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 nondisclosure 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.
Professor Grant has been involved in advocacy since the beginning of her career. Through her work with organizations like the Woman’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the HIV-AIDS Legal Network and the Canadian Association for Community Living, she has been involved in numerous Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada interventions. Her work as a patient representative, and then a Chair, of the BC Mental Health Act Review Panel contributed to the development of mental health law in this province.
Professor Grant has been named as the recipient of the Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service for 2014. The Goyer Award is the highest honor given by the Canadian Bar Assocation BC Branch (CBABC). The 2014 award recognizes Professor Grant’s contributions to jurisprudence and the development of the law in BC and in Canada through her work as a scholar, teacher, advocate and contributor to faculty governance at the Allard School of Law. In 2017, Professor Grant, along with Professor Erez Aloni and Professor Régine Tremblay, received support from a $100,000 fund established by the Law Foundation of British Columbia to pursue legal research that advances the law, social policy, and the administration of justice in the province. Professor Grant has used this funding to work towards legal reform on sexual assault prosecutions in the context of HIV nondisclosure, through her project "Access to Justice for Persons with HIV." Additionally, Professor Grant's research focuses on criminal law defenses and equality. She has previously published in the area of sexual assault, homicide, dangerous offenders and criminal harassment.
She reflects on her prolific career and life in a History Project interview from 2015. Listen to the Allard School of Law History Project Interview with Professor Isabel Grant.