Christopher Essert
78 Queen's Park
Education
Overview
Christopher Essert, BA (McGill), JD (Toronto), LLM, JSD (Yale Law School) is a Professor at the Faculty of Law. He teaches and researches in private law, property and tort theory, and legal and political philosophy.
He is the author of Property Law in the Society of Equals (Oxford University Press, 2024) and co-author, with Jason Neyers and Ernest J Weinrib, of Tort Law: Cases and Materials (Emond, 2025). His work has appeared in journals including Philosophy & Public Affairs, Legal Theory, Law & Philosophy, Jurisprudence, the McGill Law Journal, and the University of Toronto Law Journal.
Professor Essert serves as a member of the International Advisory Panel for the American Law Institute’s project on the Restatement of the Law (Fourth), Property and has participated in consultations regarding the National Housing Strategy. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at the School of Cities.
Prior to joining the UofT Faculty of Law, Professor Essert was Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, and a Visiting Professor at UCLA School of Law. He also served as law clerk to Justice Michel Bastarache at the Supreme Court of Canada, and articled at Paliare Roland LLP. From 2020 to 2025 he was Associate Dean of the JD Program at the Faculty of Law.
Areas of Interest
- Legal Theory
- Philosophical Approaches to Law
- Private Law
- Property Law
- Tort Law
Teaching
Research
SSHRC Insight Grant, “Private Law for Public Authorities” ($82,030), 2025-2030 NSERC Alliance Grant, “Building more with less: Achieving a sustainable built environment” ($739,265), Co-Investigator
U of T Urban Challenge Grant, “Urban form pathways, affordable housing, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” ($65,000), 2022-23, Co-PI with Shoshanna Saxe, Gabriel Eidelman
SSHRC Insight Grant, “Property Law in the Society of Equals” ($85, 240), 2017-2022
SSHRC Insight Development Grant, “Property at the Periphery” ($58,100), 2014-2016
Selected Publications
Property Law in the Society of Equals (Oxford University Press, 2024)
Tort Law: Cases and Materials (6th ed, Emond Publishing, 2025, with Jason Neyers and Ernest J Weinrib)
“Thinking Like a Private Lawyer” 68 University of Toronto Law Journal 166 (2018)
“Property and Homelessness” 44 Philosophy and Public Affairs 266 (2016)
“Nuisance and the Normative Boundaries of Ownership” 52 Tulsa Law Review 85 (2016)
Queen’s University Society of Law Students Teaching Award, 2014