Symposium in Honour of Bruce Ziff

February 17 | 2:00 - 6:00 PM | McLennan Ross Hall (231/237)

**Click here to listen to Prof. Ziff's song, Logan's Dissent**

Join us for a symposium honouring the contributions of Prof. Bruce Ziff, a longtime member of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. Speakers will address different aspects of Prof. Ziff's legacy, including in the areas of property law, legal history, and legal pedagogy. The symposium papers will be published in the Alberta Law Review. There will also be special musical guests. 

We would like to thank the Kule Institute for Advanced Study for supporting us in celebrating Professor Bruce Ziff's work.

Speakers

Eric Adams

Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
Eric M. Adams, BA (McGill), LLB (Dalhousie), SJD (Toronto), is a Professor at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law. He served as Vice Dean at the Faculty from 2019-2022. Professor Adams publishes widely in the fields of constitutional law, legal history, employment law, human rights, and legal education. His multidisciplinary research engages all aspects of Canadian constitutional law, theory, and history, and includes studies of the classic cases, Christie v York, Roncarelli v Duplessis, and R v Drybones. He has won multiple awards for his teaching and research including the John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History, a Provost’s Award for Early Career Teaching Excellence, best article prizes from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and the Canadian Historical Association, and a Killam Annual Professorship for excellence in research, teaching, and service. He has delivered talks and keynote addresses across Canada and around the world including the Youard Lecture in Legal History at the University of Oxford. He is currently working on several projects extending from his research on the legal history of Japanese Canadians. A frequent media commentator, his many editorials have appeared in newspapers across the country.

Paul Babie

Bonython Chair in Law, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide
P T Babie is an expert in property theory, property law, and law and theology. His research, throughout his career, has asked what property is and how, if at all, it can be justified. He considers those questions from legal theoretical and from theological perspectives. His approach to property theory involves the exploration of its spatial dimension. He teaches property law, property theory, law and religion, and Roman law.

Barbara Billingsley

Dean & Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Barbara Billingsley became dean of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law and Wilbur Fee Bowker Professor of Law on July 1, 2020. She is the Faculty of Law's 13th dean and the first woman to be appointed to the position in the Faculty's history. She is a proud alumna of UAlberta, who earned her LLB and LLM here in 1990 and 1995, respectively, and her BA in political science in 1987. Before joining the Faculty, Dean Billingsley practised civil litigation in Edmonton, primarily in the area of insurance defence. She has been a full-time faculty member since 2001, after joining as a sessional in 1996. Her areas of research and teaching include insurance law, civil litigation processes and constitutional law issues pertaining to private law matters. In addition to numerous law review articles on these and other topics, she is the author of General Principles of Canadian Insurance Law (3rd ed., LexisNexis, 2020), a co-editor of The Civil Litigation Process: Cases & Materials (8th ed., Emond Montgomery, 2016), and a contributing author of Constitutional Law: Cases, Commentary and Principles (Thomson Canada Limited, 2008). She is currently a member of the Law Society of Alberta. She is a recipient of the Canadian Bar Association/Law Society of Alberta Award for Distinguished Scholarship, the University of Alberta's Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Faculty of Law's Honourable Tevie Miller Teaching Excellence Award.

Tenille E. Brown

Assistant Professor, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University

Professor Brown holds an LL.M. from the University of Ottawa in the field of Aboriginal law and the then-draft International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and an LL.B. (Scots law) (Honours) from the University of Dundee, Scotland, where she graduated high school before immigrating to Canada. 

Professor Brown’s doctorate research is in the area of legal geography examining the intersection between property, geography and the creation of place in Canada. Her PhD thesis is titled “The Geographies of Property Law: An Engagement with Place and Space.” 

While completing her doctorate at the University of Ottawa, Professor Brown contributed to research projects on topics including: access to land and Indigenous peoples, mapping and digital technologies, data governance and on the regulation of emerging technologies. She was a student member on the Social Science and Humanities Research Council funded project titled “Geothink: Canadian Geospatial and Open Data Research Partnership,” where she contributed to research on liability in data use, open data and data propertization. As well she researched on the intersection between mapping, evidence and Constitutional s.35 Indigenous land rights for the mapping database “dreamcatcher” created by Co-Map, the Centre for Community Mapping, Waterloo, in partnership with the Mississauga’s of New Credit First Nation.

Douglas Harris

Professor and Nathan T. Nemetz Chair in Legal History, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia

Douglas Harris joined the Allard School of Law in 2001. He teaches in the areas of property law and legal history, and his research focuses on the history of the regulation of the Aboriginal fisheries in British Columbia and on the nature of property ownership within condominium.  His earlier published work includes studies of Aboriginal rights to fish in Canada and analysis of systems for registering interests in land. Recent public lectures include “Condominium & the Country: The Sprawl of Property in British Columbia” and “Property & Sovereignty: The Kitsilano Indian Reserve and the City of Vancouver”. He presented “Condominium Property Stories” in his Inaugural Lecture as a professor at the Allard School of Law.

Eran Kaplinsky 

Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Professor Eran Kaplinsky teaches in the areas of property law and planning law. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Tel Aviv University, a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto, and a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Toronto.

Professor Kaplinsky was previously a Visiting Scholar & Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, an instructor at the Ryerson University School of Urban and Regional Planning, and a Visiting Professor at the Université de Sherbrooke. He was also an attorney in Tel Aviv in the areas of municipal law, medical malpractice, and commercial litigation.

Professor Kaplinsky serves as Research Director of the University's Alberta Land Institute.

Larissa Katz

Professor and Canada Research Chair in Private Law Theory, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Larissa Katz is Professor of Law and Canada Research Chair in Private Law Theory. She is also the Associate Dean (Graduate Programs). She is cross-appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law in 2013, Professor Katz clerked for the late Justice Charles D. Gonthier at the Supreme Court of Canada, worked in litigation at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (NYC) and taught at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law.
Professor Katz writes about moral, political and social issues relating to private law generally and property law in particular. Her work appears in journals such as Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Yale Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Legal Theory, Jurisprudence, University of Toronto Law Journal, McGill Law Journal and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy (forthcoming), Notre Dame Law Review (forthcoming). Her work is included in anthologies such as The Philosophical Foundations of Property Law (Oxford University Press), The Philosophical Foundations of Equity, The Cambridge Companion to Law and Philosophy (Cambridge U. Press). Professor Katz is currently writing People and Things: Property in the Legal Order (under contract with Oxford University Press).

Malcolm Lavoie

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Malcolm Lavoie is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law. His research deals with property law, judicial remedies, federalism, and issues of Indigenous land tenure and jurisdiction. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, he was a graduate student at Harvard Law School, where his work was supported by a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship, Weatherhead Center Graduate Research Fellowship, Fulbright Student Award, and a Project on the Foundations of Private Law Student Fellowship. He clerked for the Hon. Justice Frans Slatter of the Alberta Court of Appeal (2012-2013) and for the Hon. Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada (2013-2014). He is a past recipient of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Scholarly Paper Award and the Harvard Project on the Foundations of Private Law Writing Prize. His scholarship has also been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition to his research and teaching, Prof. Lavoie is an active member of the Alberta Bar. In his practice, he consults on civil litigation, constitutional, and regulatory issues. He has previously argued two cases before the Supreme Court of Canada. Prof. Lavoie currently serves on the Alberta Judicial Council and the boards of the Edmonton Bar Association and the Centre for Constitutional Studies.

Jim Phillips

Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Jim Phillips (M.A. Edinburgh, Ph.D. (History) and LL.B. Dalhousie) is Professor in the Faculty of Law and and is cross-appointed to the Department of History and the Centre for Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies. He was a law clerk to Madam Justice Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada prior to joining the University, and was Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law 1994-1997. He teaches property and legal history, and was the winner of the Mewett Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2001. In 1991, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2015 and 2016 he was elected by the graduating class to speak at their post-convocation reception.
His research is principally in legal history, and he has coedited four volumes in the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History series of Essays in the History of Canadian Law. His most recent book is A History of Law In Canada: Volume 1, Beginnings to 1866, with Philip Girard and Blake Brown. Volume 2, Law for a New Dominion, 1867-1914, will be published in 2022. He was Director of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto 2003-2005. In 2013 he was awarded the David Mundell Medal by the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General for excellence in legal writing. He is also active in debates on the future of public and accessible legal education at the University of Toronto.

Péter Szigeti

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Dr. Péter Szigeti received his SJD from Harvard Law School in 2015, and started teaching at the Faculty of Law of the University of Alberta in September 2018. He has held postdoctoral positions at New York University, McGill University and the European University Institute; and he also holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (2008), a Master 2 recherche from Université Paris I (2006), and a bachelor’s degree in Hungarian law from ELTE University, Budapest (2005). Professor Szigeti teaches property law, immigration law and jurisprudence. His varied research interests include the role of geographical information in law; the interactions between property law and environmental protection; jurisdiction, sovereignty and territoriality in international law; comparative immigration law; and international legal history.

Jane Thomson

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick

Jane Thomson is an associate professor at UNB’s Faculty of Law where she teaches in the areas of property, wills and estates, and private law theory. She received her LLB from Dalhousie University and her LLM from Harvard Law School. She is currently completing her PhD in law at Queen’s University; her research focuses on the use of private law theory by Canadian courts to effect social and economic legal reform.

Prior to joining UNB, Jane served as a law clerk at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Jane also practiced family law in Toronto and Ottawa. During her time in private practice, she taught as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law in the area of wills and estates and trusts.

Moin Yahya

Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

Professor Yahya has been teaching since 2003. His research interests include law and economics.

 

REGISTER 

Prof. Bruce Ziff

Professor Bruce Ziff taught in the areas of property law, property theory, and land titles. He is a recipient of the A.C. Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1988) and the Faculty of Law’s Tevie Miller Teaching Award (2014). Ziff served as the Associate Dean from 1989-91. In 1991-92, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Wollongong in Australia, and the following year served as a Special Counsel for the Alberta Law Reform Institute. Shortly afterwards, he was retained to assist in a law reform project in Ukraine. During the 2015-6 academic year, Professor Ziff was cross-appointed to the Faculty of Arts as the associate director of folkwaysAlive!, a folklore research unit.

Ziff writes mainly in the area of property law. He is the author of Principles of Property Law (2014) in its 6th edition, and Unforeseen Legacies: Reuben Wells Leonard and the Leonard Foundation Trust (2000). He is a co-editor of Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation (1997), Property on Trial: Canadian Cases in Context (2012), and A Property Law Reader (2016), now in its 4th edition.

Professor Ziff retired from teaching at the Faculty of Law in 2019.