Junior Fellow Lecture Series: Rethinking the Boundaries of Law
What if law is not only statutes and rules, but also the standards, practices, and principles that guide how we live together? Inspired by Professor John Borrows’ expansive view of law, this Junior Fellow Lecture explores how diverse domains—music, Indigenous legal traditions, and health—illuminate law’s deeper dimensions. Evan Tanovich considers how the conventions and norms that make music mutually intelligible echo the structures of legal reasoning. Peter Bo Zhang examines Anishinaabe understandings of animals as legal actors, treaty partners, and kin, reframing personhood and obligation. Noor Pannu will discuss Law & Health. Together, these perspectives reveal law as a living, interdisciplinary practice that exceeds cases and codes, offering new ways of thinking about justice, culture, and community.
Moderated by: John Borrows B.A., M.A., J.D., LL.M. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, York, SFU, Queen’s & Law Society of Ontario), D.H.L, (Hons., Toronto), D.Litt. (Hons., Waterloo), F.R.S.C., O.C., is the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto Law School. His publications include, Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (Donald Smiley Award best book in Canadian Political Science, 2002), Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (Canadian Law and Society Best Book Award 2011), Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide (2010), Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism ((Donald Smiley Award best book in Canadian Political Science, 2016), The Right Relationship (with Michael Coyle, ed.), Resurgence and Reconciliation (with Michael Asch, Jim Tully, eds.), Law’s Indigenous Ethics (2020 Best subsequent Book Award from Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, 2020 W. Wes Pue Best book award from the Canadian Law and Society Association). He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts, the 2020 Governor General’s Innovation Award, and the 2021 Canadian Bar Association President’s Award winner. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020. John is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
With presentations from: Evan Tanovich is a Juris Doctor candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a Junior Fellow of Massey College. He holds a Master of Arts in Music Theory and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. His research examines the intersection of law and music. In particular, he investigates how understanding music as a form of law can open avenues for interdisciplinary learning, inspire new pedagogical approaches, and help music students convey the transferable skills they hold as emerging professionals.
Noor Pannu is a Global Professional Masters of Law (in the Canadian Law in Global Context concentration) Candidate at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. She is an award-winning health policy researcher, who graduated from UofT with an HBSc in Global Health and Physiology. Her research interests critically examine the intersection of biomedical sexual dimorphism in cardiovascular disease presentation and the social foundations of women’s health, through a social justice lens – and how they play out within the power hierarchies and legal structures of a nation. Through her social media initiatives and leadership roles, she prioritizes accessible dissemination of her research, and tearing down barriers to knowledge and accessing care for vulnerable minorities.
Peter Bo Zhang is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto and a Junior Fellow at Massey College. His research explores human–animal–environment relations through the lenses of law, history, anthropology, science and technology studies, and religion. His work has been published or is forthcoming with Columbia University Press, University of California Press, Brill, and Springer Nature. He has a BA in History from McGill University and an MPhil in Global History from the University of Cambridge.
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