Professor Johanne Poirier surrounded by current and former members of the MacKell Chair team during the celebration of its 10th anniversary.
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Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
Atagün Mert Kejanlıoğlu – doctoral candidate
Atagün Mert Kejanlıoğlu is a DCL candidate at McGill’s Faculty of Law. He holds an undergraduate degree in law and a master’s degree in Public Law from Galatasaray University (Istanbul, Turkey). He obtained another master’s degree in Fundamental Public Law from University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2016 with his dissertation on Turkish and French presidency. He also worked as a research and teaching assistant in the constitutional law department at MEF University Faculty of Law (Istanbul, Turkey). For his doctoral studies, Atagün received a research grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FQRSC). His research interests include comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and European human rights law.
Project: Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments : an Example of Abusive Constitutionalism? (2018 – )
In a world where populism is on the rise, constitutions are also increasingly under attack. The reason is simple: constitutions include legal mechanisms designed to protect the values of constitutional democracy. Yet, unlike many other authoritarian regimes, populists play the game by its rules and amend the constitutions by methods that seem to be constitutional. This tendency is one of the main threats to constitutionalism, and therefore to the protection of democracy, human rights and diversity. As populists see the “people” as a unity that can express its will without any limits and directly through referenda, one needs to decipher the role of the “people” in constitutional amendments.
This research intends to explain to what extent the authority of the “people” to amend the constitution is restricted contrary to populist claims. I mainly argue that there are limits regarding how the will of the “people” can be expressed. Contrary to what populists assert, I contend that the will of the “people” cannot be easily determined solely through a referendum process. I use examples from international human rights law, critical constitutionalism, and federalism to illustrate this argument.
Current research assistants
Professor Poirier has the pleasure of working with a number of dedicated and highly effective research assistants.
Sarah Despatie (2024 - ) is a BCL/JD student at the McGill Faculty of Law. She holds a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver). Her MA thesis, for which she received the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand-Bombardier scholarship, explores the role of parliamentary debates in constructing and expressing national belonging. Sarah is currently a senior editor at the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and sits on the Faculty’s Official Languages Committee. Her research interests revolve around federalism, official languages, immigration and education. Prior to her studies in law, she worked as a senior alpine ski racing coach, as well as in public affairs for minority language education in British Columbia.
Julius Grippo (2024 - ) is a BCL/JD student at the Faculty of Law. He was a group assistant in Constitutional Law and currently serves as a research assistant at the Supreme Court of Canada. He is also the co-editor-in-chief of Contours Journal, McGill's publication focusing on the intersection of gender, sexuality, and law. Julius is involved in research projects on federalism, with a particular focus on multi-crown proceedings. His academic interests lie in cooperative federalism and the substantive equality framework developed under Section 15 of the Charter.
Chloe Bell (2024 - ) is a lawyer and LL.M. student at McGill University Faculty of Law. Before undertaking postgraduate studies, Chloe practiced for two years as a law clerk at the Court of Appeal of Quebec to Justice Peter Kalichman. Passioned about public affairs and matters related to federalism, her thesis focuses on relations between the federal, provincial and municipal governments in the housing sector in Canada. Alongside her studies, Chloe is a member of the Board of Force Jeunesse. She is also vice-president organizing the Rencontres Maîtres Chez Vous.
Nazim Ait Ourdja (2024–) is a B.C.L./J.D. candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where he is also pursuing a minor in art history. He was a student researcher at the Paul-André Crépeau Center for Private and Comparative Law, where he contributed to the drafting of legal definitions for the Dictionary of Private Law in the field of personal law. He is also an assistant editor at the McGill Law Journal, where he is involved in developing a section of the Canadian Legal Reference Manual on Indigenous sources. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of Amnesty International Canada Francophone as a youth representative. His main areas of interest are comparative constitutional law and institutional engineering. Before law school, he completed a bachelor's degree in political science at McGill.
Félix Lévesque (2024 - ) is a student in the BCL/JD program at McGill University's Faculty of Law. He holds a master's degree in political science from the same university. His master's thesis focuses on the evolution of populist movements in Canada and their social determinants, for which he received a grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) and a Joseph-Armand-Bombardier grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Félix is a member of the McGill Law Journal podcast team and a volunteer at the Mobile Legal Clinic.
Étienne Ouellet (2025-) is a BCL/JD candidate at the Faculty of Law and is completing a minor in history. Before beginning his university studies, he was a communications coordinator and press secretary for a national federation of student associations and worked for an organization dedicated to promoting public participation in the democratic process. At the faculty, he has been involved as an editor for the McGill Law Journal and as a group assistant for the Constitutional Law course, in addition to collaborating on environmental law research projects. Étienne is particularly interested in intergovernmental relations, the justification of the exercise of public powers, and the history of law. He is the recipient of the Stephen A. Scott Award in Constitutional Law.
Past Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
Julian Clarenne - Postdoctoral Researcher
Julian Clarenne is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité et la démocratie (CRIDAQ). Between 2018 and 2022, he completed a doctorate titled "Délibérer au Parlement. Le droit parlementaire, instrument du renouveau de la démocratie représentative ?" (UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles/CIRC). He then became a guest professor in constitutional law at UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels, as well as a postdoctoral researcher at UCLouvain (CRECO), within the framework of the research project "Political Institutions in Search of Trust". He research interests include political law, parliamentary studies, deliberative democracy, and citizen participation.
Project: Parliamentary Oversight of Cooperative Federalism. A Comparative Law Perspective: Belgium-Canada (2024 - 2025)
In all federal democracies, there are more or less institutionalized forms of intergovernmental consultation. This logic of cooperation reinforces the executive’s dominance over the management of public affairs, with Parliament playing only a secondary role. It is sometimes referred to as "executive federalism." As the executive management of societal issues becomes increasingly complex, the issue of parliamentary oversight of these cooperative decision-making processes becomes more pressing. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of federal and federated parliamentary assemblies in the democratic legitimation process of cooperative federalism, through a comparative study of the tools of oversight and direction of intergovernmental relations in Canada and Belgium. The aim is to assess to what extent these means allow parliaments to fulfill their functions, particularly their roles in legitimation and policy-making, within the realm of intrafederal cooperation.
Lucien Carrier – doctoral candidate
Lucien Carrier has a keen interest in constitutional theory, legal theory and philosophy of law. His readings have led him to taking into account both the historical and sociological dimensions of law, as well as its ties to political theory in general. Having studied in France, England, Scotland and now Québec, he greatly values the importance of identifying and discussing perspective in the study of law.
Project: Le recours aux classifications des formes politiques pour décoder l’ordre constitutionnel britannique : processus utile ou obstacle épistémologique ? (Classifications of Political Entities as a Means of Understanding British Constitutional Order: Useful Process or Epistemological Barrier?) (2019 – 2025)
Representation of the world through taxonomies is not automatic, or necessary. Starting from the hypothesis that certain legal cultures resort less to classification than others, I intend to explore the actual meaning of the act of classification. Based on the study of the British constitutional order’s specific case, my research aims to explain and analyze different possible decoding methods. In so doing, I will confront representations of political entities produced by French, British and Canadian scholarly discourse.
Dave Guénette – post-doctoral researcher
After completing his doctoral studies in Quebec (Laval University) and Belgium (UCLouvain), Dave Guénette joined the Peter Mackell Chair on Federalism as a postdoctoral researcher in the summer of 2020. His past and present work focuses primarily on federalism, constitutional revision, and multinational states. He is the author of several books, scientific articles, and book chapters on these topics, in addition to co-editing several collective works. Since 2023, Dave has been a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sherbrooke.
Project: Le consociationalisme, principe structurant du fédéralisme coopératif au Canada? (Is Consociationalism a Structuring Principle of Cooperative Federalism in Canada?) (2020 – 2023)
My postdoctoral research project proposes to examine the extent to which the theory of consociationalism (or consociational democracy) could serve as a structuring principle for understanding cooperative federalism in Canada. By methodically examining different materializations of cooperative federalism, I will seek to determine the degree to which the main consociational pillar, which is the search for accommodation between political elites, allows for a better understanding of the dynamics that animate executive federalism between the partners of the federation, as well as the interpretation that the courts make of the different norms that apply to cooperative federalism.
Catherine Mathieu – Doctoral Student
Catherine Mathieu holds both a bachelor’s degree in Public Affairs and International Relations and a Bachelor of Laws from Université Laval. After completing a master’s degree in Constitutional Law while working as an advisor at the Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat, she clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for the Right Honourable Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. Catherine completed her doctorate in law at McGill University in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Johanne Poirier and is a recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. She is currently a professor at the Département des sciences juridiques of the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Project: Fédéralisme et protection du consommateur au Canada à la lumière du droit européen (Federalism and Consumer Protection in Canada in Light of European Law) (2018 – 2023)
My thesis examines the issues raised by the interrelationship and overlap between federal and provincial consumer laws. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impacts of Canadian federalism on the protection of consumer rights. It also seeks, by studying the specific case of consumer law, to analyze the evolution of the jurisprudential conception of federalism and of the doctrines guiding the interpretation of the division of powers.
Past Research Assistants
Oscar Bisot (2023 - 2025) completed his BCL/JD at the Faculty of Law in 2025. He is a founding member of the Transnational Justice Clinic at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. During his studies, Oscar was an associate editor for the McGill Law Journal and was involved in research projects on federalism, human rights, and family law. Before coming to McGill, Oscar taught French and Québec literature as a sessional lecturer. He is passionate about workers’ rights and previously served as Vice President of the University of Toronto’s union of non-faculty teaching staff. He studied literature, philosophy, and classics at Paris Nanterre University, Sorbonne University, and the University of Toronto.
Joseph Ho (2022 - 2025) completed his BCL/JD at the Faculty of Law in 2025. He has led humanitarian and development assistance programs for conflict-affected populations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Afghanistan. He has also managed public consultation initiatives and social impact assessment/mitigation programs for mining operations in Congo, Indonesia, and Chile. At the Faculty, he acted as Group Assistant to Professor Poirier’s Constitutional Law course. He holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. After law school, Jospeh clerked for the Hon. Justice Nicholas Kasirer at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Mélisande Charbonneau-Gravel (2018-2020, 2023 - 2025), BCL/LLB’19 received the Stephen A. Scott Award in Constitutional Law as well as the J.S.D. Tory Writing Award. She participated in a research seminar in constitutional law which aimed to rewrite a modern version of the Canadian Constitution. Mélisande was a research assistant for various centres and professors. In 2020-2021, she clerked for Justice Martin at the Supreme Court of Canada. She then worked in private practice specializing in constitutional law, and completed a master's degree in 2024.
Blaise Evelyn (2024) completed his BCL/JD at McGill University’s Faculty of Law in 2025. Having previously studied Public Administration at the University of Ottawa, he is particularly interested in the impact of federalism on the development of public policy and service delivery to citizens. At the Faculty, he served as Executive Director of the Legal Information Clinic at McGill, where he managed access-to-justice initiatives targeted toward the Montreal community. After completing his studies, Blaise articled at the Department of Justice Canada.
Félix-Antoine Lestage (2022- 2024) completed a BCL/JD at McGill University's Faculty of Law with a minor in philosophy. His interests include political philosophy and constitutional law, particularly in respect of intergovernmental cooperation and interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. During his studies in law, he has been a volunteer at McGill's Legal Information Clinic and has been involved in the Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers. He has also completed research in the areas of property and family law.
Andrea Pavaluca (2022 – 2024) completed a BCL/JD at the Faculty of Law and was the coordinator of the Baxter Family Competition. During her studies in law, she has implicated herself in the Runnymede Society, an associated dedicated to the promotion of constitutionalism and fundamental freedoms. She has contributed to the Quebec-Rome comparative Civil code project, run by McGill's Roman Law Association, and is a volunteer at McGill's Legal Information Clinic. Finally, Andrea has also worked as a tourist guide. It is her undying passion for history which led her to constitutional law.
David D'Astous (2021 - 2023) was a BCL/JD student at McGill's Faculty of Law. He holds a Certificate from Université Laval's Great Books Program. During his legal studies, he notably acted as a tutorial leader for the first-year Legal Methodology course and as a student law clerk at the Quebec Court of Appeal. He also volunteered at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill. In 2021, he won the Louis-Philippe-Pigeon Chair in Legal Writing's essay competition. In 2023-2024, David will clerk under Justice Côté at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Olivier Henripin (2022 - 2023) completed in 2023 his BCL/JD at the Faculty of Law, where he served as research assistant and group assistant for Professor Poirier’s Constitutional Law class. Before studying law, he taught international relations at Loyola University Chicago, where he held the Helen H. Rigali Chair. He had previously been a postdoctoral scholar at the Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. He holds a PhD in political science from Northwestern University. Olivier currently clerks at the Quebec Court of Appeal. In 2026-2027, he will clerk for Justice Rowe at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Emily Michelin (2022 - 2023) completed her BCL/JD at McGill’s Faculty of Law. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of British Columbia. She transferred to McGill after completing a year of law school at the University of Ottawa. At the Faculty, she became involved with the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and acted as a Senior Editor. She was also a manager for Contours, a student-run magazine based at the McGill Faculty of Law that aims to highlight the intersection of women, non-binary and gender nonconforming people and law. During her legal studies, she volunteered with the Legal Information Clinic at McGill and the Mobile Legal Clinic.
Gabrielle Genest (2022-2023) completed her BCL/JD at McGill University's Faculty of Law in 2023. After completing a degree in Social sciences (international studies) at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, she was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal. During her studies in law, she served as a law clerk at the Municipal Court of Montreal and acted as a tutorial leader for the first-year Legal Methodology course. She served as editor-in-chief of McGill's only francophone newspaper, Le Délit. Since 2022, she occupies the role of coordinator of the Peter MacKell Chair in federalism.
Simon Hamel-Genest (2021-2022) completed his BCL/JD at McGill University's Faculty of Law. He holds an Honours BSocSc in Conflict Studies and Human Rights and a Minor in Law from the University of Ottawa. He has held various positions pertaining to official languages in student government and has been working at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada since 2017. During his legal studies, he acted as Group Assistant to Professor Poirier’s Constitutional Law class. He also volunteered at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill. Finally, Simon was awarded the Stephen A. Scott Award in Constitutional Law.
Emma Walsh (2021-2022) completed her BCL/JD at McGill University's Faculty of Law and was a research assistant to Professor Johanne Poirier. She holds a BA with Honours in Political Science and Honours in Human Rights from St. Thomas University. She has competed in constitutional and human rights moot court competitions across the United States and in Geneva, Switzerland, where her team placed first. During her legal studies, she co-founded the Wallenberg Advocacy Group at McGill, which engages in legal and social advocacy to promote the causes of political prisoners. She also acted as a Senior Editor on the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and volunteered with the Legal Information Clinic at McGill.
Etienne A. Gratton (2019-2021) was a BCL/JD student at the Faculty of Law and a research assistant to Professor Johanne Poirier. He holds an MA in History from Queen’s University, where he worked on the interactions of social and legal norms in the context of the patrician family in late nineteenth-century Québec. Involved with his community, he has served in different positions in student, municipal and federal politics. He is also an organizer and board member of the Jeune Conseil de Montréal, a non-partisan organisation educating young Montrealers to politics and public debate.
Catherine Laperrière (2020-2021) was a BCL/JD student at the Faculty of Law, and the coordinator of the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism. Her interest for communities of all kinds guided her involvement at various levels: at the Faculty, notably in the Official Languages Committee; in the university, within the Judicial Board of the Student Association; and in the broader community, with the Mobile Legal Clinic, which she coordinated in 2020-2021. She completed a student clerkship, and acted as a group assistant for Professor Poirier's Constitutional Law class. Catherine organized the third edition of the Baxter Family Competition on Federalism, a writing competition associated with the Chair. After completing her law degree, Catherine worked as a law clerk at the Federal Court of Appeal before joining the litigation department at the Department of Justice Canada.
Jessica Michelin (2020) completed her BCL/JD at McGill University's Faculty of Law. She holds a BA in psychology from McGill University, where she was also a member of the rugby team. During her law studies, Jessica completed an internship at the Court of Appeal, was a teaching assistant for the legal methodology course, and was an editor for the McGill Journal of Health Law. She also completed an internship at Human Rights Watch as part of the human rights internship program at McGill's Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, where she worked on various comparative law projects. After completing her law degree, Jessica worked as a research lawyer for two years at the Quebec Court of Appeal. She then served as a law clerk to the Honorable Justice Mahmud Jamal at the Supreme Court of Canada. Jessica currently works as a litigation lawyer in private practice at IMK.
Marie-Hélène Lyonnais (2017-2019) completed her BCL/JD at McGill’s Faculty of Law, as a Loran Scholar. She was a research assistant for the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism, coordinated the second edition of the Baxter Family Competition on Federalism, and was a teaching assistant to Professor Poirier’s Constitutional Law class. Marie-Hélène spent a summer at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, where she worked on several submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada on constitutional matters. She represented McGill at the Laskin Moot Court Competition in constitutional and administrative law. Outside of school, Marie-Hélène volunteered at the Mobile Legal Clinic and worked on a consultative committee for the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec. After her studies, Marie-Hélène will serve as a Law Clerk to Justice Kasirer at the Supreme Court of Canada and will work at the law firm IMK.
Jan Nato (2019) obtained his BCL/LLB from McGill’s Faculty of Law in 2019. He studied and worked as an opera singer before beginning his legal studies. While at McGill, Jan volunteered at the PINAY Legal Information Clinic, and participated in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. In 2019, Jan’s paper was awarded first place in the Baxter Family Competition on Federalism. After completing his articles at an international law firm, Jan is currently an assistant legal counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Stéphanie Pépin (2017-2018) is a DCL candidate at McGill’s Faculty of Law. She has a certificate in political science, an LLB degree with honours in Law as well as a master’s degree in law from Université Laval, where she held the positions of law tutor and vice-president of Academic Affairs at the Graduate Law Student Association. Throughout her studies, she also worked as a paralegal at the law firm Stein Monast s.e.n.c.r.l. and as a research assistant and teaching assistant for multiple professors. Stéphanie received a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for her master’s degree and from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FQRSC) for her doctoral studies. Her main areas of interests are constitutional law, public institutions and human rights regimes.
Antoine Godin-Landry (2017-2018) holds a BCL/JD (2019) from McGill’s Faculty of Law, where he worked as a teaching assistant to Professor Poirier's Constitutional Law class. In 2017, he participated in a Constitutional Law Research Seminar to draft a “Constitution of Canada 2017”, where he focused on issues of division of powers and international relations. During his legal studies, he was involved with the Mobile Legal Clinic, an organization devoted to improving access to justice for people. In 2020, he began articling at Woods, a leading firm specialized in civil and commercial litigation.
Éléna Drouin (2017-2018) is a BCL/LLB student at McGill's Faculty of Law, where she received the Stephen A. Scott Award in Constitutional Law. She currently is acting Editor-in-chief of the McGill Law Journal for Volume 63. During her law studies, Elena also volunteered with the Canadian Association of Civil Liberties (CCLA) through Pro Bono Canada. She holds a joint degree in Economics and Political Science from Université Laval, where she made the Dean’s Honour List. Previously, Éléna worked at the Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor du Québec, as well as at other ministries of the Quebec Provincial Government.
Jesse Hartery (2015-2018) has obtained his BCL/LLB at McGill's Faculty of Law. During his time at the Faculty, he was a group assistant in Professor Johanne Poirier’s Constitutional Law course, a law clerk to a Justice of the Superior Court of Québec, and the Program Co-Coordinator of the McGill Chapter of Pro Bono Students Canada. He was also the Co-President of the McGill Runnymede Society. Jesse was called to the Quebec Bar in 2019 and he served as a Law Clerk to Justice Nicholas Kasirer at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2020-2021. In October 2019, he was awarded the Ronald L. Watts Award by the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies.
Sajeda Hedaraly (2015-2018) completed her BCL/LLB studies at McGill in December 2018, after having previously completing a Bachelor of Arts & Science with a major in cell/molecular biology. During her legal studies, Sajeda volunteered at the Caregivers’ Association of Quebec (AAFQ) and at the Legal Information Clinic. She was an editor for the McGill Law Journal, completed a clerkship at the Québec Superior Court, and participated to the Harold G. Fox Moot in Intellectual Property. Sajeda has worked as a clerk at the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2018 and clerked for Justice Gascon of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019. She now works in litigation at McCarthy Tétrault, a national law firm.
Maryna Polataiko (2015-2019) holds a BCL/LLB from McGill's Faculty of Law. She co-founded Tech Law McGill, an organization for students interested in law and technology. She was also a finalist at the Copyright Policy Moot hosted by the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa. Maryna received the Bereskin & Parr Prize in Industrial and Intellectual Property. She was called to the bar in Ontario in 2020 after completing her articles at a national law firm. Most recently, she has been writing on intellectual property in the Internet era.
Lana Rackovic (2015-2018) obtained her BCL/LLB at McGill's Faculty of Law. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Communication from the University of Ottawa. She received research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FQRSC), which she used to pursue graduate studies that focused on the rights of European ethnic and linguistic minorities at Université de Montréal. During her time in Ottawa, she worked for Elections Canada and the Parliament of Canada before completing an internship at the Council of Europe. Lana was involved with Contours, a McGill publication aiming to give voices to women in law, and with Bien que chez soi, an organization aiming to fight homelessness in its many forms in Montreal. Upon leaving the Faculty, Lana was called to the Québec Bar in 2019 and now practices civil and commercial litigation at Langlois Lawyers. She also works in constitutional and administrative law cases, for which her interest has only grown since her time at the MacKell Chair.
Scott Whitelaw (2016-2017) obtained his LLM from McGill's Faculty of Law in 2017. He holds degrees in history (BA Hons.), civil law (LLL) and common law (LLB) from the University of Ottawa. Scott clerked at the Federal Court of Appeal and has been called to the Bar in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and New York. He has worked as Legal Counsel at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and as a Legal Intern with the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa. Before relocating to Montréal for graduate studies at McGill’s, Scott worked as a Crown Prosecutor in Saskatchewan. His LLM thesis focused on the right to a basic education in both South African and First Nations contexts. Upon completing his work with the Chair, he worked as a litigation lawyer with Justice Canada in Ottawa Scott served as a federal Crown prosecutor. He has since enrolled as a legal officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Marie Rondeau (2015-2016) has completed her BCL/LLB program in 2016 at McGill’s Faculty Law. During her time at the Faculty, she led workshops to help first year students with their learning and study skills and acted as a volunteer for the McGill Legal Information Clinic. She was also Managing Editor of the McGill Journal of Law and Health, as well as vice-president of the Law Students’ Association. An accomplished athlete, she was a member of the Canadian national synchronised swimming team between 2009 and 2012, and a coach thereafter. In 2014, she interned with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Patrick Baud (2015-2016), Honours BCL/LLB'18, is now counsel in the Constitutional, Administrative and International Law Section of the federal Department of Justice. His practice and research focus on Aboriginal and constitutional law. He previously served as counsel in the Aboriginal Law Centre and the Crown-Indigenous Relations, Northern Affairs and Indigenous Services Legal Services Unit. At McGill, Patrick was a member of the Research Group on Constitutional Studies and received the Stephen A. Scott Award in Constitutional Law. Before joining the Department of Justice, he served as law clerk to the Honourable Justice Mary JL Gleason at the Federal Court of Appeal and the Honourable Justice Andromache Karakatsanis at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Scholars in Residence
July-August 2019: Yonatan Fessha, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Cape, South Africa and Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research. While in Montreal, he pursued his project on intergovernmental relations in divided societies.
May-June 2019: Antonia Baraggia, Associate Professor, Department of National and Supranational Public Law, Faculta di diritto, Universita di Milano. She advanced her research project on comparative fiscal federalism.
July-August 2018: Josep Maria Castellà Andreu, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Barcelona, and member of the Venice Commission (European Commission for Democracy through Law), Council of Europe.
July-August 2018: Núria González-Campañá, PhD candidate, Oxford, and EU Law Lecturer at ESADE Business and Law School of Barcelona.
March 2016: Nicolas Levrat, Professor, University of Geneva. While in residence, he gave two talks: The Impact of Globalisation on Multinational Federations on March 16, 2016, and Gouvernance européenne et migration on March 31, 2016.
Visiting Students
2022: Lucien Rigaux, PhD candidate, Université Libre de Bruxelles. During his stay, he advanced his research project on solidarity in federal systems.