Debra Haak teaches courses on criminal and constitutional law. She is co-director of Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s. Her publications can be found here.

Professor Haak holds a BA(Hons) from The University of Western Ontario, an LLB from the University of New Brunswick, an MPhil from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and a PhD from Queen’s University.

Professor Haak's research explores the intersection of law, public policy, and social change, examining how legal institutions respond to contested questions of equality, rights, identity, and social policy. For more than a decade, she has closely examined Canada’s criminal prostitution laws and claims those laws violate sex workers’ rights. Her work on this subject has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada and published in journals including the Supreme Court Law Review, the UBC Law Review, the Queen’s Law Journal, and the Canadian Journal of Women and Law. Her current SSHRC funded research project – Sex in the Age of Gender - looks at how the integration of gender (identity) into the human rights landscape in Canada may impact how we understand and protect women’s rights.

Professor Haak’s pragmatic approach to legal research draws on two decades of experience as a practicing lawyer and commercial litigator. Her teaching at Queen’s has been recognized with the Queen’s University, Society of Graduate and Professional Students, John G. Freeman Faculty Excellence Award (2019) and the Stanley M Corbett Award for Excellence in Teaching (2024). Alongside her scholarly publications, Dr Haak's work has appeared in The Globe & Mail, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, CBC News, CTV News, and The Conversation. 

Articles

  • “Women’s Equality in Canada: Sex in Law, Gender in Policy” (2026) 14 Supreme Court Law Review (3d) (forthcoming)
    “R v Kloubakov: Three Significant Clarifications about Canada’s Criminal Prostitution Laws” (2026) 11 Supreme Court Law Review (3d) 201
  • “Treating Male Violence Against Women as Hate in Canada” (2025) 36:2 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (co-authored with Myrna Dawson)
  • “Thinking Like a Practicing Lawyer as a Legal Research Methodology” (2025) 12 Canadian Legal Education Annual Review 75
  • “Two Different Conceptions of Equality: Arguments About the Constitutionality of Commercial Sex Laws in Canada” (2024) 2 Supreme Court Law Review (3d) 115 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4708890
  • “Revisiting the Analytical Distinction Between Section 7 and Section 1 of the Charter: Legislative Objectives, Policy Goals, and Public Interests” (2023) 112 Supreme Court Law Review (forthcoming) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4235425
  • “The Case of the Reasonable Hypothetical Sex Worker” (2022) 60:1 Alberta Law Review 205  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4018725
  • “The Good Governance of Empirical Evidence about Prostitution, Sex Work, and Sex Trafficking in Constitutional Litigation” (2021) 46:2 Queen’s Law Journal 187 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3820090.
  • “Re(de)fining Prostitution and Sex Work: Conceptual Clarity for Legal Thinking” (2019) 40 Windsor Review of Legal & Social Issues 67 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3333280.
  • “The Initial Test of Constitutional Validity: Identifying the Legislative Objectives of Canada’s New Prostitution Laws” (2017) 50:3 UBC Law Review 657 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3031586.

Selected Recent Presentations

  • “When Violence Against Women is Called Sex: Common Law Limits on Consent to Bodily Harm”, Joint Conference of the LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network, Feminist Legal Research and Action Network, and the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, University of Liverpool, UK, 2025
  • “Equality Unspoken: A Critical Examination of Constitutional Decisions on Criminal Prostitution Laws”, Multidimensional Equality: The 40th Anniversary of the Coming into Force of Section 15, College of Law, University of Saskatchewan, 2025
  • “Let’s Talk about Sex (and Gender)”, The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Annual Conference, Georgetown University, Washington DC, 2025
  • “Sex in the Age of Gender: Conceptual Clarity as a Foundation for Reconciling the Interests, Rights, and Experiences of Women, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People in Canada”, Joint Conference of the LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network, Feminist Legal Research and Action Network, and the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024
  • “Sex and the Status of Women”, Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2024
  • “Social Change, Times of Upheaval, and Legal Education”, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Denver, USA, 2024
  • “Thinking Like a Practicing Lawyer as a Legal Research Methodology”, Canadian Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, University of New Brunswick, 2024
  • “Exploring Connections Between Research and Teaching in Criminal Law”, Canadian Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, University of New Brunswick, 2024
  • “Whose (Vision of) Equality Matters (Most): Equality Arguments About the Constitutionality of Canada’s Criminal Commercial Sex Laws”, The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Annual Conference, University of Toronto, 2023
  • “The Commercial Exchange of Consent: Potential Implications of a Market for Sexual Touching on Criminal Sexual Assault Laws in Canada”, Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, 2023
  • “Criminal Prostitution Laws and Sex Workers’ Rights: Rethinking the Analytical Distinction Between Section 7 and Section 1”, CLF Annual Symposium on Religion, Law and Human Rights, Peter A Allard School of Law, UBC, 2022
  • “From Bedford to NS: Revisiting the Constitutionality of Commercial Sex Laws in Canada”, University of British Columbia, Peter A Allard School of Law, UBC, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies, 2022 

Book Reviews

Research

  • Women’s Equality
  • Women’s Rights
  • Sex and Violence
  • Constitutional Law and Litigation
  • Human Rights Law