Sophie Thériault

Sophie Thériault is a Full Professor and Vice-Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section), at the University of Ottawa. She is also a lawyer and member of the Barreau du Québec (2003).

Professor Thériault holds a doctoral degree from Laval University (LL.D. 2009). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle (2004-2005) and at the University of Victoria (2005-2007). From 2015-2017, she served as the Vice-Dean of Graduate Studies in Law at the University of Ottawa. She also served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Louis LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada (2002-2003).

Professor Thériault’s research focuses on Indigenous peoples’ rights in the context of natural resources extraction; Indigenous environmental governance; environmental justice and environmental rights; and food security and sovereignty for Indigenous peoples. Her work examines the myriad ways in which state law dispossesses, subjugates and marginalizes Indigenous peoples, especially in relation to the extraction of natural resources from their traditional lands. It also focuses on the role of law in creating, reproducing, and potentially remediating environmental injustices for Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups.

Professor Thériault recently co-edited [Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19] (uOttawa Press, 2020), and [Peuples autochtones et intégrations régionales. Pour une durabilité repensée des ressources naturelles et de la biodiversité] (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2020). Professor Thériault is currently involved in multiple international and interdisciplinary research projects, including the SSHRC funded projects [Knowledge Network on Mining Encounters and Indigenous Sustainable Livelihood (MinErAL)], and [Environmental Justice in Canadian Law and Policy].

Professor Thériault is a member of the Executive Committee of the Alumni Network of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and of the Global Young Academy.