Professor Johanne Poirier is the inaugural holder of the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism at McGill鈥檚 Faculty of Law. She joined the Faculty in 2015 as a Full Professor.听In 2019 and 2022, she received the John W. Durnford Teaching Excellence Award.

Her research studies the foundations, potential, risks and concrete incarnations of the 鈥渇ederal phenomenon鈥� understood broadly.

Biography

Previously, Professor Poirier was a faculty member of the Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where, between 2004 and 2015, she taught various courses on comparative law, federalism and European regionalism both at the Faculty of Law and the Institute of European Studies. From 2008 to 2012, she also co-directed the ULB鈥檚 Center for Public Law.

At McGill鈥檚 Faculty of Law, she teaches Constitutional Law and Comparative Federalism. In 2017, she co-taught a seminar in constitutional drafting and reform, 鈥淢odernizing鈥� the Canadian Constitution. In addition, since 2016, she organizes the Baxter Family Competition on Federalism, a biyearly writing competition for students and young practitioners.

Johanne Poirier has been an invited professor at the faculties of law of the universities of Ottawa, Montreal, and Butare (Rwanda), as well as at the Centro de Estudios Pol铆ticos y Constitucionales of Madrid and the Winter School on Federalism of Eurac Research and the University of Innsbruck . She has participated in a number of expert missions on constitutional design in Spain, Belgium, Tunisia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, and Nepal. She was a board member of the Forum of Federations from 2007 to 2016.

Prior to her academic career, she served as a law clerk for the Hon. Charles Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada. She also worked as a lawyer specialized in constitutional and administrative litigation for the Department of Justice of Canada and as legal counsel on matters of constitutional law for the governments of Canada and Qu茅bec.

Areas of interest

Most of Professor Poirier鈥檚 publications explore various aspects of federalism, the protection of minorities (notably linguistic ones), and, more broadly, public law. It is in the field of intergovernmental relations and cooperative federalism that her contributions are the most significant and original. Her multidisciplinary methodological approaches combine legal technicality, institutionalism, socio-political contextualization, and legal theory (including normative pluralism) through a comparative lens, even in the study of Canadian constitutional law. She currently works on a major research project on intergovernmental relations and cooperative federalism.

Professor Poirier is particularly interested in supervising graduate students wishing to explore various aspects of federalism, the institutional mechanisms for the accommodation of diversity, and comparative constitutional law, more generally.

Education

• PhD in Law (D.Phil), Cambridge, 2004, and doctorate equivalency, Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles, 2004
• License in Comparative Law (LLM), 1992
• BCL/LLB, McGill, 1991
• BA Hon. (history & philosophy), Queen鈥檚, 1986

Employment

• Full professor, Faculty of Law, 香蕉视频, 2015-
• Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism, Faculty of Law, 香蕉视频, 2015-
• Associate professor, Faculty of Law, Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles, 2008-2015
• Co-director, Center for Public Law, Faculty of Law, Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles, 2008-2012
• Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles, 2004-2008
• Constitutional lawyer, Department of Justice of Canada, Montreal, 1993-1997
• Clerk for the Honorable Justice Charles Gonthier, Supreme Court of Canada, 1993
• Clerk (part-time) for the Honorable Justice Jean-Louis Baudouin, Quebec Court of Appeal, 1991

Professional Associations and Research Groups

• Member of the editorial board, , 2021-
• Member, Group, International Association of Constitutional Law, 2020-
• Member, (CRIDAQ), 2019-
• Member, (GRSP), 2015-
• Member of the scientific committee, , 2016-
• Researcher, Research Group on Constitutional Studies, 香蕉视频, 2015-
• Cofounder, 鈥淐ooperative Federalism and Multi-Level Governance鈥� research project as part of the G-3 (consortium between the Universit茅 de Montr茅al, the University of Geneva and the Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles), 2014-2016
• Researcher, Droit, changements et gouvernance Group, Centre de recherche en droit public, Universit茅 de Montr茅al, 2015-2019
• Associate member, Centre de recherche sur l鈥櫭塼at et la Constitution (CREC), Universit茅 catholique de Louvain, 2009-2014
• Associate member, Centre interdisciplinaire de recherches en droit constitutionnel et administratif (CIRC), Facult茅s universitaires Saint-Louis, 2010-2014
• Member of the board of directors, , Ottawa, Canada, 2007-2016
• Steering committee member, , 2010-2015
• Member, , European Consortium for Political Research, 2010-2014
• Member of the board of directors, Association qu茅b茅coise de droit constitutionnel, 2006-2010
• Collaborator, with the Institute for Research on Public Policy , Montr茅al, Canada, 2005-2008
• Associate researcher, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen鈥檚 University, Kingston, Canada, 1998-2002
• Member, Association qu茅b茅coise de droit compar茅, 2002-
• Member, Barreau du Qu茅bec, 1994-

Media appearances

• Johanne Poirier, La Presse, 28 June 2022 :
• The Sunday Magazine (hosted by Piya Chattopadhyay), CBC Radio, 7 March 2021: , with Jennifer Wallner
• The Canadian Press (by Jacob Serebrin),, 23 January 2021:
• Johanne Poirier, Daniel Turp & Th茅r猫se Mailloux, Le Soleil, 4 February 2020:
• Johanne Poirier, Le Devoir, 20 March 2017:
• Le Devoir (by Pierre Vall茅e), 14 November 2015:
• Focus Law | droit, Fall-Winter 2015:

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See also her Research and her Publications.

Professor Poirier with her 2015-2016 assistants: Sajeda Hedaraly, Maryna Polataiko & Jesse Hartery. Absent from photo: Patrick Baud & Lana Rackovic.