Photo courtesy of CBA
The University of Alberta's Faculty of Law is very pleased to offer its special congratulations to our colleague Professor Catherine Bell on her selection by the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) as the recipient of the nationally prestigious Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Law for 2012, for her outstanding contributions to legal scholarship in Canada.
The award, established by the then Governor General of Canada, acknowledges Professor Catherine Bell's innovative research and teaching of Aboriginal Law, but also the profound impact her work has had in the everyday lives of Aboriginal peoples.
"Professor Bell is an exemplary scholar who is considered a pioneer in the field of aboriginal law. Her innovative research and teaching has had a profound impact on not only the study and practice of aboriginal law, but also on the everyday lives of Aboriginal Peoples," said CBA President Trinda L. Ernst, Q.C., of Kentville, N.S.
"This is a significant honour to me personally, and also for those of us who work in the field of aboriginal legal issues, to have work and scholarship in the area of Aboriginal Constitutional Rights be given national recognition," said Professor Catherine Bell. "The value and utility of my work is not just the result of my efforts but also of those who have worked collaboratively with me on Indigenous Rights."
Dean Philip Bryden, Wilbur Fee Bowker Professor of Law and Dean at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law, and one of Professor Bell's nominators, expressed the delight of the U of A Faculty of Law at Professor Bell's selection by the CBA as the 2012 recipient of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Law. "This award recognizes Professor Catherine Bell's exceptional contribution to the study and practice of aboriginal law in Canada," said Dean Bryden. "Professor Bell is a valued colleague who brings to the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law exceptional breadth and depth of experience as an academic, and lawyer, in the field of aboriginal law, and is renowned for her dedication to legal education."
A law graduate of the University of Saskatchewan and the University of British Columbia, Prof. Bell has dedicated her career to the study and teaching of aboriginal law. Her work has concentrated on collaborative legal research, the legal protection of First Nations heritage and culture, and Métis rights.
Catherine Bell is a Professor of Law at the University of Alberta specializing in Aboriginal legal issues, dispute resolution, property law, cultural heritage law, and interdisciplinary community based legal research. Bell describes her work as trying to understand the diverse legal systems present in Canada - helping to interpret indigenous law surrounding cultural artefacts for Canadian museums, training aboriginal lawyers to understand the relationship between their laws and the Constitution, and encouraging aboriginal groups to use their own legal traditions in self-government. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Niigata (Japan), University of Victoria, and the Program of Legal Studies for Native People (University of Saskatchewan). Catherine Bell has also been a visiting professor at the Akitsiraq Law School for Inuit students in Nunavut, and was a founding faculty member for the school which caters to mature students, leaders in their communities whose families and mortgages prevented them from training in southern law schools. For several years she also served as a lead faculty member for the Banff Center for Management Aboriginal Leadership and Self-Government Program.
She is the recipient of numerous major research grants, has been nominated for teaching awards, and has recently been honoured with the Aboriginal Justice Award and a McCalla Professorship. Professor Bell is published widely on Métis and First Nation legal and policy issues and has acted as an advisor to First Nation, Canadian government, and Métis organizations. She is also the author of two books on the Métis settlements of Alberta and co-editor of, and contributing author to Intercultural Dispute Resolution in Aboriginal Contexts (with David Kahane); First Nations' Cultural Heritage and Law: Case Studies, Voices and Perspectives (with Val Napoleon); and First Nations' Cultural Heritage and Law: Reconciliation and Reform (with Bob Paterson).
Professor Bell engages students from the University of Alberta and abroad in her research. Current research programs include a legal history project on Métis constitutional rights in Alberta (with Dr. Nathalie Kermoal) funded in part by the Province of Alberta and SSHRC and an international MCRI concerned with intellectual products of cultural heritage, including rights and interests of indigenous peoples.
Under the terms set by the former Governor General in 1993, one award is made annually to recognize outstanding contribution to the law in Canada. Past winners of the CBA's Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Law include Professor Paul-André Crépeau, Professor Martin L. Friedland, Dean Emeritus George F. Curtis, Former Chief Justice of Newfoundland, Noel Goodrich, Sénateur l'hon. Gérald-A. Beaudoin, the Honourable Charles Dubin, Dr. Ronald St. John Macdonald, Former Québec Chief Justice Lawrence Poitras, L'hon. Jean-Luc Dutil, Juge de la Cour du Québec, and Albert J. McClean of Vancouver, Dean Peter Wardell Hogg of Toronto (2003), Justice Jean-Louis Baudouin of Montréal (2004), J.P.S. McLaren of Victoria (2005), Professor Constance Backhouse of Ottawa (2006), the Hon. John Gomery of Montreal (2007), A. Alan Borovoy of Toronto (2008, the Hon. Roy McMurtry, O.C., O.Ont., Q.C. (Toronto, ON), Professor Roderick A. Macdonald (Montreal, QC) and Prof. Ronald C.C. Cuming (Saskatoon, SK).
The medallion, designed under the direction of Rideau Hall, was presented to Professor Catherine Bell at the Canadian Bar Association Council Awards Luncheon on Saturday, August 11, 2012, at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to support for the rule of law, and improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
On behalf of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law faculty and staff, we would like to offer our warmest congratulations once again to Professor Catherine Bell on this prestigious honour.
Links to CBA website: http://www.cba.org/cba/, and CBA Media Release: http://www.cba.org/CBA/News/2012_Releases/2012-08-10-hnatyshyn-eng.aspx
For more information:
Katherine Thompson
Communications and Events Coordinator
Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
780- 492-3296; lawcomm@ualberta.ca