Event Description:
“What is the Canadian Constitution?“ This is a deceptively simple question. Even a seemingly straightforward description of the Canadian Constitution gives rise to complexity that makes it difficult to determine what falls within the scope of the constitution. Matters become still more complicated if we situate the Canadian Constitution within theoretical writing about the nature of constitutions. This draft chapter examines some normative and institutional implications involved in answering the question.
A light lunch will be available for those attending in person. Please contact burchill@allard.ubc.ca for the Zoom link.
Speaker:
Professor Hoi Kong is the inaugural holder of The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professorship in Constitutional Law, which he assumed in 2018. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Program on Comparative Constitutional Studies and a Peter Wall Scholar (2020-2021). He researches and teaches in the areas of constitutional, administrative, municipal and comparative law, and constitutional and public law theory.
Prior to joining the Allard School of Law, Professor Kong was an Assistant and then Associate Professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where he served a term as Associate Dean (Academic). He was previously an Assistant Professor of Law, cross-appointed with the School of Urban Planning at Queen’s University, and an Associate-in-Law at the Columbia Law School. Professor Kong clerked for Justice L’Heureux-Dubé and Justice Deschamps at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Over the years, Professor Kong has received a number of accolades for his teaching. These include the Queen’s University Law Students’ Society Teaching Excellence Award; the John W. Durnford Award for Teaching Excellence, awarded by McGill’s Law Students’ Association; and McGill University’s Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
In 2017, he received the Canadian Association of Law Teachers’ Academic Excellence Award, for outstanding contributions to teaching and research in law.
Professor Kong co-directs with Professor Ron Levy (Australian National University) the Project on Deliberative Governance and Law. He also directs a research axis at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal and is on the editorial boards of the Review of Constitutional Studies and American Journal of Comparative Law, as well as the international board of distinguished advisors for the Federal Law Review.
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