David Schneiderman

Professor of Law and Political Science

University of Toronto

David Schneiderman is Professor of Law and Political Science (courtesy) at the University of Toronto where he teaches courses on Canadian, US, and comparative constitutional law and international investment law. He has been visiting Professor of Law at numerous universities, including University of Stockholm, Georgetown University, and Columbia University. He is the author of over 80 articles and book chapters and, in addition, the author or editor of over a dozen books, among them Freedom of Expression and the Charter (1991), Constitutionalizing Economic Globalization: Investment Rules and Democracy's Promise (Cambridge UP 2008), Red, White and Kind of Blue? The Conservatives and the Americanization of Canadian Constitutional Culture (U Toronto, 2015) and Investment Law’s Alibis: Colonialism, Imperialism, Debt and Development (Cambridge UP, 2022).

Blog October 18, 2024

What if Charter Values Mattered?

Universities have property rights. Are they entitled, as a consequence, to exclude others at will? Are property rights, especially those exercised by public institutions like universities, different from homeowners or shop owners?

David Schneiderman

Freedom of Expression & Its Limits

Blog September 26, 2018

When to Use the Section 33 “Notwithstanding” Override

The controversy over invoking section 33, the Charter’s override, in Ontario appears to have subsided. By imposing a stay on the lower Court ruling of Justice Belobaba, the Ontario Court of Appeal salvaged the Ford government’s effort to interfere with Toronto’s pending municipal election.

David Schneiderman

Freedom of Expression & Its Limits

Blog November 9, 2017

University Speech Codes and the Wounds of White Fragility

(Co-written with Anver Emon, Professor of Law, University of Toronto) Everyone can get hurt. We are complex beings, with multiple attachments, and so we naturally are offended by insults, degrading comments, and uncivil speech. If such wounds hurt, should they be the subject of penalty or public censure? For intractable disputes, it is naïve to think that speech codes can serve to dampen, or even resolve, conflict.

David Schneiderman

Academic Freedom