Professor Jacob Weinrib has received the Professor Les Green Award for Research Excellence, published a new book on constitutional rights, and brings his insights into the classroom.
Professor Jacob Weinrib has received the Professor Les Green Award for Research Excellence, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the theory of constitutional rights and interpretation. His new book, The Impasse of Constitutional Rights, is now available at Cambridge.org.

Queen’s Law recognizes Professor Jacob Weinrib as this year’s recipient of the Professor Les Green Award for Research Excellence.

Established in 2022 to honour Professor Emeritus Leslie Green (Artsci’78), the prize is awarded annually to a Queen’s Law faculty member in recognition of their research excellence and to assist in funding their research.

“It is thrilling to receive this prize at an institution with so many talented and innovative legal researchers,” Weinrib says. “And it is wonderful to honour Les’s enormous contributions to legal theory and to Queen’s Law.”

Joining Queen’s Law in 2015, Weinrib is the author of two monographs published by Cambridge University Press, Dimensions of Dignity: The Theory and Practice of Modern Constitutional Law (2016) and The Impasse of Constitutional Rights (2025). Dimensions of Dignity was the subject of a symposium in the journal Jurisprudence, in which a reviewer described the book as the “most important theoretical account of modern constitutional law that presently exists.” His more recent book defends the view that rights-based constitutional order has its own distinctive moral project: ensuring that no legal subject is at the mercy of their government. The Impasse argues that taking this project seriously demands reconceptualizing the basic building blocks of rights-based constitutional order: justification, purposive interpretation, and proportionality. Weinrib is currently teaching a seminar course to upper-year JD students that explores the book’s themes.

Prior to joining Queen’s Law, Weinrib graduated from the Combined JD/PhD (Philosophy) Program at the University of Toronto, where he studied as a Vanier Scholar and received the Martha Lyle Love Essay Prize, Australian Society of Legal Philosophy Essay Prize, Alan Borovoy Prize in Civil Liberties, Norman Levy Prize in Jurisprudence, and David Savan Dissertation Prize. He held a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the New York University School of Law as a Global Hauser Research Fellow in the Center for Constitutional Transitions (2013–2014) and as a Dworkin-Balzan Fellow in the Center for Law and Philosophy (2014–2015). 

Weinrib’s research has appeared in leading international journals including Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Law & Philosophy, Jurisprudence, Ratio Juris, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Supreme Court Law Review, and the University of Toronto Law Journal. His writing has been translated into Spanish and Russian, and has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. He has presented research at leading academic institutions around the world, including University of Cambridge, Oxford University, University of Oslo, University of Göttingen, European University Institute, University of Tel Aviv, University of Melbourne, University of Buenos Aires, University of São Paulo, University of Toronto, and New York University. He has also presented research at the Department of Justice and the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.

During his academic career, Weinrib has secured more than $300,000 in research funding, including a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, and two Ontario Graduate Scholarships.

“A long time ago, my doctoral supervisor explained to me that having the opportunity to do research is itself a prize, and so winning a research prize is like winning a prize for winning a prize,” Weinrib says. “I am so grateful to all of my teachers, colleagues, and students for relentlessly pushing me deeper and deeper into fundamental questions surrounding constitutional rights protection.”  

As an educator, students describe Weinrib’s teaching as captivating, creative, and transformative. He has twice received Queen’s Law’s Stanley M. Corbett Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019 and 2023).

“My aim as a teacher is not to transfer bits and pieces of information about a legal subject to students,” Weinrib explains. “Anyone who is smart enough to get into law school can do that for themselves. Instead, my aim is to help students to build a structure in their mind in which all the bits and pieces fit together. When students see this structure, they can make sense of their legal world for themselves.”  

Dean Colleen M. Flood reflects that Weinrib’s nomination for the Les Green Award is testament to his outstanding contributions to the theory of constitutional rights and constitutional interpretation. “This award highlights the significant recognition and impact Jacob’s research has had, his success in attracting research funding, and his exceptional commitment to translating his research into his teaching.”

Professor Les Green graduated as Queen’s University’s political studies medallist in 1978 and went on to hold one of the most prestigious research positions in his field, the Professorship of the Philosophy of Law at Oxford University. From 2011 until his retirement in 2022, he returned to his alma mater for a term each year, teaching and furthering his research at Queen’s Law. Recognized as one of the world’s foremost legal philosophers in analytical jurisprudence, Green is a revered figure at Queen’s Law who has been a mentor to many of Queen’s legal philosophers. Read more about Green and his time at Queen’s.

The inaugural recipients of the Les Green award were Professors Ashwini Vasanthakumar and Grégoire Webber, who shared the recognition.