Law History Profiles

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson set a new world record in the 100 metres only to have it stripped away after testing positive for steroid use. Canadian sailor Lawrence Lemieux was poised to win the silver medal in the Finn class when he abandoned the race to save an injured competitor, finishing 22nd. He was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for Sportsmanship. For Canada, 1988 represented the worst and the very best the Olympics has to offer. Here, Allard alum and faculty member, Doug Harris shares his own best and worst memories of the 24th Olympiad …

The Allard School of Law is pleased to welcome Professor Debra Parkes to the faculty. Professor Parkes will be joining us on July 1, 2016 as the Chair in Feminist Legal Studies and Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies. 

Bruce MacDougall joined the Allard School of Law as Assistant Professor in 1988, and was an Associate Professor from 1996 to 2002. He has been a Professor of a Law since 2002, and teaches in the areas of Commercial Law, Corporations Law, Contract Law and Human Rights Law. Professor MacDougall studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and served as a Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada for Mr. Justice Gerald Le Dain from 1986 to 1987. 

Nikos Harris is an experienced appellate counsel and award-winning Lecturer at the Allard School of Law. He describes his recent experience as co-counsel, with Eric Gottardi, for the Canadian Bar Association which intervened in the Supreme Court of Canada case of R. v. Nur. This decision addresses the use of mandatory minimum sentences for firearms offences in Canada.

Janine Benedet joined Allard School of Law as an associate professor in 2005. This appointment represented a return not only to her alma mater but also to the city that she has always considered home.

When Professor W. Wesley Pue joined the law school at UBC in 1993, he was the university's first Nathan T. Nemetz Professor of Legal History. He also served at UBC as Director for the Graduate Programme in Law, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, acting Director of the Individual Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, Vice-Provost (Vancouver Campus), and Provost (Okanagan Campus). 

Professor Emerita Susan Boyd joined the Allard School of Law in 1992. Prior to joining UBC she taught at Carleton University's Department of Law in Ottawa. She retired on June 30, 2015 but continues her relationship with UBC as Professor Emerita.

Professor Emerita Claire Young joined the Allard School of Law in 1992. Prior to joining UBC she practiced law with the Alberta Attorney-General's department for several years, and taught law at the University of Western Ontario from 1984 to 1992. Although many of her publications are about tax law and policy, Professor Emerita Young’s true passions are feminist legal theory and sexuality and the law.

Professor Christine L.M. Boyle, QC holds an LLB from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland (1971) and an LLM from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (1972). Professor Boyle joined the Faculty at the law school at UBC in 1990 as a Walter S. Owen Visiting Professor and has remained at the Allard School of Law as a full Professor since 1992. She is currently a Professor Emerita. 

Marlee Gayle Kline (1960 – 2001) joined the law school at UBC as a professor in 1989. Professor Kline was deeply committed to a critical, challenging and engaged study of law and legal institutions. Her work reflected her passionate belief that social justice concerns must play a central role in legal education and law. Her writings on feminist legal theory and critical race theory, child welfare law and policy, the continuing effects of colonialism, and restructuring of the social welfare state are internationally acclaimed.

Associate Professor Karin Mickelson has been with the law school for more than 25 years, first as a student, then as a faculty member. She is a leading international scholar in the area of international environmental law, especially as it relates to global inequity.

Professor Isabel Grant joined the Allard School of Law in 1987. She is one of Canada’s leading law scholars, and her main research interests lie in the areas of Criminal Law and Mental Health Law. She is particularly interested in the law and policy issues surrounding homicide, HIV non-disclosure and gender and criminal law. Professor Grant has made significant contributions to areas ranging from sexual assault, to homicide, to the legal implications of nondisclosure of an HIV-positive status. 

UBC alumnus Douglas McK. Brown was a true son of British Columbia having been born, educated and practiced here. He cared passionately about this place and his vocation. Brown’s profound respect for the courts was exceeded only by his higher regard for the profession. 

Brown was born in Vancouver in 1912 and was educated at UBC (Bachelor of Arts, 1933) and Cambridge. At UBC he was a keen rugby player and a member of the Campus Players Club where he developed his talent for oratory which many felt directed him towards the profession of law. 

Professor Copithorne’s impressive career spanned six decades, during which he specialized in international law. After being called to the BC Bar in 1956, Copithorne joined the Canadian Foreign Service, where he spent the next 30 years in a wide variety of positions both in Ottawa and abroad.

Professor Margot Young is passionate about human rights and social justice. She opens up about her recent research into housing justice, and her thoughts on the situation unfolding at Oppenheimer Park. Professor Young began her teaching career at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria in 1992 after doing graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in the fields of feminist legal theory and reproductive technologies. Her focus quickly shifted to the areas of constitutional law, in particular, equality law and theory, and social welfare law.

In 1991, Judith joined the faculty of law at UBC as a clinical instructor and was coordinator for the faculty's Clinical Legal Program. Once in the academic stream, she taught a variety of courses over the years, including administrative law, criminal law, regulatory state, perspectives on law, disability law, children and the law, and, most recently, legal ethics and professionalism. Judith's passion for teaching lay in the clinical context, as she believed that students learned best by doing, and by engagement with ethical problems as they arise in practice.

“I came to UBC from the University of Auckland in 1968. This was a period when law faculties in North America were expanding dramatically,” Peter Burns recalls. Burns was one of six young academics hired by UBC Law in that year along with Peter Barton, Barry Slutsky, Chris Carr, Richard Fields and Jerome Atrens. When he arrived, the faculty “was quite small and everybody knew everybody - it was a very tight group.”

Professor L. Michelle LeBaron joined the Allard School of Law in 2003. She directed the UBC Program on Dispute Resolution from 2003 to 2012. She is also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC. 

The Honourable Kenneth Martin Lysyk was born in Saskatchewan. He took a BA at McGill University, an LL.B. at the University of Saskatchewan and a B.C.L. at Oxford University. He was a member of the Faculty of Law at UBC from 1960 to 1970 and of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto from 1970 to 1972. He served as Deputy Attorney General for the Province of Saskatchewan from 1972 to 1976, and then returned to UBC as Dean, succeeding Bertie McClean, a position he held from 1976 to 1982.

Michael Crommelin is a member of the limited group of Allard School of Law alumni who have also become professors at the school. Unlike the rest of that esteemed group, he holds the unique designation of being the first person to undertake and complete a PhD in the Allard School of Law at UBC.