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 the area of public law. Her research interests include the independence and impartiality of administrative actors; human rights law; disability rights; access to information and privacy; comparative administrative law; and empirical research methodology. Her work has been cited by Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

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, using 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’ research has used ethnography to explore meanings of the concept of tribunal independence within Canadian access to information and privacy commissions, and has examined, through qualitative data analysis, the effectiveness of ombuds oversight for regulating freedom of information. Dr. Jacobs recently completed an edited collection on comparative administrative process, which brings together global perspectives on polyjuralism in the administrative state. In 2011, she co-organized an international research workshop on these issues at Windsor Law which was funded by SSHRC. Dr. Jacobs’ current research focuses on disability rights.

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, she 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 serves on the Board of Directors of the Income Security Advocacy Centre. She is also active in the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, where she sits on its Board of Directors, Research Committee and Administrative Tribunals Committee. Dr. Jacobs has held public appointments as a member of the Advisory Council to the Ontario Minister responsible for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, and as 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 called 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 (Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2013) (forthcoming).

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, “Evaluating Ombuds Oversight in the Canadian Access to Information Context: A Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry” in Jacobs & Baglay, eds., The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives (Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2013) (forthcoming).

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) 233-78. 

Laverne Jacobs,   « Contribuţii aduse studiului instituţiei Ombudsmanului: regimuri juridice polijurale şi impactul soluţionării conflictului în contextul canadian al liberului acces la informaţiile de interes public »in Dacian-Cosmin  Dragos and Bogdana Neamţu,  Instituţia Ombudsmanului: justitiţie alternativă? (Editura C.H. Beck: Bucharest (Romania), 2011) 185-212. (“Building on the Ombudsman: Polyjuralism and the Impact of Dispute Resolution in the Canadian Access to Information Context” published in Romanian translation). Read a review: http://rtsa.ro/en/files/TRAS-36E-2012-BOOK%20REVIEW.pdf

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.