Today the University of British Columbia announced that Peter A. Allard School of Law Professor Isabel Grant has been named a University Killam Professor.
The University Killam Professor designation is the highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member. The award recognizes exceptional faculty members who are extraordinary teachers and researchers, who are leaders in their academic fields and who have received national and international recognition.
“It is a tremendous honour,” says Grant. “UBC has been my intellectual home for more than three decades and it’s very meaningful to have those years of hard work acknowledged in this way.”
Grant is an internationally acclaimed academic whose work has transformed legal debates and reforms in Canada and worldwide. During her time at Allard Law, much of her scholarship has focused on issues of male violence against women and girls, with a focus on homicide and sexual assault and, most recently, the intersection of ableism and sexism in criminal law. Throughout her career, she has courageously addressed challenging topics that impact the most vulnerable in both her research and advocacy work.
Grant’s work has been cited extensively by the Supreme Court of Canada and has shaped the law in areas including homicide, criminal harassment and sexual assault, resulting in changes that have made sentencing more responsive to the experiences of women and people with disabilities.
“Isabel’s exceptional record of research is an inspiration to me and to countless other scholars,” says Allard Law Professor Dr. Janine Benedet, KC, who has published extensively with Grant. “She has made a significant impact toward the development of a criminal law that is fair, functional and feminist.”
Most recently, Grant’s work has focused on the discriminatory impact of Track 2 medical assistance in dying, which is available to people with disabilities even where their natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. She has worked with the disability community to challenge this law on the basis that it violates the Charter guaranteed right to equality for people with disabilities. “Given that women with disabilities disproportionately have their lives ended under Track 2, this work is a natural extension of my earlier work on homicide and sexual assault,” says Grant.
Over the course of her career, Grant has worked with feminist and disability organizations on more than 20 interventions in the Supreme Court of Canada and other appellate courts.
“Law professors have the privilege of being able to lend their expertise and legal skills pro bono to real cases that develop the law and impact people’s lives in important ways,” Grant says. “I take a lot of satisfaction from the work I have done with feminist and disability organizations. This work is informed by my research and in turn enriches my scholarship.”
In addition to her research and advocacy work, the University Killam Professor designation recognizes Grant for her exceptional teaching. “In my courses, I try first to ensure that students understand what the law is and how it has evolved because one cannot reform the law until one understands it,” says Grant. “Once students have a good grasp of what the law is, it is important to challenge them to think about why particular choices were made by legislators or judges – and who wins and who loses from those choices.”
Grant is one of Canada’s leading criminal law scholars. In addition to teaching first-year Criminal Law at the Allard School of Law, she has, over the years, developed new upper-year specialized courses in the Law of Homicide, Principles of Sentencing and Mental Health Law.
For Grant, one of the most rewarding parts of teaching is having the opportunity to guide students as they progress from first-year students with limited knowledge of the law to graduates prepared to take on influential roles in society. “I have been so fortunate to work with countless wonderful students over the years in my classes, as graduate students, as research assistants and in our upper-year mooting program,” says Grant. “I take a lot of joy in seeing former students make a difference in the world – as judges, professors and advocates.”
Grant has also taught and mentored students through her role as a coach for the Gale Cup Moot for over 35 years. Each year she helps prepare a team of four Allard Law students to compete with top law students from across the country in a mock appeal.
“Supervising a competitive moot team has been a highlight of my teaching at the law school,” says Grant. “Watching Allard students argue in the finals in a courtroom at the Supreme Court of Canada two years ago was a very proud moment. Those kinds of one-on-one mentorship opportunities are my favourite part of teaching and they allow me to develop relationships with students that often continue long after they leave the law school.”
Eva Kapnoudhis, an Allard Law graduate and member of the law school's 2023 Gale Moot team, says Grant's dedication to her students is truly exceptional. "As our moot coach, and despite her many other commitments, Professor Grant put in countless hours and encouraged us every step of the way," says Kapnoudhis. "What's more is that she continues to champion her students beyond their time working with her. For someone as brilliant and busy as she is, Professor Grant is remarkably generous with her time, and I know the many students who have worked with her feel honoured to have her continued support."
Grant joined Allard Law in 1987. She was the fourth woman to join the law school in a tenure-track position, and she has received numerous distinctions over the course of her career. In 2014 she received the Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service for her service to the community. In 2020, she was awarded UBC’s Killam Teaching Prize, and in 2021, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2024, she received the Allard Law Alumni Association’s Award for Research. Grant is also the first law professor at the University of British Columbia to be named a University Killam Professor.
“Congratulations to Professor Grant on this well-deserved recognition,” says Allard Law Dean Ngai Pindell. “Her dedication to advancing justice – particularly for women and people with disabilities – has made a significant contribution to legal scholarship and practice in Canada. We’re immensely proud to celebrate her as the law school’s first University Killam Professor.”
