Kerri Froc

Research interests

• women’s constitutional rights
• equality and social and economic rights
• access to justice and the rule of law
• rights of political representation
• theories of constitutional interpretation (including originalism)
• feminist legal theory

Biography

Kerri is an Associate Professor at UNB Law, as well as a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar. She has taught courses at Carleton University, Queen’s University and University of Ottawa on feminist legal theory and various aspects of public law, among others.

Kerri received her PhD from Queen’s University in 2016 and holds a Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina.

Before completing her doctorate, she spent 18 years as a lawyer, as a civil litigator in Regina, a staff lawyer for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and as a staff lawyer in the areas of law reform and equality at the Canadian Bar Association. She is a member of the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick bars.

Courses taught / current projects

• Constitutional Law
• Advanced Constitutional Law
• Administrative law
• book manuscript tentatively titled “The Gendered Constitution”
• the role of liberalism in Canadian equality law
• contributing to the Women’s Court of Canada project

Selected publications

Kerri Froc, “Is Federalism a Feminist Issue? The Gender of Division of Powers Jurisprudence” (2018) Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law (Special Issue) 197–212.

Kerri Froc, “A Prayer for Original Meaning: A History of Section 15 and What It Should Mean for Equality” (2018) 38(1) National Journal of Constitutional Law 35–88.

Kerri Froc, “The Meaning of Fundamental Justice” and “Equality’s First Principles” in Heather MacIvor and Arthur Milnes, eds, Canada at 150: Building a Free and Democratic Society (North York: LexisNexis Canada, 2017).

Kerri Froc, “Is Originalism Bad for Women? The Curious Case of Canada’s ‘Equal Rights Amendment’” (2015) 19:2 Review of Constitutional Studies 237–279.

Kerri Froc, “No Parity, No Problem? Women’s Underrepresentation in Parliament as a Charter Violation” in Greg Tardi and Richard Balasko, eds, The Informed Citizens’ Guide to Elections: Electioneering Based on the Rule of Law (Toronto: Carswell, 2015) 483–512 (special issue of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law).

Kerri Froc, "Immutability Hauntings: Socioeconomic Status and Women's Right to Just Conditions of Work under Section 15 of the Charter” in Bruce Porter and Martha Jackman, eds., Advancing Social Rights in Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2014) 187–222.

Kerri Froc, “Constitutional Coalescence: Substantive Equality as a Principle of Fundamental Justice” (2010-2011) 42 Ottawa Law Review 411–445.

Kerri Froc, “Will Watertight Compartments Sink Women’s Charter Rights? The Need for a New Theoretical Approach to Women’s Multiple Rights Claims under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” in Beverley Baines, Daphne Barak-Erez, and Tsvi Kahana, eds., Feminist Constitutionalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) 132–148.

“Multidimensionality and the Matrix: Identifying Charter Violations in Cases of Complex Subordination” (2010) 25:1 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 21–49.

“Is the Rule of Law the Golden Rule? Accessing Justice for Canada’s Poor” (2008) 87 Canadian Bar Review (2d) 459–513.