Constitutional Roundtables
Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtables
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtables are an annual series of lunchtime discussion forums that provide an opportunity to consider developments in Canadian constitutional theory and practice. The Constitutional Roundtable series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian constitutional law.
The Limits of State Neutrality in Religious Matters with Prof Richard Moon (January 27, 2026)
The making of a foreign affairs power within the four corners of the written and unwritten Constitution of Canada with H. Scott Fairley (February 4, 2026)
Exploring the Margins of Constitutional Protection for Democracy with Justice Colin Feasby (March 3, 2026)
Democracy through Courts? with Prof Rochard Bellamy (November 12, 2024)
Unpacking the QCCA decision in Hak v. Attorney General of Quebec with Prof Kerri Froc (March 13, 2024)
Unchecked Power? How Recent Constitutional Reforms Are Threatening UK Democracy with Professor Alison Young (January 11, 2024)
The ‘Battle between the Branches’: Positive and Normative Theories of Judicial Review with Prof Michael Beenstock October 10. 2023
Between Individuality and Sociality in the Charter: Reengaging the Significance of the Section 2(b) Freedom of Thought and Section 2(d) Freedom of Association with Prof Dwight Newman October 3, 2023
The Collaborative Constitution with Prof Aileen Kavanagh March 28, 2023
Modernizing Constitutions: A comparative analysis of justifications for constitutional reforms with Prof Eleonora Bottini March 23, 2023
City of Toronto et al. v. Ontario
Professor Lorraine Weinrib, University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Alexi Wood and Geetha Philipupillai
November 9, 2021City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity
Professor Ran Hirschl, University of Toronto Faculty of Law & Department of Political Science
November 12, 2020So You Want to Implement UNDRIP…
Professor Kerry Wilkins, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
October 28, 2020Courts Without Cases: The Law and Politics of Advisory Opinions
Professor Carissima Mathen, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Common Law section
November 13, 2019Wealth, Equal Protection and Due Process
Professor Brandon Garrett, Duke University School of Law
October 2, 2019Toward a Substantive Understanding of Citizenship in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Assistant Professor Y.Y. Chen, University of Ottawa Law School
February 28, 2019Canadian Justice/Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley/Colten Boushie Case
Professor Kent Roach, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
February 5, 2019Interpreting Unwritten Constitutional Norms: Court-Packing in the United States as a Case Study
Professor Mark Tushnet, Harvard University Law School
January 23, 2019The hydraulics of constitutional claims: Four models of democratic constitutionalism and same-sex marriage
Athanasios (Akis) Psygkas, University of Bristol Law School
January 31, 2018The Relationship between Constitutional and Tort Damages for State Failures to Protect in Canada, England, and South Africa
Alistair Price, University of Cape Town
November 29, 2017Constitutional Law Symposium for Canada’s Sesquicentennial
Keynote address: John Burrows, University of Victoria
October 20, 2017The Most Powerful Court in the World? Constitutional Amendment after the Senate Reform and Supreme Court Act References
Richard Albert, Boston College
September 27, 2017Section 7 and the Idea of the Charter
Jamie Cameron, Osgoode Hall Law School
March 22, 2017The Alberta Press Case
Richard Haigh, Osgoode Hall Law School
March 1, 2017Normalizing the Exception in Canada
Hygo Cyr, Université du Québec à Montréal
February 9, 2017The Strange Antipodean Afterlife of John Hart Ely’s Democracy and Distrust
Claudia Geiringer, Victoria University of Wellington School of Law
November 16, 2017The Conventions of Constitutional Amendment in Canada
Richard Albert, Boston College
March 15, 2016.Legal Pluralism, Gender Equality and Parity of Participation: Constitutional Issues Concerning Customary Law in Liberia
Susan Williams, Mauer School of Law Indiana University
February 24, 2016Subsection 15(2) of the Charter and its Disconnection with Substantive Equality
Raj Anand
February 3, 2016The Absence of Social Solidarity Amongst Arab Elites: Causes and Consequences of the Failure of post-2011 Constitutional Reform
Zaid Al-Ali, Princeton University
October 30, 2015The Power to Enforce the Law: Presidential Power and American Immigration Policy
Cristina Rodriguez, Yale Law School
October 15, 2015A Theory of Discrimination Law
Tarunabh Khaitan, Wadham College University of Oxford
September 29, 2015The Myth of Balancing In Constitutional Rights Cases
Richard Moon, University of Windsor Faculty of Law
September 16, 2015Constitutional Law in the Absence of Constitution: Power in the Revolutionary Interregnum
Richard Stacey, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
February 5, 2015Autonomy, Subsidiarity and Solidarity: The Foundations of Cooperative Federalism
Hugo Cyr, Université du Québec à Montréal
January 13, 2015.R v Kokopenace: The Panel
Panelists include Brian Greenspan, Jessica Orkin, Cheryl Milne, Mary Eberts, Julian Roy and Christa Big Canoe.
October 15 2014Foreign Relations Law
Campbell McLachlan, Q.C. Victoria University of Wellington Foreign Relations Law
September 12, 2014Deepening Democratic Transformation in South Africa Through Participatory Constitutional Remedies
Sandra Liebenberg, University of Stellenbosch Law Faculty
February 28, 2014“Generous” to a Fault? The Supreme Court of Canada’s Approach to Section 6(1) of the Charter
John Norris
January 15, 2014Religious Diversity, Education, and the “Crisis” in State Neutrality
Benjamin Berger, Osgoode Hall Law School
January 29, 2014Ethical Basis for Excluding Unauthorized Immigrants from the Affordable Care Act
Norman Daniels, Harvard School of Public Health
November 21, 2013The Indigenous as Alien
Leti Volpp, UC Berkeley School of Law
November 1, 2013Exit, Voice, and Disloyalty: The Political Safeguards of Horizontal Federalism
Heather Gerkin, Yale Law School
March 14, 2013Social and Economic Rights – A South African Perspective
Zak Yacoob, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
February 14, 2013Common Good, Public Reason, and Constitutional Law
Wojciech Sadurski, University of Sydney
January 24, 2013Judging Social Rights
Jeff King, Faculty of Law, University College, London
January 10, 2013“Riffing on the Federalist”
Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Austin.
November 28, 2012The Rule of Law as a Constitutional Essential
Pavlos Eleftheriadis, University of Oxford
September 19, 2012Counsel and expert witness reflect on Carter v. Canada
Wayne Sumner, University of Toronto
September 25, 2012Of Irregular Votes and Robocalls: Resolving Disputed Elections in Canada and New Zealand
Andrew Geddis, University of Otago
October 24, 2012The Disallegiant Heart: Constitutional Citizenship and the History of Marital Denaturalization
Helen Irving, University of Sydney
October 15, 2012Catholic Schools and Gay Students Associations
Speakers: R. Douglas Elliott, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Robert Keel
November 9, 2011The Canadian Judicial Appointment Process
Peter H. Russell, University of Toronto
Jacob Ziegel, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
September 15, 2011Becoming Supreme: How Federalism Fosters Judicial Power
Barry Friedman, NYU Law School
November 29, 2010Is none still too many?
James Hathaway, University of Michigan Law School
Audrey Macklin, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Lorne Waldman, Lorne Waldman and Associates
October 5, 2010Acts of Attrition
Mary Eberts, S.J.D. Candidate, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
October 12, 2010Proportionality
Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel (Emeritus)
October 21, 2010The Rules Against Scandal and What they Mean For the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses
Marci Hamilton, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
March 17, 2010Canadian Federalism and Treaty Powers: Organic Constitutionalism at Work
Hugo Cyr, Université du Québec à Montréal
March 2, 2010Intellectual Influences of Australian Federalism
Nicholas Aroney, TC Beirne School of Law, U of Queensland
February 9, 2010