Lara Khoury

Full Professor
Associate Vice-President (Research), Associate member, Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy (School of population and global health) 

New Chancellor Day Hall
3644 Peel Street
Room 603
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9

514-398-6610 [Office]
lara.khoury [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Lara Khoury


Website: McGill Research Group on Health and Law

Read her Publications on SSRN.


Biography

Professor Khoury, Ad. E., is a Full Professor at the Faculty of law, an associate member of McGill's Institute for Health & Social Policy and Biomedical Ethics Unit (now part of the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy of the School of Population and Global Health).  She was the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Law from 2015 to 2017. She convenes, with Professor Alana Klein, the McGill Research Group on Health and Law. She is also a member of McGill’s Institute of Comparative Law and a Full Member of the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law. She teaches and conducts research in the fields of comparative Medical, Public Health and Environmental Law, with a particular focus on liability issues. 

She is the author of "Uncertain Causation in Medical Liability" (Hart Publishing, Oxford and Yvon Blais, Cowansville) which received the 2008 Quebec Bar Foundation Prize. This monograph deals with the impact of scientific uncertainties on the proof of causation in medical liability in English and Canadian common law, as well as in French and Québec civil law. Lara Khoury has completed a doctoral (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford, from where she also holds a master’s degree (BCL). 

Professor Khoury was elected a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in July 2019. She received the Barreau du Québec's Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) designation in 2019 and the John-Ramon-Hnatyshyn Prize of the Canadian Bar Association in 2023. 

Employment

  • Full Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2023-present 
  • Associate Vice-President (Research), 2024-present
  • Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2015-2017
  • Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2009 - 2023
  • Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2002-2009
  • Boulton Junior Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2000-2001
  • Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke, 1995-2001
  • Tort Tutor, Balliol College, University of Oxford, 1998
  • Invited Research Fellow, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht (Hamburg, Germany), 1999 & 2001
  • Member of the Quebec Bar, 1995-
  • Lawyer, Commercial and civil litigation, Heenan Blaikie, Montreal, 1995-1996

Education

  • D.Phil.(Law), Oxford University, 2003
  • B.C.L., Oxford University, 1998
  • LL.B., Sherbrooke University, 1994 [winner of the Albert-Leblanc Medal]
  • Certificate in Communications Studies, UQÀM, 1991

Areas of Interest

Science and Law; Medical Liability; Environmental Liability; Biotechnologies and Law; Extra-contractual obligations / Tort Law; Comparative and Transsystemic approaches to private law; Civil law obligations.

Science and Law – I am interested in the interactions between science and law, with a particular focus on the impact that scientific uncertainties have on the judicial decision-making process, especially in medical and environmental liability. I am also working on the broader question of the adaptability of the law of torts and civil responsibility in response to new types of injuries caused by modern (bio)technological and scientific developments.

Medical Liability – My main area of research and teaching is in the field of medical liability. Current and past interests include the examination of questions related to problems of evidence of fault and causation; juridical responses to problems provoked by advances in modern medicine, including injuries caused by nosocomial infections, contaminated blood, or pharmaceutical products; injury caused by developments in genetic testing and technology; and potential legislative and judicial responses to the proliferation of ‘medical accidents’.

Environmental Liability – My work in this area has centered mainly on liability issues flowing from potential economic, health and environmental impacts of the introduction in the environment of genetically modified organisms. Other interests include the development and recognition of the notion of ‘environmental injury’; the use of the precautionary principle in private law judicial decision-making; and the impact of causal uncertainty about effects of environmental pollution on human health and ecosystems on the development of liability rules.

Current External Grants

Member of the team of researchers who obtained a Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF)/Fonds d’excellence en recherche Apogée Canada (fonds Apogée), DNA to RNA (D2R), 2023-2030 

FRQSC – Soutien aux équipes de recherche, Le droit comme partenaire dans la protection de la santé à l’ère des innovations technologiques, politiques et juridiques (Alana Klein, P.I.), 2020–2024  

CRSH (Insight), Structuring Product Safety and Liability: Normative Spirals through Integrated Markets, Science and law (M-E. Arbour, P.I. & L. Khoury, co-applicant) (2016-2023). 

Publications (last decade)

Articles in refereed journals

Books and monographs

Articles/chapters in books and monographs

  • L. Khoury and K. Hammond, “La faute en temps de crise sanitaire » in Barreau du Québec, Service de la qualité de la profession, Développements récents en droit de la santé, Vol. 524 (Montréal : Éd. Yvon Blais, 2022), pp. 65-94 
  • L. Khoury and K. Spillane, “La faute de “système” en responsabilité médicale au Québec” in E. Clerc et al. (eds), Alea jacta est: Santé !— Mélanges en l’honneur d’Olivier Guillod (Neuchâtel: Helbing Lichtenhahn Verlag, 2021). (Invited) 
  • “L’influence de Robert P. Kouri sur la preuve de la causalité en droit médical” in N. Vézina et al. (eds), Mélanges Robert P. Kouri. L’humain au cœur du droit (Montréal: Yvon Blais/Thomson Reuters, 2021). 
  • “Public Reporting, Transparency, and Patient Autonomy in the Province of Quebec” (ch. 17) in C O’Néill et al. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Global Health Rights (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021).  
  • L. Khoury, A. Blackett and L. Vanhonnaeker, “Legal Aspects of Genetic Testing Regarding Insurance and Employment. General Report” in L. Khoury, A. Blackett and L. Vanhonnaeker (eds), Genetic Testing and the Governance of Risk in the Contemporary Economy, Ius Comparatum – Global Studies in Comparative Law 34 (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2020).  
  • L. Khoury and F. Horwood, “Electronic Personal Health Records Implementation and Governance Challenges in Canada” in M. Fathisalout-Bollon and A. Berti Suman (eds), Legal, Social and Ethical perspectives on Health & Technology (Université de Savoie, 2020). 
  • “Réflexions sur les enjeux de responsabilité en lien avec la stimulation cérébrale profonde dans le cadre du droit québécois” in S. Desmoulin.Canselier et al. (eds), La stimulation cérébrale profonde, de l’innovation au soin. Les neurosciences cliniques à la lumière des sciences humaines et sociales (Hermann, Paris, 2019). 
  • L. Khoury and R. Schur, “Causation in Health Products Class Action Certification” in L. Khoury and M.-E. Arbour (eds), Concilier la sécurité des produits et la responsabilité civile à l’ère du risque et de l’incertitude (Montréal: Yvon Blais/Thomson Reuters, 2019). 
  • with A. Klein, “The Renewal of the Judicial Function in the Protection of Health: Visions in Constitutional, Criminal and Private Law” in C. Régis,L. Khoury & R.P. Kouri (eds), Health Law at the Frontier. Les rencontres en droit de la santé vol. 2, Montreal, Yvon Blais, 2018, 442 pp. 
  • “La transparence dans le réseau de la santé” in Vincent Gautrais, Catherine Régis & Laurence Largenté (eds), Mélanges Molinari, Montreal : Éditions Thémis, 2018. 
  • Lara Khoury & Catherine Régis, “Quebec’s Contribution to Health Law & Policy Debates in Canada” in J. Erdman, V. Gruben & E. Nelson (eds), Canadian Health Law and Policy, 5th ed., Toronto: Lexis Nexis, 2017, pp. 95-132. 
  • “La preuve et le préjudice écologique”, in Vincent Gautrais & Mustapha Mekki (eds), Preuve + développement durable, Montréal, Éditions Thémis, 2017, pp. 75-98. 
  • “Intérêt général et litiges privés en santé publique : conflit ou collaboration ? ” in Catherine Régis, Lara Khoury & Robert P. Kouri (eds), Les grands conflits en droit de la santé, Montreal, Yvon Blais, 2016, p. 93-130. 
  • “L’influence du principe de précaution en droit de la responsabilité civile canadien : Aspects substantiels et procéduraux” in M. Boutonnet, L. Khoury & J.-C. Saint Pau (eds), L’influence du principe de précaution en droit de la responsabilité civile et pénale, regards franco-canadien, Éditions de la RDUS, Sherbrooke, 2015. 
  • "Une protection mitigée pour la santé publique en droit de la responsabilité civile québécois", dans La personne humaine, entre autonomie et vulnérabilité. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Édith Deleury. Christelle Landheer-Cieslak, Louise Langevin, eds. Thomson Reuters, 2015. 
  • "Healthcare-associated infections" in Yann Joly & Bartha M. Knoppers, Routledge Handbook of Medical Law, ch. 11, Routledge, 2015. 

 

 
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