Celebrating Research Innovation at the Common Law Section

Faculty of Law - Common Law Section
Awards and recognition
Faculty of Law - Common Law Section

By Common Law

Communication, Faculty of Law

Common Law Internal Awards, 2022
The Common Law Section has recently recognized outstanding researchers who are leading the way on a variety of law-related topics, from the rights of vulnerable migrants and the experiences of surrogates to fictional representations of incarcerated women and patterns of police violence.

In 2014, the Office of the Vice-Dean of Research at the Common Law Section established an internal awards program to recognize the outstanding contributions of members of the law school community. Among these recognitions are three awards given to those who have earned distinction for excellence in research.

Below are the Common Law Section’s 2022 Excellence in Research Award winners:

Delphine Nakache

The Excellence in Research Award
Awarded to a member of the faculty who has earned distinction as a result of the importance and exceptional characteristics of their research over the past seven years.

Delphine Nakache’s research is well-aligned with the values that distinguish our Faculty, in particular the pursuit of social justice. Her work highlights the impact of the law on various groups of people in vulnerable situations such as migrant workers, undocumented migrants, people in detention, and refugee claimants.

Delphine Nakache
Delphine Nakache

Stefanie Carsley

The Emerging Researcher Award
Awarded to a member of the faculty who has earned distinction as a result of the importance and exceptional characteristics of their research.  At the time of nomination, the nominee must have completed at least two years, but no more than seven years, as a full-time professor at the University of Ottawa or elsewhere.

Stefanie Carsley’s empirical research, which seeks to bring the experiences of intended parents, lawyers and surrogates to the fore, plays a critical role in ensuring that law and policy-makers have access to research that reflects the lived experiences of individuals who build their families through surrogacy.

Stefanie Carsley
Stefanie Carsley

Suzanne Bouclin and Sylvia Rich

The Greenberg Prize for Feminist Research 
The Greenberg Prize recognizes the most significant article, book chapter or monograph published in the last 3 years (2020, 2021 or 2022) on women and the law.

Suzanne Bouclin’s book Women, Film, and Law: Cinematic Representations of Female Incarceration probes beneath the surface of fictional representations of criminalized and incarcerated women to uncover the multiple forms of oppression and marginalization that women experience. Professor Bouclin’s work enriches the existing feminist conversation about the regulation of women to make important contributions to feminist scholarship on women and law. 

Sylvia Rich’s article “Police Violence as Organizational Crime” makes a significant, original contribution to the advancement of research relating to women and the law. It examines police violence against Indigenous women as an intersectional, sexist-racist phenomenon and argues that these acts can be understood as a form of organizational crime. 

Suzanne Bouclin
Suzanne Bouclin
Sylvia Rich
Sylvia Rich

Excellence in Teaching Awards

Chidi Oguamanam

The Excellence in Teaching Award, English Common Law Program
Awarded to a full-time faculty member of the English Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, dedication to the student experience, etc. 

Chidi Oguamanam works tirelessly with students to help them achieve their goals and dreams. Dr. Oguamanam's work with students at ABS Canada (Access and Benefit Sharing) is important and allows students to become involved in researching a variety of interesting topics. He has taught a breadth of students how to be strong researchers.

Chidi Oguamanam
Chidi Oguamanam

Yves Le Bouthillier

The Excellence in Teaching Award, French Common Law Program
Awarded to a full-time faculty member of the French Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, dedication to the student experience, etc. 

Yves Le Bouthillier is a pillar of the French Common Law Program. He is an extremely dynamic and dedicated teacher, and he is highly appreciated by his students. His versatility is also remarkable, as over the years he has taught a large number of courses in a wide variety of fields.

Yves Le Bouthillier
Yves Le Bouthillier

Vivek Krishnamurthy

The Ian Kerr Award for Excellence in Teaching
Awarded to a full-time, pre-tenure professor in either the French Common Law Program or the English Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, dedication to the student experience, etc.

Vivek Krishnamurthy is a leader in innovation in legal pedagogy and is known and appreciated by his students for his thoughtfulness and commitment to inclusion in the classroom. He stands out because of his extensive use of interactive learning aids and his efforts to incentivize learning while reducing stress.

Vivek Krishnamurthy
Vivek Krishnamurthy

Rachelle Laforge

The Part-Time Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching
Awarded to a part-time professor in either the French Common Law Program or the English Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, dedication to the student experience, etc. 

Rachelle Laforge has been an instructor-practitioner in the Faculty of Law’s Law Practice Program (Programme de pratique du droit) at the University of Ottawa for many years. She has done an excellent job updating the program’s family law module, while taking into account the unique needs of the Francophone community.

Rachelle Laforge
Rachelle Laforge

Jena McGill

The Excellence in Graduate Supervision Award
Awarded to a full-time faculty member who has demonstrated exceptional commitment and ability in supervising graduate students, whether at the Master’s or PhD level.

Jena McGill is a champion of interdisciplinary research work, an attentive reviewer and referee, an exceptional mentor, and a role model in her research and teaching accomplishments. She offers open-mindedness, patience, and a willingness to have difficult conversations.

Jena McGill
Jena McGill

Excellence in Service Awards

Sam Singer

The Public Engagement Award: Public Education and Outreach
Awarded to a member of the faculty (full- or part-time) or staff who has a demonstrated record of presentations at public events and other large-scale outreach initiatives aimed at expanding public understanding and legal change on a given topic.

Samuel Singer is a trans lawyer, researcher, educator, and advocate who is deeply committed to advancing trans justice in Canada. His advocacy work includes public and judicial education, founding and supervising the Trans Legal Clinic in Montreal, and serving as a co-plaintiff in the ground-breaking Quebec human rights case, Centre for Gender Advocacy v. Attorney General of Quebec.

Samuel Singer
Samuel Singer

Yan Campagnolo

The Public Engagement Award: Media Relations
Awarded to a member of the faculty (full- or part-time) or staff who has a demonstrated record of commenting on important legal topics, and/or will have succeeded in bringing their research findings into the public domain through the media.

Yan Campagnolo has distinguished himself through his frequent interventions in the Canadian news media, in both English and French. He has commented on numerous political and legal controversies such as the criminal prosecution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, the SNC-Lavalin affair and, most recently, the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau.

Yan Campagnolo
Yan Campagnolo

Eric Proulx

The Outstanding Staff Service Award
Presented annually to a member of the staff of the Common Law section who has earned distinction as a result of outstanding service to the Faculty or the University.

As everything shut down at the start of the pandemic and we moved to working remotely, Eric Proulx supported all of us to ensure we stayed connected and had the tools required to get our work done. His dedication, his meticulous attention to detail and his collaboration, just to mention a few of his great qualities, make him a remarkable employee from whom the Faculty has greatly benefited over the years, but especially in the last two years.

Eric Proulx
Eric Proulx

Yan Campagnolo and Kyle Kirkup

The Nicole LaViolette Distinguished Service Faculty Award
Awarded to a member of the faculty who has earned distinction as a result of outstanding service to the Faculty or the University, in particular through committee work, administrative assignments or other forms of service not directly related to teaching or research. 

As the Faculty Advisors of the Ottawa Law Review (OLR) since 2017, the support and guidance offered by Yan Campagnolo and Kyle Kirkup have been and continue to be pivotal to the OLR’s mission in disseminating exceptional bilingual and open-access legal scholarship and its success in becoming one of Canada’s leading peer-reviewed law journals.

Kyle Kirkup & Yan Campagnolo
Kyle Kirkup & Yan Campagnolo