Jamie Cassels

Biography

 Jamie Cassels, QC, is the president of the University of Victoria. His five-year term began July 1, 2013, and he has been reappointed to a second five-year term effective July 1, 2018. President Cassels was UVic's vice-president academic and provost (VPAC) from 2001-10 and before that served as dean of the Faculty of Law. As VPAC, Prof. Cassels was responsible for the quality and development of all academic programs, long-range academic planning, enrolment management and the student experience, integrated planning across the university, and the recruitment and retention of faculty. More than 50 per cent of UVic’s current faculty members were hired during his term. He served for two terms in this position, receiving a 95 per cent approval in a faculty ratification ballot for his second term.

Research Interest

 President Cassels is a recipient of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship—Canada's highest award for university teaching. He is also a two-time winner of UVic Law's master teacher award; recipient of the UVic Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award; and winner of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for his exceptional contributions to research and law teaching. On his return to the faculty after 10 years as provost, Cassels received the First Year Teaching Award for 2012-13. Prof. Cassels' areas of research expertise include remedies, legal theory, contracts, and torts. Other interests include environmental issues, law and society in India, and race and gender issues in the law of tort. Among Prof. Cassels' publications are: The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal (1993) about the environmental and human cost of the devastating 1984 explosion at a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, and its aftermath; and Remedies: The Law of Damages (2000; second edition with Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, 2008). These works and his numerous academic articles are widely cited in both the academic literature and courts across the country.