For Immediate Release
June 30, 2006
OTTAWA – Erin Shaw has been selected from among a field of 42 Canadian legal scholars to be the 2006 recipient of the Canadian Bar Association Viscount Bennett Fellowship for graduate legal studies for the 2006-2007 academic term.
The 29 year-old Ottawa native received her LL.B. and B.C.L. degrees from McGill in 2003. Beginning this fall, she will pursue a Master’s degree in law at Cambridge University in England, where she hopes to focus her research on extradition, international judicial cooperation, and mutual assistance in criminal matters in the context of national security and anti-terrorism investigations and prosecutions.
“The July 2005 terrorist attacks have forced English legislators and the judiciary to confront squarely the question of the appropriate balance between rights and freedoms and security,” says Ms. Shaw. “Cambridge has developed world-renowned expertise in comparative and international law, and has an extensive law library collection.”
Her law school courses focused on international, comparative and trans-national law, and included a judicial clerkship at the Quebec Court of Appeal. Ms. Shaw also clerked at the Ontario Court of Appeal, where she conducted research in criminal law, and comparative law in relation to constitutional and human rights, tort law, the law of equity and international litigation.
Called to the Ontario Bar in 2005, Ms. Shaw worked as legal counsel at the Arar Inquiry – Policy Review. Ms. Shaw has gained concrete experience in the field of national security law and practice, experience she will invest in making a practical contribution to international legal cooperation in the national security context. Ms. Shaw is currently working as an Assistant Crown Attorney in Toronto.
The Canadian Bar Association 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 36,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org.
