Incoming doctoral students: (top row l-r) Maseeh Haseeb, Michele Leering and Jane Thomson; (bottom row l-r) Jonathan Weiss, and Cristóbal Caviedes.
Incoming doctoral students: (top row l-r) Maseeh Haseeb, Michele Leering and Jane Thomson; (bottom row l-r) Jonathan Weiss, and Cristóbal Caviedes.

Six accomplished scholars will be joining the Queen’s PhD in Law program this year, adding new vigor to Queen’s Law’s established research culture. The students come from varied professional and research backgrounds, but are united in their desire to devote the next three years of their lives to the production of original and substantial pieces of legal scholarship.

One of four doctoral students arriving on campus on Sept. 8, Maseeh Haseeb will further pursue his interests involving Canada’s anti-terrorism legislation that he began researching in the nation’s capital. How do national security law and institutions operate to produce insecurity and give rise to human rights concerns? He will study this issue with Professor Sharry Aiken, using philosophical insights. Haseeb completed a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at Carleton University, where he wrote about how national security ideology becomes internalized and materialized through state institutional practices in Canada.

Michele Leering looks forward to exploring – with the use of empirical research methods – a new vision for legal education based on integrated reflective practice. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at Western University, and more recently, a Master of Adult Education at St. Francis-Xavier. During her 30-year career, she has been involved with a number of local and international access-to-justice projects and is currently the Executive Director of a non-profit community legal clinic. Working with Professors Sharry Aiken and Erik Knutsen, Leering is hopeful that an integrated reflective approach to legal education “can raise access to justice consciousness and build justice system innovation.”

Another incoming student, Jane Thomson, wants to develop a deeper understanding of barriers to effective family law reform in Ontario. Over the past five years, several major reports have been released outlining the crucial reforms needed in the family law system, however, little headway has been made in terms of implementation. She will be working with Professor Nick Bala, Law’77, to find out why. Thomson received her Bachelor of Laws from Dalhousie Law School and her Masters of Laws from Harvard Law School. She also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science. Previously, she practised family law and clerked at both the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Rounding out the 2015 cohort incoming fall-term doctoral students is Jon Weiss, who wants to study the legality of emergent transnational technologies such as drone warfare, climate engineering, and mass surveillance. After completing a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard, he went on to finish Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees at the University of Victoria. During his graduate studies, Weiss explored solar radiation management (a technology for decreasing global warming), which sparked his interest in the relationship between law and technology. He cites his reasons for coming to Queen’s as being related to his desire to work with “Professor Arthur Cockfield, an expert in law and technology, and Professor Will Kymlicka, a leading political philosopher.”

Chilean native Cristóbal Caviedes will continue pursuing his interest in administrative regulation when he arrives at Queen’s in January. “Institutional development is the main driver of social and economic development,” he asserts, “and regulation is crucial in this respect.” He holds a Master of Laws degree in public law from the University of Chile and a second LLM from the University College of London. At Queen’s, he will research judicial procedures to review administrative agencies’ decisions, and the trade-offs of different reform alternatives with Professor Grégoire Webber, Canada Research Chair in Public Law and Philosophy of Law.

Michael Pratt, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, is eager for the new students to begin. “I am very excited about our incoming PhD students,” he says. “They are a very accomplished group with interests in a variety of legal fields, and I am looking forward to welcoming them to Queen’s Law.”