Christine L.M. Boyle, KC

Professor Boyle taught law in a number of universities before joining the University of British Columbia - Queen's University, Belfast, the University of the West Indies, the University of Windsor, and Dalhousie University.

Formerly a member of the Bar of Nova Scotia, she is a member of the Bar of Northern Ireland (1973) and retired from the Law Society of British Columbia in 2021, and formerly associated with the firm of Smart, Harris & Martland in Vancouver. She has been active in the field of test case equality litigation, most recently with respect to the issue of sex equality in criminal defences and the abolition of prostitution. She was also active in the field of continuing education for judges and administrative decision-makers.

Professor Boyle has, at various times, taught Evidence, Race, Racism and the Law, Feminist Perspectives on Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Contracts, Family Law, Judicial Remedies, Torts, and Legal Process.  Her research interests have been most recently in the fields of equality, criminal law, and evidence. Formerly the Walter S. Owen Professor of Law at UBC, she was awarded the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for Academic Excellence, 1995, the Killam Teaching Award at the Allard School of Law, UBC, in1997, and the Allard School of Law Alumni Association Award for Research, 2006.

In recognition of her many contributions as an academic and lawyer, Christine Boyle was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2011.

Representative Published Works

• Sexual Assault , Carswells, 1984.
• “Teaching Law As If Women Really Mattered" (1986), 2 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 96 (R) (reprinted in part in several other publications and based on paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, 1986).
• "A Feminist Approach to Criminal Defences", in Richard Devlin, ed. Canadian Perspectives on Legal Theory, Emond Montgomery, 1991.
• Co-author of A Feminist Review of Criminal Law, Status of Women Canada , 1986 (with Marie-Andree Bertrand, Celine Lamontagne and Rebecca Shamai).
• "Equality, Fairness and Relevance: Disclosure of Therapists' Records in Sexual Assault Trials" in Marilyn T. MacCrimmon and Monique Ouellette, eds., Filtering and Analysing Evidence in an Age of Diversity, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 1993 (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• Co-author of The Law of Homicide, Carswells, 1994, (with Isabel Grant and Dorothy Chunn), with 1995, 1996 and 1999 updates.
• "Sexual Assault in Abusive Relationships: Common Sense About Sexual History" (1996), 19 Dalhousie Law Journal 223.
• "What Makes "Model" Sexual Offenses? A Canadian Perspective" (2000), 4 Buffalo Criminal Law Review 487.
• "To Serve the Cause of Justice: Disciplining Fact Determination" (R) (2002) XX (Anniversary Issue) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 55 - 85, (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• “A Principled Approach to Relevance: The Cheshire Cat in Canada, in Paul Roberts and Mike Redmayne, eds., Innovations in Evidence and Proof: Integrating Theory, Research and Teaching, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2007.
• “Reasonable Doubt in Credibility Contests: Sexual Assault and Sexual Equality” (2009), 13 International Journal of Evidence and Proof 269-292 (R).

Additional Information

Degrees and professional qualifications

• LL.B., Queen's University, Belfast, 1971.
• LL.M., Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 1972 (Thesis: "Confidentiality in Medicine and Corrections").
• Barrister-at-Law, of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, 1973 (Bernard J. Fox Memorial Prize).
• Call to the Nova Scotia Bar, 1984(-1991).
• Call to the British Columbia Bar, 1995 - 2021.

Work history

• Legal Writing teaching assistant, Queen's University, Kingston, 1971-72.
• Lecturer in Law, Queen's University, Belfast, 1972-73.
  Subjects: Contracts, Juristic Technique. Attached to the Office of the Parliamentary Draftsmen during this time.
• Lecturer in Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, 1973-75.
  Subjects: Torts, Family Law, Law in Society.
• Assistant Professor, University of Windsor, Ontario, 1975-77.
  Subjects: Legislation, Contracts, Family Law.
• Visiting Lecturer, Queen's University, Belfast, 1978-79.
  Subjects: Administration of Criminal Justice, Legal Process, Law and Children.
• Associate Professor, University of Windsor, 1977-81 (awarded tenure 1978-79).
  Subjects: Family Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure.
• Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University, 1981-1992.
  Subjects: Criminal Justice: the Individual and the State, Contracts, Family Law, Legal Process, Judicial Remedies, Charterwatch.
• Visiting Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, May-August, 1989.
  Subject: Criminal Law.
• Walter S. Owen Visiting Professor, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, 1990-92.
• Professor of Law, University of British Columbia, 1992 - 2012.
  Subjects: Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Feminist Perspectives on Law, Race, Racism and Law, Evidence.

BOOKS

• Co-editor of Contracts, Cases and Commentaries , 1^st to 7th eds., Carswells, (with David Percy)
• Sexual Assault, Carswells, 1984.
• Co-editor of Charterwatch:Reflections on Equality, Carswells, 1986 (with Wayne MacKay, John Yogis and Edward McBride).
  Co-author of A Feminist Review of Criminal Law, Status of Women Canada, 1986 (with Marie-Andree Bertrand, Celine Lamontagne and Rebecca Shamai).
• Co-author of The Law of Homicide, Carswells, 1994, (with Isabel Grant and Dorothy Chunn), with 1995,1996 and 1999 updates.
• Co-author/editor of The Law of Evidence: Fact Finding, Fairness and Advocacy, Emond Montgomery, 1999 (with Marilyn MacCrimmon and Dianne Martin).

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

• "Medical Confidence - Civil Liability for Breach" (1973), 24 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 19.
  "Confidence v. Privilege" (1974), 25 N.I.L.Q. 31.
• "Confidentiality in Correctional Institutions" (1976), 18 Canadian Journal of Criminology and Corrections 26.
• "Now You See It - Now You Don't: Inter Vivos Gifts in the Commonwealth Caribbean" (1975), 7 Lawyer of the Americas 619.
• "Custody, Adoption and the Homosexual Parent" (1976), 23 Reports of Family Law 129.
• "Violence Against Wives - The Criminal Law in Retreat?" (1980), 31 N.I.L.Q. 35.
• "Section 142 of the Criminal Code: A Trojan Horse?" (1981), 23 Criminal Law Quarterly 253.
• "Married Women - Beyond the Pale of the Law of Rape" (1981), 1 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 192 (R) (based on lecture delivered at Wayne State University, 1981).
• "Home Rule for Women: Power Sharing Between Men and Women" (1983), 7 Dalhousie Law Journal 790 (R) (reprinted in 2 Socialist Studies 131).
• "Sexual Assault and the Feminist Judge" (1985), 1 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 93 (R).
• "Prostitution and Pornography: Beyond Formal Equality" in Charterwatch: Reflections on Equality, see Books, above (with Sheila Noonan).
• "Criminal Law Reform: The Eye of the Beholder" (1985-86), 13 Resources for Feminist Research 50.
• "Criminal Law and Procedure: Who Needs Tenure?" (1985), 23 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 427 (R) (for special issue devoted to Canadian legal scholarship).
• "Teaching Law As If Women Really Mattered" (1986), 2 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 96 (R) (reprinted in part in several other publications and based on paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, 1986).
• "Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault: Reflections on Bias" in Kathleen Mahoney and Sheilah Martin, eds. Equality and Judicial Neutrality, Carswells, 1987, (with Susannah Worth Rowley).
• "Women and Criminal Justice: The Impact of the Charter" and "Feminist Perspectives on Criminal Law Reform", speeches published in Women and Criminal Justice Issues, National Association of Women and the Law, 1987.
• "A Feminist Approach to Criminal Defences", in Richard Devlin, ed. Canadian Perspectives on Legal Theory, Emond Montgomery, 1991.
• "Sexual Assault: A Case Study in Legal Policy Options", in Margaret Jackson and Curt Griffiths, eds. Canadian Criminology, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.
• "A Forum on Lavallee v. R.: Women and Self-Defence" (1991), 25 U.B.C. Law Review 23 (R), (with Isabel Grant, Marilyn MacCrimmon and Donna Martinson).
• "R. v. Seaboyer: A Lost Cause" (1991), 7 C.R. (4th) 225, (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• "Gender and Judical Policy-Making in the Law of Contracts", Warwick Law Working Papers, The Legal Research Institute of the School of Law, 1990.
• "The Role of the Judiciary in the Work of Madame Justice Wilson" (1992), 15 Dalhousie Law Journal 241 (based on a Walter S. Owen public lecture on "Women, Celts and Judges: Reflections on Madame Justice Wilson and lectures at Dalhousie University and the University of Alberta).
• “Reflections on the Law of Homicide” in The Honourable Mr. Justice Josiah Wood and Richard C.C. Peck, Q.C. eds. 100 Years of the Criminal Code in Canada, Canadian Bar Association, 1993 (with Isabel Grant).
• "Equality, Fairness and Relevance: Disclosure of Therapists' Records in Sexual Assault Trials" in Marilyn T. MacCrimmon and Monique Ouellette, eds., Filtering and Analysing Evidence in an Age of Diversity, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 1993 (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• “The Judicial Construction of Sexual Assault Offences” in Julian V. Roberts and Renate Mohr, eds. Confronting Sexual Assault: A Decade of Legal and Social Change, University of Toronto Press, 1994.
• “The Role of Equality in Criminal Law” (1994), 58 Saskatchewan Law Review 2 (based on a public lecture in honour of Chief Justice Culliton, University of Saskatchewan, 1994).
• “Recent Developments in the Canadian Law of Sexual Assault” in S. Jagwanth, P.J. Schwikkasd, B. Grant, eds. Women and the Law, HSRC Publishers, Pretoria, 1994.
• “Reform Initiatives in Canada”, ibid.
• “Judging Sexual Assault Law Against a Standard of Equality” (1995), 29 U.B.C. Law Review 341 (R), (with John McInnes).
• “The Defence of Necessity: Who Needs It?” in Jennie Abell and Elizabeth Sheehy, Criminal Law and Procedure: Proof, Defences and Beyond, Captus Press, 1996.
• "Women's Voices and the Criminal Law" (1996), 76/1 The Dalhousie Review 55 (based on the Dorothy J. Killam Lecture on “Sex, Crime and Politics”, Dalhousie University, 1996).
• "Sexual Assault in Abusive Relationships: Common Sense About Sexual History" (1996), 19 Dalhousie Law Journal 223.
• "Post-Charter Omne Animal Triste?" in Denis N. Magnusson and Daniel A. Soberman, eds. Canadian Constitutional Dilemmas Revisited, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, 1997.
• “The Constitutionality of Bill C-49: Analysing Sexual Assault as if Equality Really Mattered” (1998), 41 Criminal Law Quarterly 198-237, (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• "What Makes "Model" Sexual Offenses? A Canadian Perspective" (2000), 4 Buffalo Criminal Law Review 487.
• "Judges and Gender" in Sean Doran and John Jackson, eds. The Judicial Role in Criminal Proceedings, Hart Publishing, 2000.
• "Provocation: The Sensitive, New Age, Ordinary Person", in Gerry Ferguson and Stanley Yeo, eds. The Law of Homicide, Provocation and Self-Defence: Canadian, Australian and other Asia-Pacific Perspectives, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, 2000, 75-83.
• "To Serve the Cause of Justice: Disciplining Fact Determination" (R) (2002) XX (Anniversary Issue) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 55 - 85, (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• "Reasons for Judgment: A Comment on R.v.Sheppard and R.v.Braich" (2002), 47 Criminal Law Quarterly 39, (with Marilyn MacCrimmon).
• "The Anti-Discrimination Norm in Human Rights and Charter Law: Nixon v.Vancouver Rape Relief" (2004), 37 University of British Columbia Law Review 31.
• "Madame Justice L'Heureux-Dubé and Canadian Sexual Assault Law: Resisting the Privatization of Rape", in Elizabeth Sheehy, ed., Adding Feminism to Law The Contributions of Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Irwin Law, 2004 (with Elizabeth Sheehy) (R).
• Introductory chapter, “The Basic Concepts of the Law of Evidence”  for Introducing Evidence at Trial: A British Columbia Handbook, Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, 2007.
• “A Principled Approach to Relevance: The Cheshire Cat in Canada, in Paul Roberts and Mike Redmayne, eds., Innovations in Evidence and Proof: Integrating Theory, Research and Teaching, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2007.
• “ ‘First Rate’ Fact Finding: Reasonable Inferences in Criminal Trials: A Lecture in Honour of Ivan C. Rand” (2008), 58 University of New Brunswick Law Journal 199 (based on the Rand Lecture at the University of New Brunswick).
• “Reasonable Doubt in Credibility Contests: Sexual Assault and Sexual Equality” (2009), 13 International Journal of Evidence and Proof 269-292 (R).
• “R.v.Sinclair: A Comparatively Disappointing Decision on the Right to Counsel” (2010), 77 Criminal Reports 310-316.

COMMENTARIES

• Bairnswear v. Armagh C.C. (1971), 22 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 505.
• Hunter v. Mann (1975), 38 Modern Law Review 69.
• D.P.P. v. Walker (1975), Jamaica Law Journal 32.
• D. v. N.S.P.C.C. (1977), 28 N.I.L.Q. 283.
• "The Protection of Children (N.I.) Order 1978 - A Useful and Sensible Little Measure?" (1979), 30 N.I.L.Q. 170.
• "The Domestic Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1980" (1980), 31 N.I.L.Q. 362.
• Chase v. R. (1984), 40 Criminal Reports (3d) 282.
• "Publication of Identifying Information About Sexual Assault Survivors: R. v. Canadian Newspapers" (1989-90), 3 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 602 (R).
• "The Battered Wife Syndrome and Self-Defence: Lavallee v. R." (1990), 9 Canadian Journal of Family Law 171 (R).
• Commentary on Mary Jane Mossman, "'Shoulder to Shoulder': Gender and Access to Justice" (1990), 10 (10th Anniversary Symposium) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 376.
• "Disembodied Sexual Assault: McCraw v. R." (1992), 26 U.B.C. Law Review 281.
• "Equality, Harm and Vulnerability: Homicide and Sexual Assault post-Creighton", (1993), 23 C.R. (4th) 252, (with Isabel Grant).
  R. v. McConnell (1996), 48 C.R. (4th) 200.
• "The Case of the Missing Records: R.v. Carosella" (1997), 8(3) Constitutional Forum 59.
• “Evidence on the Web” (1997), 12 Campus Computing and Communications 24(with Marilyn MacCrimmon and James Kim).
• "Privacy of Records in Sexual Assault Trials" in Rafter, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Crime, Oryx Press, 2000, pp.206-207.
• Commentary on Don Stuart, "A Case for a General Part" in Don Stuart, R.J. Delisle, Allan Manson, eds. Towards a Clear and Just Criminal Law: A Criminal Reports Forum, Carswells, 1999.
• R.v. Law (2002), 48 C.R.(5th) 199.
• "Sexual Assault as Foreplay: Does Ewanchuk Apply to Spouses?" (2004), 20 C.R. (6th) 359.
• "When Race Matters in Sentencing: R.v.Ramsay and R.v. Hamilton" (2004), 22 C.R.(6th) 86 (with Daniel J.Song).
• “Cases and Commentaries: An Editor’s Forum” (2004), Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 386 (with Natasha Affolder, Efrat Arbel, Susan B. Boyd, Gwen Brodsky, Kim Brooks, Margaret Hall, Fiona Kelly and Margot Young).
• “The Responsible Citizen in the City of Lévis: Due Diligence and Officially Induced Error” (2006), 36 Criminal Reports (6th) 249 (with Sam de Groot).

BOOK REVIEWS

• Bissett-Johnson and Holland, eds. Matrimonial Property Law in Canada, (1982), 60 Canadian Bar Review 204.
  Atcheson, Eberts and Symes, Women and Legal Action, (1985) 10 Atlantis 194.
• Sharpe, Injunctions and Specific Performance and Waddams, The Law of Damages (1985), 63 Canadian Bar Review 427 (reprinted in part in several publications).
• O'Donovan, Sexual Divisions in Law (1986), 10 Dalhousie Law Journal 232.
• Bayefsky and Eberts, Equality Rights and the Charter of Rights (1986), 35 New Brunswick Law Journal 226.
• Rowland, Rape: The Ultimate Violation (1986), 14 International Journal of the Sociology of Law 415.
• MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified (1988), 13 (No. 2) Atlantis 127.
• Estrich, Real Rape, (1989), 8 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 345.
• Trebilcock, The Common Law of Restraint of Trade, (1990), 68 Canadian Bar Review 849.
• Gilmore, Newfoundland and Dominion Status, (1990), 13 Dalhousie Law Journal 488.
• MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1991), 36 McGill Law Journal 228.
• Morris, Crime and Criminal Justice (1990), 101 Ethics 225.
• Graycar and Morgan, The Hidden Gender of Law (1992), 14 Dalhousie Law Journal 579.
• McConville, Sanders and Leng, The Case for the Prosecution: Police Suspects and the Construction of Criminality (1993), 4 Criminal Law Forum 573.
• Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group of Attorneys General Officials on Gender Equality in the Canadian Justice System, Gender Equality in the Canadian Justice System (1993), 13 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 322.
• Wells, Corporations and Criminal Responsibility (1994), 5 Criminal Law Forum 715.
• Brockman and Rose, An Introduction to Canadian Criminal Procedure and Evidence for the Social Sciences (1997), 31 U.B.C.L.R. 199.
• “Finding Facts Fairly in Roberts and Zuckerman’s Criminal Evidence” (2005) International Commentary on Evidence (R), (with Jesse Nyman).
• Mossman, The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions (2007), 25 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 217-219.
• Mary Jane Mossman, The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions (2007), 25 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 217.
• Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter, eds., Transgender Rights (2008), 29(4) Journal of Women, Politics and Policy 571- 575.

Publications listed on the UBC Library Faculty Research Publications Database.