Michael Law-Smith
Position:
Campus:
St. George,Email Address:
Biography:
Michael is a joint JD/PhD candidate and a Canada Graduate Scholar in the Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Law.
He works on questions at the intersection of legal, political, and moral philosophy. His doctoral research focuses on how the state relates to its citizens through the criminal justice system. This project encompasses a variety of issues in criminal law and tort law theory, including the injustice of mass incarceration, the limits to the state’s authority in enforcing criminal law, and the liability of state prosecutors for abusing their power.
During law school, he was editor in chief of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review and a caseworker in the criminal defence division of the Faculty of Law’s community legal aid clinic, Downtown Legal Services. In 2023-2024, he served as judicial law clerk for Chief Justice Richard Wagner of the Supreme Court of Canada.