Camille Cameron, KC

Professor of Law


Email: camillecameron@dal.ca
Phone: 902-431-0604
Mailing Address: 
Room 429, Weldon Law Building, 6061 University Avenue
PO Box 15000 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2
 
Research Topics:
  • Administration of and access to civil justice
  • Dispute resolution
  • Class actions
  • Regulatory role of civil litigation
  • Tobacco litigation
  • Climate change litigation
  • Court reform in transitional legal systems

Education

  • BA (St Mary's)
  • LLB (New Brunswick)
  • LLM (Cambridge)

Bar admissions

  • Nova Scotia

Memberships & affiliations

  • International Academy of Comparative Law
  • Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
  • Canadian Bar Association
  • Canadian Council of Law Deans
  • Law and Society Association

Bio

Camille began her career in private practice in a commercial law firm in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she specialized in litigation. While in practice she was a frequent presenter at continuing legal education seminars and bar admissions courses and taught Civil Trial Practice as a sessional lecturer. After ten years of law practice, she obtained an LLM degree at the University of Cambridge and then took up an academic appointment in Hong Kong. Prior to joining the Schulich School of Law, she held academic posts as the Dean of Windsor Law at the University of Windsor, and as a Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia where she served terms as Associate Dean and as Director of the Civil Justice Research Group.

Her interests in comparative law and legal institutions in post-conflict societies led her to Cambodia in 1996 where she worked with a human rights group training lay criminal defenders and judges. She has worked as a consultant on similar international development projects in various countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, China, Thailand, and Indonesia. Her current research focuses on class actions, climate change litigation and litigation funding.

Camille has served on numerous committees dealing with academic and senior administrative appointments and promotion, reviews of academic departments and faculties, teaching quality, and university governance. She has been the Chair and a member of the Board of Governors of Legal Aid Windsor, Chair of the Advisory Board of Community Legal Aid Windsor, a member of the Board of Directors of Hiatus House, and a member of the Independent Advisory Board on Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. She has been a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peoples’ University (Beijing) and the University of Oxford.

Courses Camille has taught include Class Actions, Civil Procedure, International Dispute Settlement, Legal Ethics, Comparative Civil Justice Reform, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She has supervised JD and graduate students in various subject areas, including civil justice reform, class actions, dispute resolution, evidence, juries, litigation funding, and regulatory theory.

Selected Publications

  • Recent Youth-Led and Rights-Based Climate Change Litigation in Canada: Reconciling Justiciability, Charter Claims and Procedural Choices, Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 34, Issue 1, March 2022 (with Riley Weyman)
  • Class Actions and Collective Litigation as Tools for Climate Change Regulation – chapter for edited collection (with Riley Weyman), in Doelle and Seck, ed, Research Handbook on Climate Change Law and Loss & Damage (Edward Elgar Publishing, November 2021
  • Race, Slavery and Justice: A Justice System Case Study, chapter for report of the Scholarly Panel to Examine Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race, 2019
  • Book Review, Class Actions in Canada: The Promise and Reality of Access to Justice, 2019, 97(2) Canadian Bar Review
  • Litigation as ‘Core Business’: Analysing the Access to Justice and Regulatory Dimensions of Commercially Funded Class Actions in Australia, in Deborah R. Hensler, Christopher Hodges & Ianika Tzankova, eds, Class Actions in Context: How Economics, Politics and Culture Shape Collective Litigation (Cheltenham: Elgar Publishing, 2016) 189.
  • Economic Enablers, in Deborah R. Hensler, Christopher Hodges & Ianika Tzankova, eds, Class Actions in Context: How Economics, Politics and Culture Shape Collective Litigation (Cheltenham: Elgar Publishing, 2016) 137 (with J. Kaladjzic and A. Klement).
  • Commercial Litigation Funding: Ethical, Regulatory and Comparative Perspectives, (2014) 55(1) Can Bus LJ 1 (with J. Kaladzic).
  • A Community of Procedure Scholars: Teaching Procedure and the Legal Academy (2013) 51(1) Osgoode Hall LJ 93 (with B. Thornburg, E. Knutson and C. Crifo).
  • Aid-Effectiveness and Donor Coordination from Paris to Busan: A Cambodian Case Study (2012) 5(2) Law and Development Review 167 (with Sally Low).
  • Evaluating Fast Track and Tax Case Management in the Federal Court of Australia: Interim Report (Sydney: Federal Court of Australia, 2011)
  • The Price of Access to the Civil Courts in Australia: Old Problems and New Solutions: A Commercial Litigation Funding Case Study" in Mathias Reimann, ed, Cost and Fee Allocation in Civil Procedure (Springer, Netherlands, 2011) 59.
  • Regulating Parties in Dispute: Analysing the Effectiveness of the Commonwealth Model Litigant Rules Monitoring and Enforcement Processes, (2010) 21 Public Law Review 1 (with M.Taylor-Sands
  • New Directions for Case Management in Australia, (2010) 29 Civil Justice Quarterly 337
  • ‘Corporate Governments’ as Model Litigants, (2007) 10(2) Legal Ethics (with M. Taylor-Sands)

Research and Teaching Grants

  • Canadian Foundation for Legal Research, 2022 (with Riley Weyman), Access to Canadian Courts for Climate Change Litigants: Are Climate Change Claims Justiciable?" ($12,432)
  • Commercial Litigation Funding Conference (July 2-3, 2013), Law Foundation of Ontario ($15,000), jointly with Professor Jasminka Kalajdzic, awarded in December 2012
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Federal Court of Australia Case Management Programmes, University of Melbourne Research Grant ($5000), 2010
  • Testing Court Reform Projects in Cambodia and Vietnam, Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant ($275,000), awarded in September 2007 (with Professor Pip Nicholson)  
  • Litigation and Liability as Regulation to Reduce Tobacco-Related Harm: ‘Making the Polluter Pay’ for the Harm Tobacco Causes, ARC Australian Postgraduate Award Industry Linkage Grant Application ($80,000), awarded in November 2005 (with Industry Partner Cancer Council of Victoria)
  • Governments and Corporations as Model Litigants, Melbourne University Faculty of Law Research Grant ($5,000), awarded in October 2005 (with Michelle Taylor-Sands)
  • Investigation and Analysis of Issue Raised by Self-Representation in Civil Cases in the High Court of Hong Kong, CERG (Competitive Earmarked Research Grants) ($70,000), awarded in 2004 (with Associate Professor Elsa Kelly and Dr. Eric Chui)
  • Litigants in Person in Civil Cases: Survey and Interviews of Hong Kong Solicitors, Small-Scale Research Grant, Hong Kong ($20,000), awarded in November 2002 (with Associate Professor Elsa Kelly).
  • Legal Skills Integration Project, 2006, University of Melbourne - $100,000 (jointly with other colleagues). The purpose of this project was to provide law students with the information and assistance they need to take charge of and to monitor their acquisition and development of professional skills during their LLB/JD studies.
  • Learning Legal Ethics in Context, Melbourne-Monash Multimedia Grant, December 2001 - $50,000 (jointly with Professor Adrian Evans and Peter Jones). The purpose of the project was to develop online learning exercises that integrate the teaching and learning of legal ethics into core law subjects. The online programmes developed were used in Civil Litigation and Corporations subjects at the Melbourne and Monash Law Schools.

Selected Presentations

  • Panel Member, EPIQ Roundtable, Legal Innovation and Technology, Halifax, September 2019 (by invitation)
  • Presenter, Heads of School (Deans) of UK Law Schools Annual Meeting, Legal Education’s Complex Mission: How and Why Geography Matters, University of Warwick, England, February 2019 (by invitation)
  • Panel member, Northwind Law Leaders Forum, Cambridge, Ontario, April 2019 (by invitation)
  • Keynote Presentation, CBA Seminar, Law Firm Leadership Conference, Toronto, November 2018 (by invitation)
  • Moderator, Trump: Now What?, Public Panel co-sponsored by Faculties of Arts, Law and Management, Dalhousie University, January 2017
  • Presenter, Ontario Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Seminar, Ethics and Access to Justice Features of Commercial Litigation Funding, 21 October 2014
  • Presenter, International Legal Ethics Conference, London, England, July 2014, Procedural Rules as Rules of Ethics and Professional Conduct
  • Invited participant, Technical Advisory Group, Access to Justice, Law Society of Upper Canada, October 2013 and June 2014
  • Panelist, Law and Legal Education in the Americas: Comparative Perspectives, University of Detroit (Mercy), Detroit, June 2013 (by invitation)
  • Panelist, Osgoode Hall Law School Conference, Articling and Transitional Training, May 2012 (by invitation)
  • Presenter, Joint Federal Court of Australia/Law Council of Australia Conference, Report on the Results of Research (Interviews of Federal Court Judges and Lawyers Concerning Case Management Practices), August 2011 (by invitation)
  • Presenter, Early Neutral Evaluation, for Supreme Court of Victoria Judges, June 2009 (by invitation)
  • World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Washington, July 2006, Panelist:
    • Litigation as a Tobacco Regulation Tool
    • New Strategies in Tobacco Litigation: British Columbia’s Tobacco and Health Care Costs Recovery Act
  • Presenter, National Conference of Archivists, Canberra, Australia, September 2004: Duties to Preserve Documents in Anticipation of Litigation (by invitation)
  • Presenter, International Obligations Conference, July 2004: Does Australia Need a New Tort of Spoliation? (by invitation)