Biography

Laverne Jacobs, PhD
Associate Professor
Director of Graduate Studies 

Laverne Jacobs joined Windsor’s Faculty of Law in 2007. She is a recognized administrative law scholar who teaches in many areas of public law. Her research interests include the independence and impartiality of administrative actors; access to information and privacy law; human rights law; disability rights; parliamentary officers; comparative public law and empirical research methodology. Her work has been cited by several Canadian courts.

Dr. Jacobs’ scholarship aims to bridge the gap between public law jurisprudence and public law realities through empirical inquiry. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research and has employed qualitative empirical research methods from the social sciences. She is particularly interested in ethnography and legal anthropology and in the intersection of law, norms and informal order. Dr. Jacobs' current research project involves exploring the use of inquiry powers and mixed inquisitorial-adversarial processes within the administrative state. Her interest is in the effectiveness of such processes with respect to the efficient use of state resources, access to justice and within a comparative, empirical framework. In 2011, Dr. Jacobs co-hosted (with Dr. Sasha  Baglay, UOIT) an international research workshop on these issues at Windsor Law which was funded by SSHRC.  The workshop papers form a book which is forthcoming in 2012.

Laverne Jacobs has been the recipient of a number of awards including a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, the Nicol Kingsmill Fellowship in Administrative Law and a Young Academics’ Scholarship from Cambridge University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  In 2006, Professor Jacobs was a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University Law School. In 2010, she received a University of Windsor, Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Research.

In addition to her service to the University, Dr. Jacobs holds a public appointment as a member of the Advisory Council to the Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services with respect to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. She sits on the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section and serves on the Board of Directors, Research Committee and the Administrative Tribunals Committee for the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. She was a part-time member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario between 2005-2010.

Professor Jacobs teaches Judicial Review, Civil Liberties and  Constitutional Law, and is Faculty Advisor for the Laskin Moot.  In 2011-12, she introduced a new interdisciplinary seminar to the Faculty curriculum which examines Law, Disability & Social Change.

Dr. Jacobs was appointed Director of Graduate Studies for the Faculty in 2010.

Select Publications

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Books

Laverne Jacobs & Sasha Baglay, eds., The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives, University of Toronto Press (forthcoming, 2012).

Laverne A. Jacobs & Justice Anne L. Mactavish., eds., Dialogue Between Courts and Tribunals – Essays in Administrative Law and Justice (2001-2007) (Montreal: Les Éditions Thémis, 2008) 398pp.

Articles and Book Chapters

Laverne Jacobs, "Caught between Judicial Paradigms and the Administrative State’s Pastiche: ‘Tribunal’ Independence, Impartiality, and Bias" in Administrative Law in Context , 2nd edition, Colleen M. Flood & Lorne Sossin eds. (Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2012). 

Laverne Jacobs, “Building on the Ombudsman: Polyjuralism and the Impact of Dispute Resolution in the Canadian Access to Information Context” in Jacobs & Baglay, eds., The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives, University of Toronto Press (forthcoming, 2012).

Laverne Jacobs, “The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives - Research Workshop Report” (2011) 24 Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice 261-283 (with Sasha Baglay, Melissa Kwok, Maria Mavrikkou & Ki Lin Tay).

Laverne Jacobs, "Transnational and Comparative Administrative Law: Papers from the Sixth Administrative Law Discussion Forum, Québec City" (2010) 28(2) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice v-ix (with Denis Lemieux & Russell Weaver). ~Click here to view the Special Issue of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice on Transnational and Comparative Administrative Law.

Laverne Jacobs, “A Wavering Commitment?: Administrative Independence and Collaborative Governance in Ontario’s Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability Legislation” (2010) 28(2) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 285-307.

Laverne Jacobs, “Developments in Administrative Law: The 2008-2009 Term – Contemplating Legislative (Im)Precision” (2009) 48Supreme Court Law Review 43-70.

Laverne Jacobs,“Developments in Administrative Law: The 2007-2008 Term - The Impact of Dunsmuir” (2008) 43 Supreme Court Law Review (2d) 1-34.

Laverne Jacobs,“Tribunal Independence and Impartiality: Rethinking the Theory after Bell andOcean Port Hotel – A Call for Empirical Analysis” in Jacobs & Mactavish., eds., Dialogue Between Courts and Tribunals – Essays in Administrative Law and Justice (2001-2007) (Montreal: Les Éditions Thémis, 2008).

Laverne Jacobs, “Reconciling Tort and Administrative Law Concepts of Justice: The Case of Historical Wrongs” (2007) 57 University of New Brunswick Law Journal 134-161.

Laverne A. Jacobs & Thomas S. Kuttner, “Discovering What Tribunals Do: Tribunal Standing before the Courts” (2002) 81 Canadian Bar Review 616.