FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2004
OTTAWA – Catherine Chevrier has been selected from among a field of 48 Canadian legal scholars to be the 2004 recipient of the CBA Viscount Bennett Fellowship for graduate legal studies for the 2004 - 2005 academic term.
The 27 year-old Montréal native received her LL.B. from the Université de Montréal in 2001. Beginning this fall, she will pursue her Masters of Law at Cambridge University in England, where she will specialize in the field of international public law and human rights law. Following her studies, Ms. Chevrier hopes to return to Canada where she will continue to pursue her career in law.
“My interests include the rights of the accused, basic socio-economic rights, the right to equality and questions pertaining to human security. Respect for human dignity is central to my concerns,” says Ms. Chevrier.
While earning her bachelor’s degree, Ms. Chevrier participated in a moot court, representing the Attorney General of Quebec in an environmental law case and arguing the case before a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal.
In 2001, as her third-year research project, she completed a 60 page study of the legal bases for recognition of a right of intervention, titled “Humanitarian Intervention: The State and Law, or the Individual and Ethics?” for which she received the highest possible grade.
In addition to her academic achievements, Ms. Chevrier has clerked for the Honourable Madam Justice Marie Deschamps of the Supreme Court of Canada, and currently practices with McCarthy Tétrault as a young lawyer with the litigation team. She volunteered her time with young children at a Montréal-area hospital and with political parties in municipal, provincial, and federal elections. She has also traveled throughout Europe and into Egypt.
The fellowship was established under the terms of a trust by former Prime Minister and CBA President Viscount Bennett. The first fellowship was awarded in 1946. Valued at $25,000, the fellowship is awarded annually to a Canadian student to encourage high standards of legal education, training and ethics.
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 38,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
-30-
CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, 500 - 865 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5S8 Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org
