2015-2016 Projects

Research memorandum for case before Superior Court of Quebec

In 2016 the CPP submitted a research memorandum on an active case before the Superior Court of Quebec. The case has been brought by the Centre for Gender Advocacy and four individual plaintiffs. The plaintiffs seek declaratory relief that provisions of the Quebec Civil Code are incompatible with provincial and federal human rights instruments protecting transgender individuals. The report focused on issues of transgender rights from a comparative perspective, including research on US, Australian, UK and ECHR law.

The research team was supervised by three members of the CPP Executive Committee, Victoria Halsall (an LLM Student), Thomas Liu (an LLM Student) and John Adenitire (a PhD student). The researchers were Ruth McGuinness (an LLM student), Andrew Brown (an LLM student), Kirsty Corby (an LLM Student), Rebecca Foy (an LLM student), Minh Bui (an LLM student) and Amir Cahane (an LLM student).

The team was advised by Prof David Feldman and Dr Jens Scherpe.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

In March of 2016 the CPP completed the fifth research memorandum for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on an active case before the court. A team of graduate students tackled a research question spanning national, regional, and international jurisdictions and produced a rigorous and substantial analysis of existing and developing law of human rights.

The Inter-American Court, established in 1969 and brought into existence to protect human rights in the Americas, serves as a safeguard of Convention rights in twenty-five American Nations. The Court decides contentious proceedings against American States and gives advisory opinions on the interpretation of the American Convention on Human Rights.

The research team was supervised by two members of the CPP Executive Committee, Luíza Leão Soares Pereira (a PhD student) and Massimo Lando (a PhD student). The researchers were Karla Jones (an LLM student), Sam Humphrey (an LLM Student), Luke Villers (an LLM Student), Emanuel Giakoumakis (an LLM Student), Natalie Jones (an LLM Student), Ruth McGuinness (an LLM Student), Gabrielle Elliott-Williams (a PhD Student) and Rosalind Comyn (an LLM student).

The team was advised by Prof David Feldman.