Justice Rosalie Abella Gives Viscount Bennett Lecture
On November 1st, 2007, the UNB Faculty of Law hosted the 29th Viscount Bennett Lecture. This year's lecturer was Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada. Madam Justice Abella's lecture title was “Judging Rights”. Speaking to a crowd of nearly 150 faculty, students and local members of the judciary and bar, Justice Abella made a passionate presentation on the evolution of human rights in Canada and abroad.
On Friday, November 2nd, Justice Abella joined Professors Aloke Chatterjee (UNB Law), Wayne MacKay (Dalhousie Law) and Carissima Mathen (UNB Law) in a panel discussion entitled "Situating Human Rights in the Current Canadian Context." The panel discussion was chaired by Ms. Susan Butterfield, the Director of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
Madam Justice Silberman Abella, is a graduate of the University of Toronto, receiving her B.A. in 1967 and her LL.B. in 1970. She has had a varied and important career in law. After admission to the Bar of Ontario in 1972 and engaging in a litigation practice for a number of years, she moved to take on a number of critical positions in the public sector. Among, these, she was a Commissioner for the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1975 to 1980, the. Sole Commissioner, Royal Commission on Equality in Employment from 1983 to 1984, the Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board from 1984 to 1989, and Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission from 1989 to 1992. She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in March, 1992 and to the Supreme Court of Canada in August, 2004. She has been a Director of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section) since 1982 and a Director of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice since 1983.
Justice Abella has also been active in education and research. She was the Boulton Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, McGill University from 1988 to 1992; the James R. Bullock Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, Hebrew University, 1999, the Merv Leitch Q.C. Visiting Chair in Law at the Faculties of Law of the Universities of Calgary and Alberta, 1999; and Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the University of Toronto Law School, 2000, 2002, and 2003. She is also the author of over 70 articles and the author or co-editor of a number of books. She was a Director of the Institute for Research on Public Policy from 1987 to 1992 and a Trustee of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada from 1993 to 2000. She has been a Senior Fellow and Continuing Fellow of Massey College since 1989 and a Governor of the International Board of Governors for the Hebrew University since 2000.
Justice Abella has received honourary doctorates in law from more than twenty academic institutions including the University of New Brunswick, LL.D. (Hon.), 1989; the University of Toronto, LL.D. (Hon.), 1990; the University of Victoria, LL.D. (Hon.), McGill University, LL.D. (Hon.), 1999; and Brooklyn Law School, LL.D. (Hon.). She also has an honourary doctorate in law from the Law Society of Upper Canada, LL.D. (Hon.), 2001. She was made a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1997. She is a Robert Anderson Fellow of Yale Law School, 2004; an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, 2007 and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007.
Posted November 5, 2007 at 9:18 AM
