SC Wednesday Talk: Speaker:  Sophia Moreau, Law and Philosophy, U of T Title: “Tort Law and Social Equality: Using Unlikely Areas of the Law to Redress Social Subordination”, February 1, 2023, 2-4pm.

February 1, 2023

Speaker:  Sophia Moreau, Law and Philosophy, U of T

Title: “Tort Law and Social Equality: Using Unlikely Areas of the Law to Redress Social Subordination”

Introducer: Linda Hutcheon

Abstract: Although Canada has robust anti-discrimination laws, these laws can only accomplish so much.  Scholars who work on other areas of law —such as private law (involving interpersonal wrongs, or contracts, or property claims) are realizing that there are many ways in which these areas of law inadvertently and often invisibly perpetuate social subordination, exacerbating the disadvantages and the marginalization experienced by groups such as racial or ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ2s+ peoples, and women.  Can we use these other areas of law as tools to redress inequality?  I spearhead a project called the “Tort Law & Social Equality Project” —a community-based project involving lawyers, judges and academics across Canada, all of whom are working together to try to raise awareness of the rules within tort law that perpetuate social subordination and to think up alternatives, where viable.  In my talk, I’ll discuss some of the reasons why we would want to co-opt such other areas of law to address problems of social equality, as well as some of the challenges that such a project faces.

Bio: Sophia Moreau, B.Phil (Oxford); Ph.D. (Harvard); J.D. (Toronto) is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Toronto.  During this academic year, she is also a Visiting Professor of Law at NYU (Fall 2022) and the Distinguished H.L.A. Hart Fellow at University College Oxford (Hilary term, 2023).  Her research focuses on problems at the intersection of moral philosophy, political philosophy and the law, and in particular problems to do with equality.  Her books include Faces of Inequality (OUP 2020) and Philosophical Foundations of Discrimination Law (co-edited with Deborah Hellman, OUP 2013).   She is the PI for the Tort Law and Social Equality Project, which is a community-building project that aims to uncover ways in which the laws governing our interpersonal legal obligations inadvertently contribute to the subordination of various marginalized social groups.

The link to register is  https://forms.office.com/r/HRybUGUB5p

The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.