Jeremy Webber
Professor Emeritus
| Jeremy Webber | Faculty of Law University of Victoria PO Box 1700, STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 Map |
Jeremy Webber is Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Victoria. He has written widely in legal theory, constitutional theory, Indigenous rights, federalism, cultural diversity, and constitutional law in Canada and in relation to other countries (especially Australia). He is the author of Reimagining Canada: Language, Culture, Community and the Canadian Constitution (1994), The Constitution of Canada: A Contextual Analysis (second edition: 2021), and Las gramáticas de la ley: Derecho, pluralismo y justicia (2017).
His current writing continues these themes, now focusing on his work in legal pluralism and Indigenous governance, and on exploring the principal features of a truly democratic, agonistic, constitutionalism.
Professor Webber was Professor of Law at the University of Victoria from 2002 until his move to emeritus status in 2023. From 2002 to 2014, he held the Canada Research Chair in Law and Society (tier 1) at UVic, which he surrendered to serve as UVic’s Dean of Law (2013-2018). Before coming to UVic, Professor Webber was Dean of Law at the University of Sydney, Australia (1998-2002) and Professor of Law at McGill University, Canada (1987-1998). He was appointed Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation in 2009, Fellow of Royal Society of Canada in 2016, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2023, and Honorary Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, in 2024.
- BA (honours) Political Science – UBC (1980)
- LLB, BCL (first class honours: Gold medal) – McGill (1984)
- LLM – Osgoode (1988) Thesis title: Standards of Industrial Justice: Ideology and the Reports of Conciliation Boards under the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, 1907-1925.
- For the nature of law generally, Indigenous legal orders, and the work of Lon Fuller: Webber, “The Grammar of Customary Law” (2009) 54 McGill L.J. 579-626.
- For legal pluralism: Webber, “Legal Pluralism and Human Agency” (2006) 44 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 167-98.
- For the challenge of populism: “Understanding Populism”, (2023) 32(6) Social and Legal Studies 849-876.
- For a distinctively open form of nationalism: see “A Nationalism Open Towards the World”, in Rajeev Bhargava, ed, Politics, Ethics and the Self: Re-reading Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (New Delhi: Routledge, 2022), 162-189.
- For federalism: Webber, “Federalism’s Radical Potential”, (2020) 18(4) International Journal of Constitutional Law: Symposium on Peace Processes & Constitution-Making 1324-49.
- For recognition: Webber, “Recognition in Its Place,” in Daniel Weinstock, Jacob Levy and Jocelyn Maclure, eds, Interpreting Modernity: Essays on the Work of Charles Taylor (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 247-64.
- For toleration and freedom of religion: Webber, “A Two-Level Justification of Religious Toleration” (2012) 4(Winter) Journal of Indian Law and Society 25-53.
- For sovereignty: Webber, “Contending Sovereignties” in Peter Oliver, Patrick Macklem, and Nathalie Des Rosiers, eds, The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 281-301.
- For consent: Webber, “The Meanings of Consent” in Jeremy Webber and Colin Macleod, eds., Between Consenting Peoples: Political Community and the Meaning of Consent (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010), 3-41.
- For democratic decision-making as the foundational constitutional value: Webber, “Democratic Decision Making as the First Principle of Contemporary Constitutionalism” in Richard W. Bauman and Tsvi Kahana, eds, The Least Examined Branch: The Role of Legislatures in the Constitutional State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 411-30; and “Governing Ourselves: Reflections on Reinvigorating Democracy Stimulated by Gitxsan Governance”, in James Tully, Keith Cherry, Fonna Forman, Jeanne Morefield, Joshua Nichols, Pablo Ouziel, David Owen, and Oliver Schmidtke, eds, Democratic Multiplicity: Perceiving, Enacting and Integrating Democratic Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 281-303.
- For the rule of law: “A Democracy-Friendly Theory of the Rule of Law”, (2024) 16(2) Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 339-374.
- For adjudication and contested social values: Webber, “A Judicial Ethic for a Pluralistic Age,” in Omid Payrow Shabani, ed. Multiculturalism and Law: A Critical Debate (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007), 67-100.
- For the proprietary constitution: Webber & Gover, “Proprietary Constitutionalism” in Mark Tushnet, Thomas Fleiner, and Cheryl Saunders, eds, Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law (New York: Routledge, 2013), 361-74.
- For transitional justice: “Forms of Transitional Justice” in Melissa S. Williams, Rosemary Nagy, and Jon Elster, eds., NOMOS LI: Transitional Justice (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 98-128.
- For Carl Schmitt: “National Sovereignty, Migration, and the Tenuous Hold of International Legality: The Resurfacing (and Resubmersion?) of Carl Schmitt,” in Oliver Schmidtke and Saime Ozcurumez, eds., Of States, Rights, and Social Closure: Governing Migration and Citizenship (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 61-90.
- For UVic’s Indigenous law program and McGill’s transsystemic program: Webber, Val Napoleon, Mireille Fournier, and John Borrows, “Sally Engle Merry, Legal Pluralism, and the Radicalization of Comparative Law” (2020) 54 Law and Society Review 846-57.
In the past Professor Webber has taught the following courses at UVic:
- LAW 100 - The Constitutional Law Process
- Law 107 - Property
- Law 107i - Transsystemic Property
- LAW 343 - Democratic Constitutionalism
- LAW 359 - Civil Liberties and the Charter
- LAW 375 - Law, Constitutionalism and Cultural Difference
- Law 501 - Graduate Seminar in Law and Society
- Law 502 - Graduate Seminar in Applied Legal Methodology
- The Grammar of Customary Law
Animation on Professor Webber’s research; created by Yianni Pappas-Acreman, Cassandra Paterson, & Stuart McAlister as a winning entry in the SSHRC Storytellers competition, 2014.
Watch the video.
- Pandemic, Populism, and Democracy
Professor Webber speaks in CCSLAW Webinar, Centre for Constitutional Studies/Centre d'études constitutionnelles, University of Alberta, 29 April 2021.
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- What Are The Greatest Challenges Populism Poses To Democracy?
Interview with Professor Webber on EUCAnet at the time of the International Conference on “Constitutionalism in a Populist Age”, University of Victoria, 7 March 2020.
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- We are Still in the Age of Encounter: Indigenous Rights, the Nature of Sovereignty, and Agonistic Constitutionalism
Lecture, IIHS Bengaluru City Campus, Bengaluru India, 7 July 2018.
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- The Role of the Sacred in Indigenous Law and Reconciliation
Announcement by then Dean Webber of the new Indigenous Law Program at the University of Victoria, with Dr Skip Dick of the Songhees First Nation; Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation of British Columbia; and Lectures by Professors John Borrows and Val Napoleon, Ideafest, Alix Goolden Hall, Victoria BC, 8 March 2018.
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- Strategies of Justice
Special Seminar, Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra Australia, 29 August 2012.
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- Cultural Differences, Languages, Perspicuous Contrasts, and Recognition
Conference on the work of Charles Taylor, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, March 29-30, 2012.
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