Yasmin Dawood

Yasmin Dawood, J.D. (Columbia), Ph.D. (Chicago), is the Canada Research Chair in Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Electoral Law, and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law. She is cross-appointed in the Department of Political Science. She was named a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists in 2018. Professor Dawood was awarded the Mewett Award for Teaching Excellence by the Graduating Class of 2020.

Professor Dawood specializes in election law, comparative constitutional law, and democratic theory. Her scholarship, which is broadly concerned with improving electoral fairness and democratic governance, has addressed such topics as the right to vote, money in politics, redistricting, constitutional design, political dysfunction, partisanship, corruption, and the oversight of the democratic process by the courts. Her work has been published in leading journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, NYU Law Review Online, American Review of Political Science, Election Law Journal, ICON International Journal of Constitutional Law, Boston University Law Review, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy, University of Toronto Law Journal, McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Supreme Court Law Review, and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, among others. Her work has also appeared in edited volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (Oxford University Press) and Democracy by the People: Reforming Campaign Finance in America (Cambridge University Press). She was awarded a four-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant for her research on democracy and election law. Her research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Connaught Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.

Professor Dawood has testified as an election law expert before the Parliamentary House committee examining The Fair Elections Act Bill C-23, and before the Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform. She has been interviewed on election law issues by various media, including The New York Times, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, National Post, CTV News, The Agenda, Power & Politics, Metro Morning, Toronto Star and The Huffington Post, among others. She regularly presents her work at national and international conferences and workshops. Professor Dawood serves as a Vice-President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy (NOMOS). She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Board of the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. She is a member of the International Board of Advisors of the Federal Law Review and the Editorial Board of the University of Toronto Law Journal.

Professor Dawood received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and an Honours B.A. in political science from the University of Toronto. She is admitted to the Bar of New York and she practiced law with the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law in 2009, she was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto.