Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Biography

Shelley A.M. Gavigan is a Full Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School and member of the Graduate Faculties in Law, Socio-Legal Studies, and Women’s Studies at York University. Following graduation from law school in 1975, she articled in a rural-based community legal clinic, was called to the Bar in 1976,  and continued to practise in Saskatchewan, as a legal clinic lawyer.  Appointed to the faculty of the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University in 1984, she joined the Osgoode faculty in 1986.  She has held appointments as Associate Dean and as Academic Director of Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Her publications include Hunger, Horses, and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905 (UBC Press & The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2012); “Something Old, Something New? Re-theorizing Patriarchal Relations and Privatization from the Outskirts of Family Law” (2012) 13 Theoretical Inquiries in Law 271; The Legal Tender of Gender:  Welfare Law and the Regulation of Women’s Poverty, Shelley A.M. Gavigan & Dorothy E. Chunn, eds. (Hart, 2010); The Politics of Abortion with Jane Jenson and Janine Brodie (OUP, 1992); and, several articles informed by feminist, socio-legal, and historical perspectives on the legal regulation of familial relations, lesbian parenting, welfare law, abortion and access to justice. Shelley A.M. Gavigan is a Full Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School and member of the Graduate Faculties in Law, Socio-Legal Studies, and Women’s Studies at York University. Following graduation from law school in 1975, she articled in a rural-based community legal clinic, was called to the Bar in 1976,  and continued to practise in Saskatchewan, as a legal clinic lawyer.  Appointed to the faculty of the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University in 1984, she joined the Osgoode faculty in 1986.  She has held appointments as Associate Dean and as Academic Director of Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Her publications include Hunger, Horses, and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905 (UBC Press & The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2012); “Something Old, Something New? Re-theorizing Patriarchal Relations and Privatization from the Outskirts of Family Law” (2012) 13 Theoretical Inquiries in Law 271; The Legal Tender of Gender:  Welfare Law and the Regulation of Women’s Poverty, Shelley A.M. Gavigan & Dorothy E. Chunn, eds. (Hart, 2010); The Politics of Abortion with Jane Jenson and Janine Brodie (OUP, 1992); and, several articles informed by feminist, socio-legal, and historical perspectives on the legal regulation of familial relations, lesbian parenting, welfare law, abortion and access to justice.

Research Interest

Research Interests: Socio-Legal Studies, Legal History, Criminal Law, Feminist Legal Studies, Family Law, Clinical Education