liss
“Human Rights, Between Peace and Dignity”, (forthcoming) 46 Michigan Journal of International Law
“Complementarity and the Normative Structure of International Criminal Law” (2025) 65 Virginia Journal of International Law 291
Professor Margaret Martin
De, Bustamante Thomas da Rosa, and Margaret Martin. New Essays on the Fish-Dworkin Debate. Hart Publishing, 2023.
Professor Jason Neyers
JW Neyers, “In Defence Of ‘In Defence Of The Third-Party Rule’” in L Smith, E Fox-Decent, and J Goldberg, Understanding Private Law: Essays in Honour of Stephen A. Smith (Hart: 2024).
Professor Manish Oza
“Voluntary Associations and the Rule of Law” (forthcoming) McGill Law Journal
“The Personality of Public Authorities” (2024) Law and Philosophy
Professor Zoë Sinel
“Whiten v Pilot Insurance, [2022] 1 SCR 595: How Can Something So Wrong Feel So Right?,” in James Goudkamp and Eleni Katsampouka, eds, Landmark Cases in Punitive Damages (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2023).
“The Threat and Promise of Collateral Benefits for Private Law’s Coherence” in Samuel Bray, John Goldberg, Paul Miller, and Henry Smith, eds, Interstitial Private Law (Oxford: OUP, 2024).
Professor Andy Yu
“The Administrative Law of Section 33 of the Charter” (forthcoming) McGill Law Journal
“Three Questions for Watson’s Account of Epistemic Rights” (2025) 4:13 Asian Journal of Philosophy
