Patrick J. Monahan has been appointed the next dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School effective July 1, 2003, for a five-year term, following an international search. He will succeed Dean Peter Hogg, who will be on a year”s leave before his retirement.
Well-known to the Osgoode community and to the York community more generally, Monahan has been a member of the faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School since 1982. He is also an Osgoode alumnus, graduating with his LLB, as a gold medalist, in 1980. He also holds a BA from the University of Ottawa, an MA from Carleton University, and an LLM from Harvard University. He is a member of the Bar of Ontario.
Monahan is a recognized authority on constitutional law, Canadian federalism and administrative law. He regularly contributes to scholarly and public debates in these areas, including those around the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords. He is the author or co-author of a number of books, including, most recently, Constitutional Law and Liability of the Crown, the latter with Prof. Peter Hogg. He has served as an advisor to federal and provincial governments on constitutional issues and matters of international trade, as well as to royal commissions and government agencies, and is frequently called as an expert witness on legal and constitutional affairs.
“Professor Monahan will lead a law school distinguished by its outstanding faculty cadre which includes many of this country”s leading legal scholars, its innovative and intellectually rigorous programs and its excellent and diverse student body,” says York President Lorna R. Marsden. “This is an important time in the development of the school and in the development of Canadian legal education. I look forward to working with him to pursue Osgoode”s mission in the coming years.”
Monahan is currently associate dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, a position that he has held since July 1, 2002. Prior to that appointment, he served from1990 to 1993 and 1995 to- 2002 as director of the highly regarded York University Centre for Public Law and Public Policy at Osgoode. He has also served as Chair of Osgoode”s Faculty Council and of its Academic Standing Committee, and as a member of the Senate Executive Committee.
Highly respected and well-known in the legal profession, Monahan is currently an affiliated scholar with Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg LLP, a position that he has held since 1993. He has served as counsel in major constitutional and public law cases.