Relive your student days and join some of Law鈥檚 most noted faculty members for short lectures on their areas of specialty. We invite you to immerse yourself in the Law School experience through this exciting showcase is open to all alumni.
Enjoy light refreshments, explore the law school, and meet our students, who will share more about their experiences at one of Canada鈥檚 leading law schools with you. Along the way, join the law lectures of your choice, followed by stimulating question and answer sessions.
Talk Title:
鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be expensive to be poor鈥: Why banking costs more for those who can least afford it
Description:
One thing that unites Canadians is complaining about high bank fees. Paradoxically, consumers living on a low or moderate income often end up paying even more for a basic bank account than consumers living on a medium or high income. This creates an affordability barrier to accessing the mainstream banking system, driving some consumers to high-cost cheque-cashers and payday lenders. In recent years, the federal government has made some progress towards lowering this barrier by capping non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees and enhancing low- and no-cost chequing accounts voluntarily offered by some banks. But is this sufficient? Prof. Henderson will discuss why consumers living on low and moderate incomes pay more, how recent developments to make banking more affordable are helpful but insufficient, and what further improvements would help make the mainstream banking system work better for everyone.
Bio:
Associate Professor Gail Henderson is the Director of the Business Law Program at Queen鈥檚 Law. Her areas of research and teaching include financial regulation, securities regulation, consumer protection, and contracts. This year, she completed a five-year term on the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and was appointed to the Investor Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission. She also sits on the editorial boards of the Canadian Business Law Journal and the Banking and Finance Law Review. From 2020-2022, she served as an Associate Dean of Queen鈥檚 Law.
Talk Title:
Should Ecocide Be a Crime?
Description:
Massive environmental harm is typically treated as a regulatory offence. Should irresponsible, long-lasting destruction of the environment be a serious crime? Can criminal law help shape social attitudes? How could such a crime be framed? Should it be not only a domestic crime but also an international crime?
Bio:
Darryl Robinson was a Hauser Scholar at New York University School of Law (LLM International Legal Studies), where he received the Jerome Lipper Award for outstanding achievement in international law. After clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada, he was an international lawyer at Foreign Affairs Canada from 1997-2004. His work in the creation of the International Criminal Court and in the development of Canada's new war crimes legislation earned him a Minister's Citation and a Minister's Award for Foreign Policy Excellence. As an academic, he was awarded the Antonio Cassese Prize for International Criminal Studies for his innovative contributions to the field, and was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada College for New Scholars. Lately, he has researched the crime of ecocide, serving on a UCLA Promise Institute Working Group on defining the crime and advising legislators in many countries.
Talk Title:
Can International Trade Law Survive the Trump Administration?
Description:
Since the end of World War II, the international trade regime has provided predictability to international trade relations and has allowed international trade to flourish. International trade law has been particularly important for Canada, which is heavily dependent on international trade. However, since coming into office, the second Trump administration has acted as though international trade law does not exist: the various tariffs that the administration has imposed on its trading partners violate the United States鈥檚 most fundamental obligations under international trade law, such as the obligations not to discriminate among its trading partners and not to levy tariffs above specified 鈥榖ound鈥 levels. Prof. Lamp will discuss what the Trump administration鈥檚 actions mean for the future of international trade law and discuss the implications of the new trading environment for Canada.
Bio:
Nicolas Lamp is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Queen鈥檚 University in Canada, where he is cross-appointed to the School of Policy Studies. He serves as the Academic Director of the Internal Law program in the Faculty of Law at Queen's and as the Director of the Queen鈥檚 Annual Institute on Trade Policy, a professional training course for Canadian trade officials. Prior to joining Queen鈥檚, Dr. Lamp worked as a Dispute Settlement Lawyer at the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization. His current research focuses on competing narratives about the winners and losers from economic globalization and their implications for trade law and policy. His co-authored book (with Anthea Roberts), 鈥淪ix Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters,鈥 was published by Harvard University Press in 2021 and was selected as one of the best books of 2021 by the Financial Times and Fortune Magazine. Dr. Lamp holds a Ph.D. in Law and an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science and degrees in International Relations from the Universities of Dresden and Bremen in Germany.
Please register so we can anticipate who's coming. Alumni are welcome on the day without registration if space allows.
We are committed to inclusivity and accessibility. The law school building is fully accessible, with elevator access to each floor, automatic doors, and accessibility-enabled washrooms. See building accessibility details.
