Research Excellence: Lincoln Alexander Law ranks #2 in Canada

A robust academic research program is rarely built on a single factor. More often, it emerges from a well-aligned ecosystem. At its core, outstanding scholarship relies on the creativity and rigour of its researchers, but this alone isn’t enough. Institutional support, including funding, research infrastructure, and administrative leadership, creates the conditions for this work to flourish. Equally important are the often less visible forms of support - editorial, technical, and communications expertise - that help translate complex ideas into accessible, impactful outputs.

At Lincoln Alexander Law, faculty say all of these factors contribute to the law school’s steadily growing research prowess. Since launching in 2020, the law school's research ecosystem has taken shape through key initiatives, including the Justice & Technology Initiative (JTI) and the International Law and Global Justice (ILGJ) Initiative, which bring dozens of faculty and students together in meaningful collaboration. In February, Times Higher Education ranked the law school second in Canada for research quality and among the top 250 law schools globally.

“What is unique about the law school is that organically, colleagues have been able to come together to create research clusters,” says Uchechukwu Ngwaba, associate professor and co-founder of the International Law & Global Justice (ILGJ) Initiative. Other co-founders of the ILGJ (previously known as the International Law Group) include Prof. Jennifer Orange and Dr. Chile Eboe Osuji, who formerly served as the President of the International Criminal Court and as a Distinguished International Jurist at Lincoln Alexander Law.

Another one of the strengths at Lincoln Alexander Law is that the research is “backed by a strong communications strategy”, says Sari Graben, Associate Dean of Research & Graduate Studies and Professor. “It can be difficult as a faculty member to both focus on your work and effectively showcase it, beyond a LinkedIn post or conference presentation,” she explains. The university and law school’s library and communications teams provide critical logistical and communication support so that research is disseminated through repositories, workshops, panel discussions and other events. The law school also highlights ongoing research under theme-focused initiatives, she explains. 

Public events boost Lincoln Alexander Law’s research impact and relevance

Lincoln Alexander Law regularly hosts events that bring together the voices of diverse faculty on matters of critical importance. For example, shortly after the re-election of President Donald Trump, the ILGJ held an event called Trump’s Challenge to International Law and Canada. Ngwaba explains that the event allowed faculty to translate their research to on-the-ground realities and strengthen understanding of how legal communities could respond to Trump’s transgressions.

Other examples of faculty and student research events at Lincoln Alexander Law have included a student-led public education seminar series on the legal issues related to in vitro fertilization and egg freezing in association with the law school’s Fertility Justice Project, and a panel discussion that explored themes of alternative dispute resolution from the novel Women Talking and its film adaptation. The latter event, which was hosted in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), featured Lincoln Alexander Law’s Prof. Jennifer Orange and then-law student Sabrina Khela, along with Academy award-winning screenwriter and director Sarah Polley and celebrated author Miriam Toews. “It was pretty dreamy for us,” says Orange, who also worked with Khela on a related paper that was published last year in the Canadian Journal of Law and Equality. More recently, the pair co-hosted Imagining Feminist Dispute Resolution, a two-day conference which convened Canadian and international scholars to examine how feminist frameworks can reshape dispute resolution and better respond to gender-based violence and discrimination.

These events foster a powerful two-way exchange: they bring research into public conversations while also allowing scholars to learn from practitioners and others who want to improve the justice system. “When we engage with people where they are about their own experiences, and learn from them about how we can make law more responsive to their experiences, then I think we will do a better job in the legal community of keeping the public trust,” explains Orange.

Beyond panels, conferences and workshops, faculty share their work in other innovative ways, too. For example, the ILGJ has a blog where faculty can publish their research findings in a more timely and accessible manner than peer-reviewed journals allow. In addition, Ngwaba hosts a weekly global health radio show that airs in Nigeria and explores issues ranging from the potential to unite African health systems to addressing systemic discrimination in global health practices.

A culture of collaboration and generosity 

Lincoln Alexander Law’s research environment is also defined by a strong culture of collaboration. Research initiatives like the ILGJ create spaces where faculty and students with shared interests can exchange ideas, develop projects, and provide feedback on early-stage research and grant applications.

“It provides a home for exchanging ideas with colleagues who have a lot of respect for the work we do, and essentially a platform to learn about what others are doing,” says Ngwaba. Regular meetings foster collaboration, spark new ideas, and support the refinement of research in progress.

“While many academic departments can be known for ‘institutional beefs’ due to differences in schools of thought among faculty”, as Ngwaba describes it, the faculty at Lincoln Alexander Law was determined to build something different from the outset six years ago. “We are starting out together, not just faculty but also staff, and we’re deeply invested in the reputation of the law school,” explains Graben, whose own research examines how law constructs and responds to contested forms of collective identity, with a particular focus on Indigenous peoples and on Jewish communities in Canada. “As a school, we are consciously striving to foster a generosity of spirit in relation to research. We don’t always have to agree about the content in order to champion each other and build a strong research culture.”

Orange says that Graben has been a key driver of that generosity of spirit. “She has been hugely supportive of me, she has reviewed grant applications and provided really good advice on how to get financial support for my research,” she says. Orange also credits the library personnel. “They work with us from the very beginning of a research concept to ensure that we have all the sources that we need and that our argument is logical. They’re brilliant and interested in innovative new ways to do legal research,” she says. 

The diversity of Lincoln Alexander Law’s student body further strengthens these efforts. As Orange notes, “the fact that we’re attracting law students who have all kinds of backgrounds and experiences really enriches our work.” For example, Khela’s master’s in literature proved to be invaluable to their project analyzing dispute resolution themes in Women Talking.

“The research culture here is special, because we all came here to do something a little different,” says Orange. “People are expanding the boundaries of what legal research is and we are all excited to learn about the different projects that our colleagues are engaged in.”