McGill Law to welcome three new professors
The Faculty of Law is delighted to announce three professorial appointments for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Michelle Cumyn will join the Faculty of Law as full professor, Noah Weisbord as associate professor, and Jeffrey Kennedy as assistant professor. They will begin their appointments on 1 August 2023.
Michelle Cumyn (BCL’92, LLB’92) is a full professor at Université Laval, where she teaches the law of obligations, nominate contracts, judicial review, and common law private law and methodology. She has published on standard form contracts, crowdfunding, public policy, associations, credit card payment, solidary obligation, suretyship and assignment, and received several awards for her publications. She held the Chaire de rédaction juridique Louis-Philippe-Pigeon (2015-2020) and was editor of Les Cahiers de droit (2007-2010). She took part in several working groups of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada, and is a member of its advisory committee. Professor Cumyn is co-author with Pierre-Gabriel Jobin of a treatise on the law of sale, and with Madeleine Cantin Cumyn of one on the administration of the property of another. A member of the Barreau du Québec, she is an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. She holds a PhD from Université de Paris I, and a BA, BCL, and LLB from McGill University.
Noah Weisbord (BCL/LLB’03) joins McGill from the Queen’s University Faculty of Law, where he is an associate professor. His research focuses on the role of criminal law in managing, reflecting, or exacerbating intergroup conflict. A current project examines self-defence in Canadian criminal law from historical, comparative, and conceptual perspectives. Professor Weisbord is a leading expert on the crime of aggression—individual criminal responsibility for aggressive war—and he assisted diplomatic delegations in defining the crime. His monograph on this topic was published by Princeton University Press. His scholarly articles have appeared in the McGill Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, Harvard International Law Journal, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, Law and Contemporary Problems. Professor Weisbord received his SJD from Harvard Law School (supervised by Dean Martha Minow) and he holds a BSc, BSW, MSW, LLB, and BCL from McGill University.
Jeffrey Kennedy (LLM’14, DCL’20) joins McGill from Queen Mary, University of London’s School of Law, where he has served since 2018 as lecturer (assistant professor), and co-director of the Criminal Justice Centre. His research examines various intersections between democracy and law, broadly understood. He is particularly interested in exploring how political ideals can give meaning and direction to criminal justice in theory and practice, and in their implications for legal education and university governance. He has received awards for his teaching, research, and service, including recently as a finalist for Oxford University Press’ national Law Teacher of the Year 2022 award. He maintains active involvement in a variety of initiatives related to the themes of democracy and criminal justice, and has worked closely with currently and formerly incarcerated individuals in Canada’s federal prison system. He holds a DCL and LLM from McGill University, an LLB from the University of Leicester, and a BA from Queen’s University.
“We are thrilled to be joined by three gifted colleagues whose leading scholarship will enhance our internationally recognized strengths in comparative private law and criminal justice,” said Dean Robert Leckey, Ad. E. “I look forward to the rich contributions they will make as scholars and educators to our Faculty’s vibrant life.”
