Sébastien Jodoin

Biography

Professor Sébastien Jodoin holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Human Rights, Health, and the Environment. He is also a member of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and an Associate Member of the Bieler School of Environment, the McGill Institute of Health and Social Policy, and the Max Bell School of Public Policy. His research focuses on three broad themes: the relationship between human rights and the climate crisis; transnational and comparative climate law and policy; and the role of disability rights in addressing complex environmental and health issues and challenges. He is the founding director of the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Program (DICARP), a pioneering initiative to generate, co-produce, and translate knowledge at the intersections of disability and climate justice.

Professor Jodoin is the author of Forest Preservation in a Changing Climate: REDD+ and Indigenous and Community Rights in Indonesia and Tanzania (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance (Routledge, 2018). He is widely published in top-ranked journals in law and the social sciences and his work has been cited by international organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In his capacity as a faculty member living with multiple sclerosis, he serves as the co-chair for McGill University’s Joint Board-Senate Subcommittee on Persons with Disabilities.

Professor Jodoin holds a Ph.D. in environmental studies from Yale University, an M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge, an LL.M. in international law from the London School of Economics, and B.C.L. and LL.B. degrees from McGill University. He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Transnational Environmental Law Fifth Anniversary Issue Prize, the 2012 Public Scholar Award from the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, a Doctoral Scholarship from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities and Research Council of Canada, and a Public Interest Law Articling Fellowship from the Law Foundation of Ontario. Prior to his appointment at McGill University, he worked for Amnesty International Canada, the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and the Canadian Centre for International Justice.

Education

• Yale University – PhD in Environmental Studies, 2015
• University of Cambridge – MPhil in International Relations, 2009
• London School of Economics – LLM, 2006
• McGill University, Faculty of Law – BCL/LLB, 2005

Employment

• McGill University, Faculty of Law – Associate Professor, 2021-
• Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Human Rights, Health, and the Environment, October 2019 - September 2024
• McGill University, Faculty of Law – Assistant Professor, 2014-2021
• Centre for International Sustainable Development Law – Fellow/Lead Counsel, 2005-2014
• Canadian Centre for International Justice – Fellow, 2010-2012
• Amnesty International Canada – Articling Student, 2009-2010
• United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia – Legal Researcher/Associate Legal Officer, 2006-2009

Areas of Interest

Sustainable development, transnational law, public policy, environmental law and governance, climate change, human rights, disability, social innovation, and socio-legal research.

Recent Publications

• Sébastien Jodoin, Nilani Ananthamoorthy & Katherine Lofts, “A Disability Rights Approach to Climate Governance” (2020) 47(1) Ecology Law Quarterly 73-116 (Full-text pdf).
• Sébastien Jodoin, Shannon Snow & Arielle Corobow, “Realizing the Right to Be Cold? Framing Processes and Outcomes associated with the 2005 Inuit Petition on Human Rights and Global Warming” (2020) 54(1) Law & Society Review 168-200 (link).
• Sébastien Duyck, Sébastien Jodoin, Alyssa Johl, Eds. Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance (Routledge 2018).
• Sébastien Jodoin, Forest Preservation in a Changing Climate: REDD+ and Indigenous and Community Rights in Indonesia and Tanzania (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017) (open-access version or visit the publisher's website).

For a complete and updated list of publications, visit: sjodoin.ca/publications