The University of British Columbia announced today that Allard Law professor Dr. Jocelyn Stacey has been awarded a UBC Killam Accelerator Research Fellowship.
Each year, the Killam Accelerator Research Fellowship is awarded to six exceptional UBC researchers in the early career stage from across the university. The fellowship recognizes outstanding research achievement and the potential for significant impact in their fields of scholarship.
As one of Canada’s leading scholars on disasters and Canadian law, Stacey’s expertise has been widely sought by leaders in government across Canada, including BC’s Auditor General and the First Nations Leadership Council. Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2022, she served on the Research Council for the Public Order Emergency Commission. At the centre of her work is a long-standing research partnership with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government on issues including Tŝilhqot’in laws and authority and the conflicts between Tŝilhqot’in and Canadian law during and after disasters.
Judges and government decision-makers have been thrust into grappling with climate change equipped with legal tools developed for a different era.
Through the Killam Accelerator Research Fellowship, Stacey has been awarded $50,000 to develop three interconnected projects that will help bridge the gap between the reality of climate change disasters and law and policy.
“Judges and government decision-makers have been thrust into grappling with climate change equipped with legal tools developed for a different era,” says Stacey. “Recent climate-amplified disasters, such as fires and floods, illustrate the increasingly complex legal and governance challenges facing our communities.”
For example, Canadian law currently empowers governments to order evacuations with little legal constraint on the assumption that evacuation will be temporary, but this doesn’t match the recent experiences of many BC residents. In 2023, The Tyee reported that British Columbians who were forced to evacuate their homes were displaced for 22 days on average, with other survivors being displaced much longer. Residents of Lytton remained under an evacuation order for nearly two years after their village was decimated by wildfires in 2021.
Through the BC Atlas of Disaster project, Stacey will be working with a cross-disciplinary team to provide tools and data to communities that will support them in advocating for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. As part of the project, Stacey is developing a public legal education series that will offer explainers on citizens’ rights and government obligations during an emergency, as well as legal tools for holding government accountable.
British Columbia has already experienced significant climate disasters in recent years and, as a result, is at the forefront of legal change. As other jurisdictions increasingly confront many of the same legal challenges posed by the climate crisis, it’s critical that we share what we’ve learned.
Building on her record of community-engaged research, the Fellowship will also support Stacey in her work to complete a groundbreaking new book on Canadian disaster law – the first of its kind in Canada.
“At a time when lawyers, judges and government decision-makers must face the legal challenges of disasters, we need principles to guide disaster management,“ says Stacey. “This book will explain why disaster law can’t be conceptualized as separate legal issues, but rather as a roadmap for systematic reform that prioritizes the experiences of those impacted.”
In a third project, Stacey is developing a new course on climate disaster law and justice, which she plans to teach internationally, starting at JSW Law in Bhutan. The course will explore a series of core legal issues related to climate disasters from around the world, including case studies from British Columbia and BC First Nations.
“British Columbia has already experienced significant climate disasters in recent years and, as a result, is at the forefront of legal change,” says Stacey. “As other jurisdictions increasingly confront many of the same legal challenges posed by the climate crisis, it’s critical that we share what we’ve learned.“
