November 15, 2024 —
Describing her own legal career as being “all over the place,” Dr. Sara Seck, Director of the Marine and Environmental Law Institute at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law revealed an immense wealth of knowledge gained from her academic and professional journey when visiting Robson Hall this fall as the inaugural Desautels Centre lecturer in Business and Human Rights law. Students attending engaged in a question and answer session following her talk regarding careers in the combined fields of Business and Human Rights.
Having initially articled at a Bay Street business law firm, Seck eventually found her way to a PhD in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, and a research program in international human rights law, the environment, and how business law and the conduct of business impacts these critical areas. Her focus today is on the rights of local and Indigenous communities, and she has researched and published extensively on home state duties and business responsibilities in the context of extractive industries (such as mining, oil and gas). Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law, where she holds the Keddy Chair in Human Rights Law, in addition to the Directorship of the Marine and Environmental Law Institute in Halifax, NS.
Seck was invited by the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law to speak at the Faculty of Law on October 22, 2024, as part of the Business and Human Rights speaker series. The series is supported by the emerging Canadian Forum for Business and Human Rights, an initiative of the Desautels Centre, to bring together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to explore the intersection of corporate activities and human rights, addressing topics such as corporate social responsibility, supply chain ethics, and legal frameworks for ensuring human rights standards in business practices globally.
Dr. Sara Seck of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University was the inaugural speakerfor the Desautels Centre’s Business and Human Rights Lecture Series.
As the inaugural speaker in this series, Seck shared an overview of Business and Human Rights laws in Canada, and discussed career paths in the field with an audience of law and graduate students in law and human rights programs at the University of Manitoba. For the question and answer period, she was joined by her former PhD student, Dr. Akinwumi Ogunranti, who is now an Assistant Professor at the Faculty, a member of the Desautels Centre’s research group, and a founding member of the Forum.
A full recording of Dr. Seck’s lecture can be viewed on the Faculty of Law’s YouTube channel.
Call for Abstracts
The Canadian Forum for Business and Human Rights is currently accepting abstracts for INSIGHTS ‘25, an upcoming International Business and Human Rights Conference taking place in Winnipeg, MB, Canada on November 14, 2025 at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The deadline for submissions is January 30, 2025.
The inaugural theme of the Insights ’25 conference is Corporate Accountability in Canada: At the Crossroads of Scholarship, Legislation, Litigation, Policy-making and Community Resistance.
This conference is presented in collaboration with the Faculties of Law at the University of Essex, Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law Marine and Environmental Law Institute, and the University of Ottawa. Learn more about the conference.
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