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UVic Law the only Canadian department with three fellows
By Thomas Winterhoff
Webber. Photo: UVic Photo Services
University of Victoria law professor Jeremy Webber has been named one of four new Trudeau Fellows by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. The prestigious academic honour recognizes his cutting-edge research into the constitutional structure of democratic governance, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by a culturally diverse society.
Webber has a BA in political science from UBC, common law and civil law degrees from McGill University and a Master of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall. He is currently the director of the Graduate Program in Law and Society at UVic and holds the Canada Research Chair in Law and Society at the university.
“The great task of any society is how to determine the principles and rules that will govern that society in the face of continual disagreement over what those principles should be,” explains Webber. “In highly diverse societies, such disagreement is often grounded in different cultures of social debate and decision, indeed often in different practical ways of life.”
Webber is a world-renowned scholar and author in the areas of cultural diversity, constitutional theory and Indigenous rights. He has written on labour relations, Indigenous rights in Canada and Australia, the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada, issues of nationhood and cultural minorities, and questions of constitutional design and interpretation. He notes that dealing with our cultural, political, moral and religious differences can be difficult at times, but it is also exhilarating and essential.
“It forces us to reconsider preconceptions. It reveals aspects of our lives that we might otherwise overlook. It challenges us to find ways to live together peacefully and respectfully,” he says. “I am interested in what we need to do to sustain a community, how we should adjust our relationships and how we respond to injustice. This fellowship will enable me to further my research in a whole range of ways, engaging deeply with scholars and graduate students wrestling with similar issues.”
Webber served as dean of law at the University of Sydney in Australia but returned to Canada in 2002 to accept the Canada Research Chair. He says he was attracted to UVic Law because of the faculty’s commitment to social justice, its explorations of legal and political theory, and its engagement with Indigenous traditions of law and social order.
Webber is the third UVic Law professor to be honoured with a Trudeau Fellowship. Professor Jim Tully (cross-appointed in law) was named a fellow in 2003 and Prof. John Borrows in 2006. Only Université de Montréal has had more Trudeau Fellows than UVic, and no other single academic unit in the country has had three fellows. Each fellowship is for a three-year period and includes a prize of $150,000, plus a $75,000 research and public engagement award.
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