top of page

Democratization of knowledge

Design sans titre (20).png

Pascale Fournier holds legal knowledge to be a common good. A law that only jurists understand is a law that protects poorly. This is why her work moves across three registers that speak to one another: the classroom, the public forum and the scholarly publication. 

Teaching

A professor in the Civil Law Section at the University of Ottawa since 2007, she teaches, among other things:

  • Rights and freedoms (DRC 2509)

  • Human and Family Law (DRC 4392)

  • Problems in Constitutional Law (CML 4110 / DCL 5304)

  • Law and social change (CML 3351 / DCL 7033)

  • Critical Theories of Law (DCL 5737 / CML 4510)

  • Contemporary legal issues (DCL 5535)

  • Legal presentation seminar: freedom of religion and conflict of rights (DRC 3500)

  • Comparative Human Rights: A Field Approach, co-taught with UN expert Ibrahim Salama, part of which takes place in Geneva at the heart of the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms.

 

This commitment to teaching has earned her the Capital Educators' Award from the Ottawa Network for Education (2016), the "Honour and Merit" distinction from the State University of Haiti (2007) and a nomination for the John W. Durnford Prize for Teaching Excellence in Law at McGill. 

The conferences

Over 120 lectures delivered in Europe, the Middle East, Central America and North America, including:

  • “Law, Secularism and Gender: Voices from the Field”, Lauterpacht Center for International Law, University of Cambridge (2018)

  • “Regulating Bodies & State Recognition: Jewish and Muslim Women in Contested Spaces in the West”, keynote lecture, Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt University (2017)

  • “Inventing our social contract together”, opening address for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, College of the Royal Society of Canada (2017)

  • “God is Emancipation to You, To me He is Oppression: Secularism, Gender and the State”, Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, New York (2016)

  • “The Rule of Law and Religion: Two Irreconcilable Visions?”, Divisional Assembly of the Superior Court of Quebec, National Judicial Institute, Château Montebello (2015)

  • “Mediation in the Lebanese Legal System: a Comparative View from Palestine”, UNRWA, Beirut (2013)

  • “Teaching across Systems and Borders”, Global Legal Education Forum, Harvard Law School (2012)

  • “The Relationship between Gender and Islamic Law”, United Nations Development Programme, New York (2008)

  • “Haitian women, discrimination and international women’s rights”, Port-au-Prince Bar Association and Haitian Women Lawyers Initiative Group (2007)

  • The 50th anniversary of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, University of Ottawa (2026)

The 50th Anniversary of Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms 

​

Far more than a commemoration, the day brought together jurists, practitioners, researchers and students to reflect on what the Charter made possible, the limits it met and the challenges ahead, with student panels, an immersive experience on Indigenous languages and identities, a moot court competition and a closing concert, supported by SSHRC, the Alex Trebek Forum, the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, Lawyers Without Borders Canada and Grey Casgrain. 

Publications

teaching

A professor in the Civil Law Section at the University of Ottawa since 2007, she teaches, among other things:

  • Rights and freedoms (DRC 2509)

  • Human and Family Law (DRC 4392)

  • Problems in Constitutional Law (CML 4110 / DCL 5304)

  • Law and social change (CML 3351 / DCL 7033)

  • Critical Theories of Law (DCL 5737 / CML 4510)

  • Contemporary legal issues (DCL 5535)

  • Legal presentation seminar: freedom of religion and conflict of rights (DRC 3500)

  • Comparative Human Rights: A Field Approach, co-taught with UN expert Ibrahim Salama, part of which takes place in Geneva at the heart of the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms.

This pedagogical commitment earned him the Ottawa Network for Education Capital Teaching Excellence Award (2016), the "Honour and Merit" designation from the State University of Haiti (2007) and a nomination for the John W. Durnford Award for Excellence in Legal Teaching at McGill.

teaching

A professor in the Civil Law Section at the University of Ottawa since 2007, she teaches, among other things:

  • Rights and freedoms (DRC 2509)

  • Human and Family Law (DRC 4392)

  • Problems in Constitutional Law (CML 4110 / DCL 5304)

  • Law and social change (CML 3351 / DCL 7033)

  • Critical Theories of Law (DCL 5737 / CML 4510)

  • Contemporary legal issues (DCL 5535)

  • Legal presentation seminar: freedom of religion and conflict of rights (DRC 3500)

  • Comparative Human Rights: A Field Approach, co-taught with UN expert Ibrahim Salama, part of which takes place in Geneva at the heart of the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms.

This pedagogical commitment earned him the Ottawa Network for Education Capital Teaching Excellence Award (2016), the "Honour and Merit" designation from the State University of Haiti (2007) and a nomination for the John W. Durnford Award for Excellence in Legal Teaching at McGill.

teaching

A professor in the Civil Law Section at the University of Ottawa since 2007, she teaches, among other things:

  • Rights and freedoms (DRC 2509)

  • Human and Family Law (DRC 4392)

  • Problems in Constitutional Law (CML 4110 / DCL 5304)

  • Law and social change (CML 3351 / DCL 7033)

  • Critical Theories of Law (DCL 5737 / CML 4510)

  • Contemporary legal issues (DCL 5535)

  • Legal presentation seminar: freedom of religion and conflict of rights (DRC 3500)

  • Comparative Human Rights: A Field Approach, co-taught with UN expert Ibrahim Salama, part of which takes place in Geneva at the heart of the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms.

This pedagogical commitment earned him the Ottawa Network for Education Capital Teaching Excellence Award (2016), the "Honour and Merit" designation from the State University of Haiti (2007) and a nomination for the John W. Durnford Award for Excellence in Legal Teaching at McGill.

Two books and 85 scientific publications. A selection:

  • "Mariages musulmans, tribunaux d'Occident: les transplantations juridiques et le regard du droit", Presses de Sciences Po, Paris, 2013

  • "Muslim Marriage in Western Courts: Lost in Transplantation," Ashgate Publishing, 2010

  • "Droit et culture: une approche distributive de l'identité," McGill Law Journal, 2018

  • "Reframing Secularist Premises: Divorce Among Traditionalist Muslim and Jewish Women within the Secular State," with Jacques Berlinerblau, Secularism and Nonreligion, 2018

  • "Family Law, State Recognition and Intersecting Spheres/Spaces: Jewish and Muslim Women Divorcing in the United Kingdom," in Culture in the Domains of Law, Cambridge University Press, 2017

  • "Le droit comparé et la violence faite aux femmes: voyages au cœur de la narration identitaire," with Pascal McDougall, Droit et société, 2014

  • "False Jurisdictions? A Revisionist Take on Customary (Religious) Law in Germany," Texas International Law Journal, 2013

  • "Calculating Claims: Jewish and Muslim Women Navigating Religion, Economics and Law in Canada," International Journal of Law in Context, 2012

  • "Flirting with God in Western Secular Courts: Mahr in the West," International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 2010, award-winning article in the Quebec Bar Foundation competition

  • "The Relationship between Gender and Islamic Law: a Comparative Study of Malaysia, Nigeria, Tunisia and Egypt," report for the United Nations Development Programme, 2008

Every great initiative begins with a conversation.

672994737_18073454699646382_1909664662263791108_n.jpg

pascale.fournier@uottawa.ca

  • White LinkedIn Icon
  • White Facebook Icon
  • White Instagram Icon

©2026 by Pascale Fournier 

« Democratizing knowledge means cultivating a real impact on populations who, in turn, generate social change. » 

bottom of page