Shauna Van Praagh awarded Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching

The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Shauna Van Praagh has received the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the full professor category. She was presented with the award at the law convocation ceremony on 31 May.

“You are renowned for the genuine interest you take in your students’ success during their time at McGill and beyond, your deep commitment to co-learning and the countless innovative strategies you implement to create engaging and stimulating classes where everyone is invited to contribute,” wrote Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi, then interim principal and vice-chancellor, in the letter notifying her of the award.

Shauna Van Praagh has taught and researched at McGill University’s Faculty of Law since 1993. She has played a pivotal role in shaping legal education and driving pedagogical innovation, at McGill and beyond. As chair of our 1995 Committee on Curricular Reform, she was one of the architects of McGill Law’s top-ranking integrated program in common law and civil law, launched in 1999. She served as president of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (2013–14), and was appointed in 2015 as one of two academic members of the National Requirement Review Committee under the auspices of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

An inventive pedagogue, Professor Van Praagh is known for drawing inspiration from popular culture to design engaging law classes. The McGill Law Student Association awarded her the John W. Durnford Teaching Excellence Award in 1995.

In 2022, University of Toronto Press published her monograph Building Justice: Frank Iacobucci and the Life Cycles of Law, which draws on the life of the former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada to offer insight into the meaning of engaged citizenship through law. This work is deeply inspired by her own three-decade-long career as law professor.

Established in 2000, the Principal’s Prize recognizes excellence in teaching and its importance to the academic experience of students at McGill University. A remarkable testament to the Faculty of Law’s commitment to exceptional pedagogy, it is the sixth time a McGill Law professor receives this prize.

“A visionary pedagogical innovator, Professor Shauna Van Praagh has helped make the McGill Law education one of the best in the world,” said Dean Robert Leckey, Ad E. “I’m filled with pride to see her thus recognized by McGill, days before she takes up the challenge of serving as president of the revived Law Commission of Canada.”