Jutta Brunnée replaces Edward Iacobucci as the new Dean of the Faculty of Law
On December 12, 2020, students received news of Professor Jutta Brunnée’s appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Law from Cheryl Regehr, the Vice-President and Provost of the University of Toronto.
This announcement put an end to months of speculation about outgoing Dean Edward Iaccobucci’s replacement. Dean Brunnée’s renewable five-year term began on January 1.
Dean Brunnée is a prominent international and environmental law scholar. She is widely known as the world’s leading scholar for international environmental law and is one of the most influential figures in the general theory of international law. The intersectionality of her two research areas has made her work extremely important in addressing climate change. At the Faculty, she is the Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law. In 2020, she was appointed University Professor, the University of Toronto’s highest and most distinguished academic rank.
Vice-President and Provost Regehr’s announcement lauded Dean Brunnée’s “exceptional administrative ability, insight, and a commitment to fostering inclusive excellence.” Dean Brunnée previously served in various leadership positions at the Faculty, including the position of Associate Dean of the Graduate Studies program and Interim Dean in 2014. She also helped launch the Global Professional LLM program, revitalized the June Callwood Scholarship Program for Indigenous graduate students, and led curricular reform in the LLM program.
Dean Brunnée was born in Germany and earned a law degree and doctorate in law (1989, summa cum laude) at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, and an LLM from Dalhousie University (1987). She also taught at McGill University’s Faculty of Law and the University of British Columbia prior to joining the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law in 2000.
With the current uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and the future of in-person learning at the law school, Dean Brunnée’s calm, careful, and consensus-building manner will be extremely helpful in helping the administration, professors, and students navigate the upcoming months.