A full professor in the Common Law Section, Yan Campagnolo has distinguished himself as a scholar, educator, and public servant. He holds civil law and common law degrees from the University of Ottawa, where he received the Gold Medal for the highest standing in law, as well as graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of Toronto. He clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Justice Morris Fish and later served as counsel at the Privy Council Office, advising the Prime Minister and the Clerk on major constitutional litigation, commissions of inquiry, democratic reform, and access to information.
Professor Campagnolo was also recently appointed counsel at Power Law, a cutting-edge bilingual boutique law firm focused on litigation and public law.
Professor Campagnolo’s commitment to the vitality of French common law is equally impressive. A former vice-dean of the French Common Law Program, he is editing the Common law en brefcollection of books, which are making Canadian common law more accessible to francophone minority communities. In 2025, the AJEFO awarded him its Ordre du mérite for his contribution to access to justice in French and to Ontario’s francophone legal community.
For 45 years, the AJEFO has worked to ensure that French-language justice in Ontario is not merely an aspiration, but a tangible and accessible reality. Placing a professor at its helm brings a particular promise to the francophone legal community. Teaching trains future jurists; research strengthens the intellectual foundations of language rights; and advocacy helps translate those foundations into meaningful access to services and remedies.
For Professor Campagnolo, AJEFO’s work forms part of a broader responsibility to protect and advance the rights of francophones in Ontario: “Ontario is home to over half a million francophones, the most of any province other than Quebec. My role is to ensure our government institutions take the rights of Franco-Ontarians seriously and create a normative environment that respects and fosters the development of our language and culture.”
In 2024-25, Professor Campagnolo served on the independent committee appointed to prioritize historical rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada for translation, ensuring they are accessible in both official languages.
In 2026, Professor Campagnolo co-edited a groundbreaking special issue of the Ottawa Law Review on language rights with Professor François Larocque, who holds the Canadian Francophonie Research Chair in Language Rights.
Professor Campagnolo’s leadership resonates deeply with one of the guiding principles of the Common Law Section’s strategic vision for 2028: promoting access to justice in French and English.