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Sara Ross

Associate Professor of Law; Associate Director, Marine & Environmental Law Institute; Director, Marine & Environmental Law Program

Sara Ross

Related information


Email: sara.ross@dal.ca
Mailing Address: 
Room 417, Weldon Law Building
6061 University Avenue
PO Box 15000
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2
 
Research Topics:
  • Critical legal studies
  • Culture and the law
  • Legal anthropology

Education

  • BA [with Distinction] (Alberta)
  • BA Hons [First Class Honours] (McGill)
  • LLB [Major in Commercial Negotiation and Dispute Resolution] (McGill)
  • BCL (McGill)
  • LLM (Ottawa)
  • PhD (Osgoode)
  • Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship & SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (UBC)
  • Banting Postdoctoral fellowship (Dalhousie)

Bar admission

  • Ontario, 2013

Bio

Dr. Ross is a former Banting postdoctoral fellow, Killam postdoctoral laureate, and SSHRC postdoctoral fellow. She articled at the Federal Court under the Honourable Justice Luc Martineau and is a member of the bar with the Law Society of Ontario. Dr. Ross has held teaching positions at the Osgoode Hall Law School, Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia, and here at the Schulich School of Law. A prolific author, she has published in journals including the Canadian Bar Review, Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, and the International Journal of Cultural Property. Her most recent book Law and Intangible Cultural Heritage in the City was published in 2019 by Routledge. She is also a frequent speaker at international research conferences in Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the US. Dr. Ross is a former Editor-in-Chief of the McGill Law Journal and is now the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Legal Education Annual Review as well as the Book Review Editor for the Canadian Journal of Law and Society.

Dr. Ross is currently the Treasurer of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Law, Property & Society. In 2021, she was named one of the "Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers" in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine, and was a finalist for the Top 25 list once again in 2023.

In 2024, she received an Excellence Awards for Female Trailblazer of the Year from the Canadian Law Awards.

Teaching

  • LAWS 1015 & 1025: Property in its Historical Context
  • LAWS 2198: Critical Perspectives on Law
  • LAWS 2005: Private international Law
  • LAWS 2283: Cultural Property and Heritage Law in a Transnational Context

Areas of supervision:Legal Anthropology, Critical Cultural Heritage Law, Law & the City

Research interests

Dr. Ross is particularly interested in the critical and sociolegal study of the intersection of law, culture, and the city.

Grants

  • 2020: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2018: Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2018: SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2015: Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award
  • 2011: SSHRC Aid to Scholarly Journals Grant
  • 2011: Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture Research Grant

Selected awards & honours

  • Excellence Awardee, Female Trailblazer of the Year, Canadian Law Awards (2024)
  • ϳԹBelong Research Fellowship (2023-25)
  • Named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers” by Canadian Lawyer magazine (2021, nominated again in 2023)
  • "Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40" award for Lexpert magazine's top Canadian lawyers under 40 (2021)
  • Austin Sarat Award, Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities
  • Scarlet Key award, McGill University
  • I. Ballon Memorial Medal, McGill Faculty of Law

Selected publications

  • A selection is available for download on the attached

Service & activity

  • Acting Associate Dean of Research, Schulich School of Law
  • Co-Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Legal Education Annual Review
  • Program Chair and Member of the Board of Directors, Association of Law, Property & Society
  • Special National Rapporteur for Canada on “Human Rights: The justiciability of economic social and cultural rights”, International Academy of Comparative Law
  • Book Review Editor, Canadian Journal of Law and Society
  • Vice-President (Conferences), Board of Directors, Canadian Law and Society Association
  • Treasurer, Board of Directors, Canadian Association of Law Teachers
  • Co-Chair, Younger Comparativists Committee, American Society of Comparative Law
  • Editor-in-Chief, McGill Law Journal
  • Book Review Editor, McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law