Media Releases

Stephen Toope — international law scholar — named Director of U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs

January 22, 2014

TORONTO, ON – Pro­fes­sor Stephen J. Toope, a not­ed inter­na­tion­al law schol­ar and uni­ver­si­ty leader, has been named the new Direc­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs.

“The Munk School has built a rep­u­ta­tion around the world for its thought­ful and insight­ful exam­i­na­tion of inter­na­tion­al issues,” said Toope. “I look for­ward to join­ing its out­stand­ing researchers and stu­dents in work­ing to under­stand and tack­le glob­al prob­lems.”

Toope, who will assume his new posi­tion on Jan­u­ary 1, 2015, is cur­rent­ly Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia, a posi­tion he has held since 2006.

“We are delight­ed to have a schol­ar and aca­d­e­m­ic leader of Pro­fes­sor Toope’s stature tak­ing over as direc­tor at the Munk School,” said Mer­ic Gertler, Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.  “I know he will con­tin­ue the School’s proud tra­di­tion of world-lead­ing work on glob­al affairs.”

Gertler also thanked Jan­ice Stein, who has direct­ed the Munk School since its incep­tion in 2000 and will con­tin­ue in that role until Toope begins his term.  “Jan­ice Stein is right­ful­ly rec­og­nized as one of the world’s lead­ing thinkers on inter­na­tion­al issues,” said Gertler.  “Her aca­d­e­m­ic rigour is matched only by her tire­less com­mit­ment to being part of a well-informed pub­lic dis­cus­sion of glob­al issues.”

Toope rep­re­sent­ed West­ern Europe and North Amer­i­ca on the UN Work­ing Group on Enforced or Invol­un­tary Dis­ap­pear­ances from 2002–2007.  He con­tin­ues to con­duct research on many aspects of inter­na­tion­al law and is cur­rent­ly work­ing on issues of con­ti­nu­ity and change in inter­na­tion­al law, and the ori­gins of inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tion in inter­na­tion­al soci­ety. His most recent book, with U of T Fac­ul­ty of Law’s Asso­ciate Dean (Grad­u­ate) Jut­ta Brun­née, is Legit­i­ma­cy and Legal­i­ty in Inter­na­tion­al Law: An Inter­ac­tion­al Account, which won the Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Inter­na­tion­al Law’s 2011 Cer­tifi­cate of Mer­it for Cre­ative Schol­ar­ship.

Pri­or to join­ing UBC, Toope was Pres­i­dent of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foun­da­tion, a posi­tion he held since 2002. The Foun­da­tion is an inde­pen­dent, pri­vate, and non-par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tion cre­at­ed to pro­mote out­stand­ing research and inter­ac­tion between researchers in the social sci­ences and human­i­ties and the wider soci­ety. From 1994–1999, he served as the dean of McGill University’s Fac­ul­ty of Law. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he served as Law Clerk to the Rt. Hon. Chief Jus­tice Dick­son of the Supreme Court of Cana­da from 1986–1987.

A Cana­di­an cit­i­zen, Pro­fes­sor Toope earned his PhD from Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Cam­bridge (1987), his degrees in com­mon law (LLB) and civ­il law (BCL) with hon­ours from McGill Uni­ver­si­ty (1983), and grad­u­at­ed magna cum laude with his AB in His­to­ry and Lit­er­a­ture from Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty (1979).

-30-

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Media Rela­tions Office
416–978-0100
Media.relations@utoronto.ca
@UofTnews