Professor Christopher Campbell-Duruflé awarded SSHRC-CRSH Insight Development Grant
Lincoln Alexander Law’s Professor Christopher Campbell-Duruflé has been awarded a SSHRC-CRSH Insight Development Grant for his research on ‘Understanding Canada's Reception of International Environmental and Human Rights Law.’ He was among 20 researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University to receive SSHRC funding for research development and knowledge mobilization.
Insight Development Grants support early-stage, short-term research, allowing experimentation with new methodologies and approaches. Prof. Campbell-Duruflé's research project will analyze a large database of judgments from the Supreme Court of Canada and other courts across the country, to better understand how judges refer to international law, in what types of cases they apply it, and how they approach legal reasoning in these cases.
Prof. Campbell-Duruflé, who recently penned an opinion piece on the Government of Canada’s 2035 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target (external link) , specializes in international law, environmental law, human rights, and climate law. He will be joined by a team of researchers with a broad range of interests and expertise, enabling the team to approach their core questions through different investigative methods, including interviews, qualitative case studies, and artificial intelligence analysis of judgements. Prof. Campbell-Duruflé and his team will prioritize the fields of environmental law and human rights, but plan on expanding to other areas over time.
“Our hope is that this grant will help stakeholders gain a better understanding of the reception of international law in Canada’s justice system,” said Prof. Campbell-Duruflé. “This could include better identifying the factors that may influence judge’s use of international law in Canada, as well as proposing improvements or reforms precisely at a time when an increasing number of urgent domestic challenges have global dimensions.”
The relationship between Canadian judges and international law has been described by scholars as “complicated” for a long time, but the community of scholars and practitioners working on Canada’s system of international law reception is quite active, and has already identified a number of potential reforms, including enacting a Canada Treaties Act to guide implementation efforts and recognizing international law as equal in status to the common law. It is the hope of Prof. Campbell-Duruflé and his colleagues that their research will contribute new perspectives to this work. He also looks forward to incorporating it into his course work at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.
“There is no doubt that the findings of this research project will enrich my teaching, as I will continue to ask my students how they could contribute to improving Canada’s international law reception system throughout their own legal careers at every occasion I have.”
Prof. Campbell-Duruflé says that not only will this project allow him to work on the issues of international law that fascinate him the most, but he is also looking forward to learning from his fellow research team members. These include Prof. Sébastien Jodoin, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Human Rights, Health, and the Environment at McGill University; Prof. Ebrahim Bagheri, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Social Information Retrieval at TMU; and Dr. Alex Neve, Senior Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa.
“This Insight Development Grant is a fabulous opportunity to continue doing the type of research that has animated me during my doctorate and my post-doctorate, interrogating the role of international law in responding to some of the most pressing challenges we are facing today,” said Prof. Campbell-Duruflé. “I am deeply appreciative of the SSHRC and of all those at TMU who supported me in applying.”