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Schulich School of Law

Sara Seck

Professor of Law; Yogis and Keddy Chair in Human Rights Law; Director, Marine & Environmental Law Institute

law_faculty_sara seck

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Schulich School of Law , Marine & Environmental Law Institute

Email: Sara.Seck@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-7715
Mailing Address: 
Room 416, Weldon Law Building
6061 University Avenue
PO Box 15000
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2
 
Research Topics:
  • Business, Human Rights & Environment
  • International Environmental Law
  • Sustainable Development & Natural Resources Law
  • Climate Justice
  • Private International Law
  • Transnational Law & Legal Pluralism

Education

  • BMus (MUN)
  • MMus (Ottawa)
  • LLB (Toronto)
  • PhD (Osgoode)

Bar admission

  • Ontario, 2000

Bio

I am originally from St. John’s NL, and have a pre-law professional background in music. I studied law in Ontario where I articled with a Bay Street business law firm. After completing a PhD in law at Osgoode Hall Law School, I joined Western University in 2007, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. I joined the Schulich School of Law in July 2017 where I am a member of MELAW and the Business Law faculty.

Teaching

  • LAWS 2104: Environmental Law I
  • LAWS 2153: Business & Environment
  • LAWS 2005: Private international Law

Areas of supervision: Business, Human Rights & Environment, Sustainable Development & Natural Resources Law, Private International Law, Climate Justice

Research interests

I am particularly interested in the relationship between international human rights law, environment, and business law, with a focus on the rights of local and Indigenous communities, and global south perspectives on sustainable development. I have researched and published extensively on home stateduties and business responsibilities in the extractive industries context. More recently, I consider how lessons from this research as well as insights from feminist and relational theorists might inform approaches to environmental and climate justice.

Grants

  • 2017: SSHRC Connection Grant, Natural Resource Extraction and the Rights of Women and Girls (with Penelope Simons)
  • 2015: SSHRC Connection Grant, International Law Summer Institute (with Neil Craik)
  • 2009: SSHRC Standard Research Grant, “A Critical Analysis of the Home State Duty to Protect”

Selected awards & honours

  • 2015: Emerging Scholarship Award, Academy of Environmental Law, International Union for the Conservation of Nature
  • 2015 - present: Senior Fellow, International Law Research Program, Centre International Governance Innovation
  • 2014-15: University Student’s Council, Teaching Honour Roll, Western University

Selected publications

  • Sara L Seck, “” (2017) 26:2 Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 383-413 (Symposium: International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, and the Global South).
  • Sara L Seck, “” - A Contribution to the Work of the Study Group on Business and Human Rights of the International Law Association (May 25, 2017). 
  • Sara L Seck, CIGI Paper No. 129, “”, International Law Research Program, (Centre for International Governance Innovation, May 2017)
  • Sara L Seck, “Human Rights and Extractive Industries: Environmental Law and Standards” Human Rights Law and the Extractive Industries, Paper No. 12, Page No. 12-1 – 12-42 (Rocky Mt Min L Fdn, 2016).
  • Sara L Seck, “” (2016) 12:1 McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law 48-91.
  • Sara L Seck, “Treaties, and the Emancipatory Potential of International Law” in Michael Coyle & John Borrows, eds, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017) 344-368.
  • Sara L Seck, “Transnational Corporations and Extractive Industries” in Shawkat Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez & Jona Razzaque, eds,  (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015) 380-398.
  • Anna Dolidze & Sara L Seck, “ITLOS Case No. 17 and the Evolving Principles for Corporate Responsibility under International Law” in Noemi Gal-Or, Math Noortmann & Cedric Ryngaert, eds,  (Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2015) 235-259.
  • Sara L Seck, “Business, Human Rights, and Canadian Mining Lawyers” (2015) 56 Canadian Business Law Journal 208-237.
  • Sara L Seck, “” (2015) 39 Canada-United States Law Journal 20-35.

Service & activity

  • Member, Board of Directors, Canadian Council on International Law
  • Member, Board of Directors, Canadian branch, International Law Association
  • Member, Study Group on Business & Human Rights, International Law Association
  • Director North America, Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment
  • Member, Governance Committee, Columbia University Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum
  • Member, Editorial Board, Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge U Press)