FACULTY PROFILES / INCOMING FACULTY
Efrat Arbel Assistant Professor, joined the faculty in 2014
E
f r at Arbe l’ s fi r st year at the Allard School of Law has placed her in the thick of the life of an activist law professor. In addition to a full load of teaching and research, she is helping litigate a constitutional challenge in Doctors for Refugee Care, et al v Canada as a member of the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.
28 Allard School of Law Alumni Magazine Spring 2015
The challenge is in reaction to government cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program, a program that provides basic healthcare benefits to refugees. Last summer, the Federal Court said the cuts amount to “cruel and unusual treatment,” and declared them unconstitutional. When the government appealed, Arbel assembled a group of Allard
JD student researchers to assist with the case, and got to work. After growing up in Vancouver, Arbel completed a BA at McGill University and a JD at UBC. She completed her LLM and SJD studies at Harvard Law School. Before joining as Assistant Professor in 2014, she held a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship at the Allard School of Law from 2012 to 2014, as well as visiting appointments at the Oxford Centre for Criminology and the European University Institute. Arbel’s work spans several fields of law, with a strong interest in social justice at the core. Her book project, for example, looks at constitutional law from a unique perspective drawing on three other fields of legal study: refugee law, prison law, and Aboriginal law. “By bringing these fields into conversation,” she says, “I analyze the limits and possibilities of Canadian constitutional protection. I believe these fields are where these limits and possibilities are tested.” Alongside her research in the field, Arbel teaches constitutional law at the law school, and says teaching is one of the best parts of her job. “The calibre of students at Allard is so high,” she says. “I have really enjoyed working with both JD and graduate students.” She also teaches torts, a field not typically associated with social justice. Yet Arbel sees tort law as a potential tool for progressive change. This summer, with the support of a research grant from the Law Foundation of BC, she will be exploring how tort law can address the misuse of solitary confinement. Arbel returns to the Allard School of Law as a graduate of UBC’s JD program, and her interest in social justice issues is one of the things that drew her back after completing graduate studies in the US. “I was thrilled to join Allard not only because of the many strengths of this faculty and its students, but also for the opportunity to work with Vancouver’s legal community, a community that is engaged with justice issues that are particularly meaningful to me.” “UBC is where I first developed an interest in justice issues,” said Arbel. “It is a privilege to join a faculty that is so engaged in the life of the law in this city, this country, and around the world. It is great to be home,” she said.