A Research Associate is distinct from a Faculty Associate and is typically an individual who is actively involved in MELAW-related research projects or initiatives. Postdoctoral researchers are also eligible for appointment as Research Associates. Research Associate membership is granted through nomination by a Faculty Associate to the MELAW Director, followed by approval through a consensus decision of the Faculty Associates.

Research Associates remain on the list for as long as they are actively engaged in MELAW-related research projects or initiatives. Postdoctoral researchers who are no longer actively involved in MELAW-related research typically remain on the list for up to one year after defending their thesis.  

Kolawole Abiri, PhD, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. His research focuses on climate change laws and policies, climate litigation, intersections between climate change and energy, climate and environmental justice, impact assessment, international environmental law, and how to use the mechanism of impact assessment to achieve sustainable development goals. Kolawole holds a Master of Law from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Master of Legal Science from Uppsala University (Sweden), Master of International and Comparative Law from the University of Eastern Finland, and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Ilorin (Nigeria). Kolawole also has over 22 years of litigation experience in Nigeria and has represented clients in civil and criminal litigations before all the superior courts in Nigeria, including the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Court of Appeal. In addition to his research, Kolawole also teaches (on a part-time basis) Law and Ethics for Chemical Engineers at the Department of Process and Engineering and Applied Science, Dalhousie University.

Cecilia Engler, LLM, PhD, is a Research Associate with the Marine & Environmental Law Institute at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. Her doctoral thesis work addresses aquaculture governance in the context of the ecosystem approach. Her research interests include the law of the sea, international fisheries, the oceans and climate change regime, the ecosystem approach to oceans management, and ecological law.

She held a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2012-2015; an honorary Izaak Walton Killam Predoctoral Scholarship, 2012-2013; and an Izaak Walton Killam Predoctoral Scholarship 2008-2010, and was awarded the Dalhousie University Governor General’s Gold Medal in Humanities and Social Sciences 2011 for her Master of Laws thesis work. She has also been distinguished with several other academic awards both in Canada and Chile.

She graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad de Concepción, Chile. She worked for the Chilean National Fisheries Service and the Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture from 1998 to 2008. In that capacity, she worked on policy and regulation development for the fisheries and aquaculture sector and on enforcement of fisheries regulations.

Dr. Tahnee Prior the co-founder and co-lead of Women of the Arctic (WoA). Currently, she leads WoA’s research in the Horizon Europe-funded project ICEBERG, which seeks to comprehensively assess the sources, types, distributions and impact of human and climate-induced pollution on ecosystems and communities in the European Arctic; and how to enhance community-led resilience and adaptation in response. Together with her colleague, Gosia Smieszek, Tahnee also co-leads WoA's research contribution to the Horizon 2020 project Arctic PASSION, which aims to co-create and implement an Arctic observing system that is tuned to address the urgent needs of those who live in the Arctic and has relevance to global society. As a Research Associate at MELAW, Tahnee is also a member of the UArctic-funded Ocean Incubator Network (2023-2025) which will bring together experts, local authorities and educational institutions to develop integrated research and education programs with the objective of accelerating Ocean Literacy to advance Sustainable Development Goals 4 (quality education and lifelong learning for all), 5 (gender equality) and 14 (protecting life below water) across Arctic communities.

In 2023, Tahnee completed a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Marine Environmental Law Institute, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests broadly include global environmental governance, international law, complex systems theory, Arctic and oceans governance, and the gender-and-environment nexus.

Research Fellows are graduate students (LLM, PhD) enrolled at the Schulich School of Law with a research interest in the field of marine and/or environmental law. Research Fellows are expected to enrol in the MELAW distribution list, attend MELAW events and participate in program activities. 

Student Research Fellows remain on the list until graduation where they are either removed or relocated to Research Associate.

Bolaji Adeoye is a thesis-based LL.M. student at Schulich Law School, where his research examines barriers to climate change litigation in the Global South and Global North. He holds an LL.B. from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, Nigeria, where his undergraduate thesis explored the structural and constitutional limitations to local government autonomy in Nigeria.

Prior to commencing his LL.M. Studies, Bolaji practised for nearly eight years at a leading law firm in Lagos, Nigeria, where he focused on oil spill litigation. His research interests include International Environmental Law, climate change litigation, arbitration, and the intersection of business and human rights.

Phillip A. Buhler has been practicing maritime law for over thirty years in the United States, representing shipowners, operators, insurers and other commercial interests in many aspects of maritime casualties, environmental issues and regulatory matters. He is a correspondent for most members of the International Group of P&I Clubs. He also serves as an instructor in international and US civil procedure at the Universitat zu Koeln and has taught courses in maritime law and intermodal transportation at the Universitat Hamburg.

Mr. Buhler has served on the Board of Directors of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and as Chair of its International Organizations, Conventions and Standards Committee, during which time he directed a focus towards emerging Polar shipping issues. He is also active in the Comite Maritime International and serves on its Polar Shipping International Working Group and its Antarctica Sub-Committee.

Since Fall, 2019 Mr. Buhler has been a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University, developing his thesis concerning application of non-prescriptive regulatory options to commercial shipping in the Polar regions. He received his BA from the College of William & Mary, his J.D. from the University of Miami, and his LL.M. (Admiralty) from Tulane University. He is Board Certified in Admiralty Law and International Law by the Florida Bar, and is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and a book on maritime and international law issues.

Melika Habibi holds a Master's in international law from the University of Tehran, where her research focused on the conservation, human rights, and Indigenous rights. She also earned a Master’s in Environmental Studies from Dalhousie University, where she explored the legal and policy challenges of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) implementation in Canada. 

As part of her Masters at Dal, she collaborated with the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, and the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law on the Reconciling Indigenous and Crown Law in Conservation project. Her research involved conducting interviews with Indigenous leaders, elders and knowledge holders to develop recommendations for how the Crown can effectively reconcile Indigenous and Crown legal frameworks in conservation governance.

She served as an Environmental Leader for Sipekne’katik First Nation, where she conducted Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and evaluated how development projects impact their Aboriginal and Treaty rights. As part of her role, she also acted as an Environmental Permitting Specialist,  collaborating closely with the community and regulatory bodies to ensure projects complied with environmental laws and Indigenous rights frameworks.

Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at the Schulich School of Law, where her research explores the co-governance of food waste and loss management at the municipal level in Canada. Her work aims to understand the unique role of municipal governments in food waste management within co-governance structures.

Quan Jin is a co-supervised visiting PhD candidate at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. He is a doctoral researcher from the School of Law, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He holds a Master of Law in Environmental and Resources Protection Law from the School of Law, Shanghai Maritime University, where his master’s research focused on corporate environmental information disclosure. He received his bachelor’s degree in Physical Geography and Resources and Environment from the School of Geographic Sciences and Tourism, Xinjiang Normal University. His undergraduate research examined extreme climate change in river basins.

He holds China’s Legal Professional Qualification Certificate (A) and Compliance certification. His current research covers ESG Governance，Greenwashing Governance, Business and Environmental Law, Environmental Administrative Law, Sustainable Investment Law, Climate Change Law, Marine and Shipping Law. 

Iain Thomas is a member of Snuneymuxw First Nation and an LL.M. candidate at the Schulich School of Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from St. Francis Xavier University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Victoria. Before beginning his graduate studies, Iain practised Indigenous and Aboriginal law for several years, advising Indigenous Nations on governance, Aboriginal rights and title, and implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

His research interests include Indigenous and Aboriginal law, Indigenous legal orders, legal pluralism, and UNDRIP implementation. 

Ash Wilkie is an LLM coursework student at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. She was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 2024 and the California Bar in 2025 and is completing the credentialling process to be eligible for admission in Canada.

Before entering law, Ash had a diverse career in human resources, nonprofit leadership, and entrepreneurship—including co-founding Mission: Cats, a boutique cat hotel in San Francisco, and directing camp operations for Girl Scouts of Northern California, where she managed contracts and risk oversight for programs serving over 35,000 youth. Ash holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the Evergreen State College and a master’s degree in human resource management from DeVry University.

Ash returned to academics after a long break, graduating summa cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law. She interned with Michigan Indian Legal Services and Rocket Central, gaining experience in tribal law, contracts, and intellectual property. She recently worked as a research attorney at the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Ash’s academic focus lies in transboundary water law, with broader interests in maritime law, international environmental law, shipping, and trade.

Honorary Fellows are persons recognized for their outstanding contributions in the past to the founding or building of MELAW. Membership through a Faculty Associate nomination and a consensus among Faculty Associate members.  

Honorary Fellows remain on this list indefinitely, subject to periodic review of the membership list or if they decide they no longer want to be on the list.  

Brian Flemming CM, KC, DCL, is Counsel to the Atlantic Canada law firm of McInnes Cooper. He is a non-practising member of the Nova Scotia bar and a former member of the Ontario bar.

In recent years, as a Research Fellow of the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute in Calgary, Dr. Flemming has published articles on Arctic issues, the global war on terror, Canada-China relations in the Arctic, the war in Afghanistan and border security issues involving Canada and the U.S. He has also written papers for the School of Public Policy and the Van Horne Institute at the University of Calgary on national transportation issues.

Dr. Flemming was Assistant Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from 1976 to 1979. After 9/11, the Canadian government made him the first CEO and chairman of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), Canada’s principal public response to 9-11. In 2005, he was appointed to the federal Advisory Council on National Security. In 2000-1, Dr. Flemming chaired the Canada Transportation Act Review Panel, a statutorily-mandated review of Canada’s transport policies. The report of that Panel—“Vision and Balance”—caused Dr. Flemming to be given the national “Award of Achievement” in 2003.

In the mid-1960s, following graduate studies in England and the Netherlands, Dr. Flemming taught the first graduate course in public international law at Dalhousie’s law school and wrote many peer-reviewed articles for learned publications and international conferences. He was a key figure in the establishment of the Dalhousie Ocean Studies Program (DOSP) in the 1970s. He was founding chairman of the International Centre for Ocean Development, a Crown Corporation headquartered in Halifax in the 1980s.

Dr. Flemming is a former member, vice chairman and interim chairman of The Canada Council and is a former director of the CBC. He is honorary chairman of the Dalhousie Law Alumni Association of Canada, having been its founding chairman in 1983. In 2010, he won the Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law. He is a former chairman of the Board of Governors at University of King’s College. He was the founding chairman of Symphony Nova Scotia and has been on the boards of many local, regional and national not-for-profit organizations. He was awarded an honourary degree by Saint Mary's in 2014, given an honourary degree by King’s in 1991 and, in 1989, was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Professor Edgar Gold, CM, AM, KC, grew up and went to sea in Australia but settled in Halifax, Canada, in the early 1960s. He is a former senior partner with the law firm Ritch Durnford in Halifax, where he specialized in maritime,
energy and environmental law and international commercial law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1995. He also served as the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, 1986-1998. He is a former President of the Canadian Maritime Law Association and a Titulary Member of the Comité Maritime International. Dr. Gold is a Master Mariner (UK and Canada) and served at sea for 16 years, including several years in command. He was Professor of Law (1975-1994) and Professor of Resource and Environmental Studies (1986-1994) at Dalhousie University, Halifax. He is a founding member of Dalhousie Law School’s Marine and Environmental Law Institute (formerly MELP).

Professor Gold was a founder and former Executive Director of the Dalhousie Oceans Studies Programme (DOSP), and the International Institute for Transportation and Ocean Policy Studies (IITOPS), the predecessors of the International Oceans Institute of Canada. He was a member of the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board 1996-2003, and a member of the Roster of Experts of the Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines, 2001-2004. He is also a former Adjunct Professor and former Canadian Member of the Board of Governors of the World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden, and a former member of the Governing Board of the IMO-International Maritime Law Institute, Malta. Until the end of 2010 he also held an appointment as Adjunct Professor at the T.C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, where was involved with the School’s Marine and Shipping Law Unit. Professor Gold has active experience in most regions of the world and has completed over 250 publications in the maritime law and policy field. He has received honorary degrees from the Canadian Coast Guard College (1992) and the World Maritime University (2007), and was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the German Government in 1997; the Order of Canada (C.M.) in 1997, and the Order of Australia (A.M.) in 2005. In 2012 he was honoured with the presentation of a ‘Festschrift’ entitled The Regulation of International Shipping: International and Comparative Perspectives—Essays in Honour of Edgar Gold. Professor Gold is now based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Professor Arthur J. Hanson, OC, is a Distinguished Fellow and former President of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). He was a Professor and Director of the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. Prior to that, during the mid-1970s, he worked with the Ford Foundation in Indonesia. Dr. Hanson addresses environment and economy, biodiversity, oceans, and international development concerns globally, in Asia and in Canada. He was one of the founders of the Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme (DOSP) in the 1970s.

He has served on Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and Economy (NRTEE), as Canada’s Ministerial Ocean Ambassador with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and in a number of other national advisory posts. He has initiated several major international development activities in Southeast Asia, and currently is a Member and Lead Expert of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). He is chairing a Working Party on Biotechnology, Sustainable Development and Canada’s Future Economy for the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee. Dr. Hanson is a member of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and a Mentor with the Trudeau Foundation. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Professor Hugh Kindred, who joined the Law School as a faculty member in 1971, continues to research and write in the fields of ocean transportation, overseas trade and international law, as well as to assist with the supervision and examination of LLM and PhD students. He is a member of the bars of Nova Scotia and England as well as a past Chair of the Carriage of Goods Committee of the Canadian Maritime Law Association. He was appointed Senior Legal Officer in the Shipping Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva for 1985-86, and he was the Director of the Marine and Environmental Law Program (MELP) at the Law School during 1996-97 and again in 2001. In 1998 he went as Visiting Professor of maritime law to the University of Sydney, Australia.

Hugh is a member of the editorial boards of the Ocean Yearbook and the Canadian Yearbook of International Law, and he serves as the coordinator of Canadian contributions to the Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts.

In addition to many articles and book chapters on maritime, commercial and international law, Hugh has published Marine Cargo Delays (with Max Ganado), Multimodal Transport Rules (with Dr. Mary Brooks) and Canadian Maritime Law (with Drs. Edgar Gold and Aldo Chircop), which was co-winner of the Walter Owen Book Prize for 2003-05. In 2014, together with Phillip Saunders and Rob Currie, he produced the 8th edition of International Law Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada. Also in 2014 he completed a research project with Steve Coughlan, Rob Currie and Teresa Scassa with the publication of Law Beyond Borders: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in an Age of Globalization.

In 2003 Hugh Kindred was honoured by the Canadian Association of Law teachers with its Award for Academic Excellence and in 2010 he was designated by Dalhousie University as Professor of Law Emeritus.

Moira McConnell

Professor of Law

Dr. Moira L. McConnell is a Professor of Law Emerita and Honorary Fellow of the Marine & Environmental Law Institute (MELAW). She retired from full-time teaching in 2015 but remains engaged in numerous research projects and supervision of masters and doctoral students at the Law School and other departments including the Marine Affairs Programme. In 2015 she was appointed to the UN World Maritime University (WMU) as External Examiner. A former Director of the MELAW she has been a member of the Faculty of Law at Dalhousie University for over 25 years and a member of the Nova Scotia Bar Society since 1990. She has had many important “law in practice” roles in her career including over a decade as a Special Advisor to the ILO in connection with the Maritime Labour Convention,2006. She is also a former Executive Director the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia. Over the last nearly 30 years Professor McConnell has undertaken numerous international, regional and national legal implementation projects related to the law of the sea and to maritime law and remains involved with projects with colleagues in MELAW.

Professor McConnell's research interests are in the fields of public and private international law and domestic law including international law, law of the sea, maritime law and policy, international labour law, environmental law, governance systems, corporate law and governance, administrative and constitutional law, social justice, contract law and human rights. She has over 100 publications in a wide range of topics in these fields. She is also a co-editor of the international interdisciplinary Ocean Yearbook (1998-ff), an Associate Editor of the Yearbook of International Environmental Law (2006-ff), and is on the editorial board of the WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs.

Dawn Russell

Associate Professor Dawn A. Russell practiced law in Halifax for five years with the Atlantic law firm of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales before beginning her career as a law teacher in 1987 as an Assistant Professor. She received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 1992. She served as Acting Dean of Dalhousie Law School from May 1, 1995 to March 31, 1996 and as Dean from April 1, 1996 to June 30, 2005.

Professor Russell is currently the President of St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Wendell Sanford holds degrees from Saint Mary's University (BA and BEd), Dalhousie (LL B) and Victoria University of Wellington, NZ (MPP)

Mr. Sanford has been a career diplomat, international lawyer, and naval officer. Most recently at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development he has been Canadian High Commissioner to Brunei and the first Canadian Representative to the Government of Burma. In Ottawa he has served as Director of Oceans and Environmental Law and Director of Criminal, Diplomatic and Security Law. During his lengthy diplomatic career he has been involved in the negotiation of the UN High Seas Fisheries Convention, Western and Central Pacific Tuna Convention and NAFO reform process. With respect to Canadian Arctic Mr. Sanford held the lead in the legal aspects of extending the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act to 200 nautical miles and the regulation which made compulsory reporting to NORDREG. He held the Foreign Affairs lead in developing the Canadian Extended Continental Shelf Submission for the first two years of the seven year process.

Prior to joining Canada's foreign ministry Mr. Sanford had an extensive naval reserve career including servicing as Staff Officer Naval Control and Shipping at Maritime Command Headquarters in Halifax.

Part-time Faculty members are individuals who teach one or more courses within the MELP program on a part-time basis.

Membership in this category is reviewed and updated annually, with members added or removed as appropriate for each academic year.

Ella Dodson has more than 30 years’ experience representing businesses of all sizes, governments, non-profits, financial institutions, and others with respect to:

• Structuring, negotiating, drafting and closing cross-border contracts and business deals;
• Advising on structure, and a broad range of business issues;
• Researching and drafting maritime and corporate law and policy.

She graduated from Columbia University in New York with an LL.M. in International Law.  She also holds a JD with High Honors from Illinois Institute of Technology-Chicago-Kent College of Law and an AB from Washington University in Saint Louis in Political Science and Asian Studies.

Ms. Dodson is admitted to the New York Bar and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. She is a member of Financing Sounding Board of the Baltic and International Maritime Council.

Further information about her maritime practice may be found at Hill, Betts & Nash LLP.