Research at UVic Law
UVic scholarship is community-based and justice-driven, aiming to make practical contributions to communities.
UVic Law faculty members conduct research that draws on a broad range of theoretical approaches, including legal philosophy, post-colonial theory, critical theory, queer theory, feminism, critical animal studies and political economy. Our work is also methodologically diverse and interdisciplinary.
For more info, email Associate Dean, Administration and Research Patricia Cochran.
Research areas & strengths
Legal pluralism in a global context
UVic Law faculty members study Indigenous, local, state, international and transnational law to understand these legal orders and the relationships between them. This work includes research on Indigenous-state relations, constitutionalism, law and religion, and transnational law.
Environmental governance & sustainability
UVic Law faculty members bring expertise in areas such as water and land-use law, international and local environmental and climate law, models of collaborative land governance, and critical approaches to human-nonhuman relations.
Legal institutions & access to justice
Our faculty members study how law and legal institutions relate to the experiences of individuals and communities interacting with the state or seeking to resolve their legal problems, including the law relating to children and families, migration, human rights, legal ethics and access to justice.
Conflict, crime & justice
Researchers examine how international, state and Indigenous legal orders respond to violence and harm, including the law of evidence, sentencing and international conflict.
Economic governance & market regulation
UVic Law scholars study business, debt, contracts, employment, charitable organizations and taxation, including questions of how taxation structures political relations, Indigenous economic development, intellectual and cultural property, and the regulation of emerging technologies and financial instruments.
Law, arts & humanities
UVic Law faculty research the relationship between law and artistic expression including film, improvisation, visual art, theatre, song and sound, sculpture, fiction and rhetoric.
Research chairs
Law Foundation Chair in Indigenous Justice and Governance
Val Napoleon was appointed Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance at UVic’s Faculty of Law in 2012. She is from northeast B.C. (Treaty 8), a member of the Saulteau First Nation, and an adopted member of the Gitanyow (Gitksan) Luuxhon House, Frog Clan.
Lansdowne Chair in Law
Maneesha Deckha joined UVic’s Faculty of Law in 2002 after practicing with Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General and completing her LLM at Columbia University, where she focused on gender and cultural equality in criminal law.
Lam Chair in Law and Public Policy
Robert Lapper is a director at UVic Law's Access to Justice Centre for Excellence. The centre works on practical research to help make justice more accessible in Canada. Robert has a strong background in public policy, legal regulation, Indigenous law, and working with First Nations.
President鈥檚 Chair in Law and Indigeneity in a Global Context
Pooja Parmar is Associate Professor and President’s Chair in Law and Indigeneity in a Global Context at UVic’s Faculty of Law. She joined in 2015 and holds a PhD in Law from UBC, with previous teaching roles at Carleton, Osgoode, and UBC.
Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations
Victor V. Ramraj holds the Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations, jointly with UVic’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI). His work on comparative constitutional law has appeared in top journals including ICON, Hong Kong Law Journal, and Transnational Legal Theory.