Mayo Moran

Overview

Professor Moran joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto in 1995 and in 2006 was appointed dean, becoming the first woman to hold this position.  In 2014 she was appointed Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, a position she held until July 1, 2024.   In July 2024, she was appointed the inaugural Irving and Rosalie Abella Chair in Justice and Equality at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.  Among other honors, she is the recipient of the Law Society Medal, the President’s Impact Award, the Carolyn Tuohy Public Policy Award, the Jus Human Rights Prize for Influential Leaders and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award.

Professor Moran writes and teaches across public and private law with a focus on restitution, redress for historic wrongs, reparative justice, tort law and legal theory.  Her course “Ten Cases that Changed the World”, was highlighted by MacLeans Magazine as one of UofT’s “cool courses”.  Her first book, Rethinking the Reasonable Person (OUP 2003) led to judicial education, speaking engagements and extensive policy work including on equality, private law, sexual violence, and issues of accessibility and inclusion.  

In her role as Dean, Professor Moran was responsible for the 53M campaign that created the new Jackman Law Building and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights.  She led major renewal of the curriculum, including the creation of the Global Professional Masters of Law, and developed a ground-breaking mental health program.  She spearheaded law school engagement on gender and diversity in the legal profession, foreign trained professionals and access to justice for middle income earners.    As Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, Professor Moran led a 100M campaign whose centrepiece is the Lawson Centre for Sustainability, a leading-edge mass timber residence and academic building that is Trinity’s most significant capital project in a century.  Within the college, she prioritized strengthening the academic programs and enhancing the student experience, with a focus on marrying academic excellence with wellness, inclusion and kindness.  She also renegotiated the college’s federated relationship with the University of Toronto and served on many committees both inside and outside the university.  

Professor Moran has continued to pursue academic and policy work while serving as a full-time university administrator.  For 14 years she was Chair of the Residential Schools Oversight Committee, which was part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Under her leadership, the Committee oversaw the resolution of more than 38,000 claims by residential school survivors. She also chaired the panel that recommended the creation of Ontario’s legislation addressing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP suits), conducted the second review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and was deeply engaged in the development of Ontario’s Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act.  At the request of the German Government, she served as part of an Expert Working Group struck to consider improvements to Germany’s Holocaust Restitution process.  

Professor Moran’s current focus is on redress for historic injustice.  Her book, Making Amends for Historic Wrongs: Reparative Justice and the Problem of the Past (OUP 2026) addresses the question of how historic wrongs became legal problems and explores how we might do a better job of responding.  She also co-founded the Restitution Dialogues, which addresses the contemporary ‘restitution revolution’ and encompasses issues from Holocaust to colonial restitution.  Her recent writing covers topics such as the Indigenous belongings in the Vatican Archives, which is the subject of a special issue of Art, Antiquity and Law which she co-edited and contributed to.  She has educated and written extensively on other issues redress for historic wrongs including Calling Power to Account, a volume that she co-edited and contributed to on the Chinese-Canadian Head Tax case (Hart 2005) and a special co-edited volume of University of Toronto Law Journal entitled The Residential Schools Litigation and Settlement (2014).