Hilary Young
Research interests
- defamation law
- tort law
- health law
- remedies
- privacy law
Biography
Hilary joined UNB Law in 2012. After clerking for Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada, she was a civil litigator at Cox & Palmer in Halifax. She has an international reputation as a defamation law scholar and also has expertise in torts and health law. Her research has been cited by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She is one of the authors of Linden, Feldthusen, Hall, Knutsen & Young, Canadian Tort Law 11th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2018).
She obtained her LLB at the University of Ottawa, where she won the Gold Medal, and then an LLM from Harvard Law School. Before going to law school, she earned a doctorate in linguistics from Rice University.
Courses taught
- Torts
- Remedies
- Health Law
- Defamation and Privacy Law
- Advanced Torts
Research projects
Current research includes a SSHRC-funded project on injunctions related to speech in the digital age (e.g. orders not to defame or to violate someone's privacy).
She recently worked with the Uniform Law Conference of Canada to create a draft model tort of non-consensual distribution of intimate images. She also worked extensively with the Law Commission of Ontario on its defamation law reform project. In addition to being a member of the Advisory Committee, she was commissioned (along with Emily Laidlaw of the University of Calgary) to write a report on internet intermediary liability in defamation.
Hilary’s work has been cited by the courts. For example, an article on defamation law was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bent v Platnick, 2020 SCC 23, as was her article on “Rasouli consent” – the need for consent to withhold or withdraw life–sustaining medical treatment – in Cuthbertson v Rasouli, 2013 SCC 53.
Selected publications
Hilary Young, “The Scope of Canadian Defamation Injunctions” (forthcoming in the Dalhousie Law Journal).
Hilary Young, “Revisiting Injurious Falsehood”, forthcoming in Claudia Carr, Michael Douglas and John Eldridge, eds., Economic Torts in Context (2020, Sydney: Hart).
Emily Laidlaw and Hilary Young, “Creating a Revenge Porn Tort”, in Hilary Young, ed., The Canadian Law of Obligations and Access to Justice (2020, Toronto: LexisNexis), also published as (2020) 96 Supreme Court Law Review.
Hilary Young, “Reynolds v Times Newspapers” in David Rolph, ed., Landmark Cases in Defamation Law (London: Hart Publishing, 2019).
Emily Laidlaw and Hilary Young, “Internet Intermediary Liability in Defamation” (2019) 56 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 112–161.
Allen Linden, Bruce Feldthusen, Margaret Hall, Erik Knutsen & Hilary Young, Canadian Tort Law 11th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2018).
Hilary Young, “Responsible Communication and Protection of Public Participation: Assessing Canada’s Newest Public Interest Speech Protections” (2018) 47:2 Southwestern Law Review 385–416.
Hilary Young, “The Canadian Defamation Action: An Empirical Study” (2017) 95:3 Canadian Bar Review 591–630.
Hilary Young, “A Proposal for Access to Treatment Contrary to Clinical Judgment in Canada and the United Kingdom” (2017) 11:2 McGill Journal of Law & Health 1–58.
Hilary Young, “Public Body Defamation Actions” (2016) 39 Dalhousie Law Journal 249–287.
Hilary Young, “‘Anyone… in Any Medium’?: The Scope of Canada’s Responsible Communication Defence” in Comparative Defamation and Privacy Law, Andrew Kenyon, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016) 17–39.
Hilary Young, “Cuthbertson v. Rasouli: Continued Confusion over Consent-based Entitlements to Life Support” (2015) 52 University of Alberta Law Review 745–760.
Hilary Young, “Adding Insult to Injury in Assessing Damages for Corporate Defamation” (2013) 21:3 Tort Law Review 127–150.
Hilary Young, “Rethinking Canadian Defamation Law as Applied to Corporate Plaintiffs” (2013) 46:2 University of British Columbia Law Review 529–588.
Hilary Young, “Why Withdrawing Life Support Should Not Require “Rasouli Consent”, (2012) 6:2 McGill Journal of Law & Health 54–104.
Hilary Young, “But Names Won’t Necessarily Hurt Me: Considering the Effect of Disparaging Statements on Reputation” (2011) 37 Queen’s Law Journal 1–37.
Hilary Young, “Unconscious Decisions: JA and the Legal Status of Advance Consent to Unconscious Sex” (2010) 14:3 Canadian Criminal Law Review 273–306.
