“I have work left to do as a scholar, and I feel that that work is urgent right now,” said Dean Brunnée
The University’s Provost has announced that Faculty of Law Dean Jutta Brunnée will not seek reappointment when her term ends on December 31, 2025. This marks the end of Dean Brunnée’s term, which has been bookended by years of historical importance, beginning in January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and concluding this year during the Faculty’s 75th anniversary.
The second woman ever to serve as Dean, Brunnée is known by students for her classes on International Environmental and Climate Change Law, her speeches at capstone Faculty events like the annual Grand Moot, and for bestowing free coffee and food on the student body through her monthly event, “J’s Java”.
Isabel Brisson, President of the Students’ Law Society (SLS), said, “On behalf of the [SLS], we thank Dean Brunnée for her dedication to the school and we wish her all the best in her next chapter.”
Dean Brunnée is a preeminent scholar in public international law, environmental law, and international legal theory. Among many other professional accomplishments, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Associate of the Nobel prize-winning Institut de Droit International, and a University Professor, a rank given by U of T that recognizes “unusual scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in a particular field of knowledge.”
Commenting on Dean Brunnée’s term, Associate Dean Chris Essert said, “It has been an honour to work with Dean Brunnée over the past four years. Her dedication and commitment to the Faculty of Law as a whole and to all the various members of our community, including students and Faculty, has been really inspiring to see and has benefitted our community in too many ways to count. Her successor will certainly have big shoes to fill.”
Ultra Vires sat down with Dean Brunnée in February to discuss her term and her decision not to seek reappointment.
Ultra Vires (UV): You have held many leadership positions both within and outside the Faculty, including serving as the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies from 2010 to 2014 and the Interim Dean in 2014. Was it these leadership experiences, or something else, that led you to seek to become Dean of the Faculty of Law?
Dean Jutta Brunnée (DB): I would say that those experiences gave me a sense of what it was like to be in this kind of role and a sense that I would have something to offer. The ultimate reason was that coming to the Faculty in 2000 made an incredible difference to me as a scholar and as a teacher. When you come here, you’re surrounded by unbelievable colleagues from whom you learn a lot, who push you and give you new ideas. The same is true for our students. It really ignited my sense of joy being in the classroom. So, the short answer would be that being at the Faculty has given me such a boost as a scholar and teacher that being Dean struck me as an amazing opportunity to work for this community, to help faculty and students achieve their aspirations, and to tell our story far and wide.
UV: Your term began in January 2021 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. What was it like to lead the faculty through that period?
DB: It was really challenging, largely because, at least initially, everything happened online. When you step into a leadership role, it’s so important that you meet the people you’re working with. It’s a lot harder to build those relationships online. It came to me almost a year and a half after I started when the President convened a meeting of all the deans, the provost, and other University leaders to discuss current issues. I walked into that room and thought, “Oh my gosh, I’ve spoken to these people so often, but I have not seen any of them in person in all this time.” In a way, that was sort of like a re-beginning of being dean.
UV: Your term as Dean coincided with the Faculty’s 75th Anniversary. What are one or two notable aspects of the faculty’s history in your opinion?
DB: I’m so lucky to have the opportunity, during my term as Dean, to be able to help shape these celebrations. One thing I would mention is remembering the move that led to the creation of the modern law school. It was literally an act of rebellion that led to the creation of the Faculty of Law. It was a rebellion against legal education being vocational training run by what was then the Law Society of Upper Canada, and the pursuit of the idea that there should be academic legal education based at a university. That was controversial at the time, but it quickly caught on. Today, there are law faculties at universities across the country.
This is worthy of celebration because it is that academic approach to legal education that enables us to train, not just amazing lawyers, but adaptable, agile thinkers who can work in virtually any setting. That’s why I’ve had the tagline for the Faculty: “Lawyers and Leaders for a Changing World.” Because I think we train lawyers, but we also train leaders for all walks of society.
There is also a tightly knit community to which people remain committed. We’ve been reminded of this through this year’s celebrations. When I meet with alumni here in Toronto or in New York or in London—wherever they are and whatever they do, whether they are lawyers or not—they share how pivotal having been here was for them. It is tremendously gratifying to hear that so consistently from alumni members of our community.
UV: What is the most challenging part of being Dean?
DB: The pace and the volume of the things that you deal with. Oftentimes, the day’s agenda is totally unpredictable. You think that you’re going to be doing X and Y on a given day, and it ends up being something entirely different. There are different things coming your way that are each equally urgent, and you need to work towards solutions or responses. Whoever is involved in the issue will want answers relatively quickly, but you need to make sure that these answers also stand the test of time.
UV: What makes U of T law students unique? When speaking to students at events like J’s Java, what stands out to you?
DB: The students are all incredibly smart, committed, and interesting. They have all sorts of backgrounds and experiences. When I came here in 2000, it really gave me a big boost as a scholar and a teacher. I remember stepping into my first teaching experiences and being wowed by the students. I’ve learned so much from students by getting a question or a perspective that I hadn’t thought about. That experience has been a big aha moment for me coming to the faculty, and I’ve not ceased to marvel at this. And it’s not just me—when we had the most recent series of January intensive courses, without this being solicited, our visiting professors, who’ve taught all over the place, made exactly the kind of comment that I just made about our students. So, this is not just me being nice; it’s actually true about our students.
UV: What led to your decision not to seek reappointment?
DB: It was a really hard decision to come to. In the end, the dominant note is that I have work left to do as a scholar of international and climate law, and I feel that that work is urgent right now, given all the things that are happening around us. There are only so many hours in anyone’s day. In my case, there are only so many more years left to do that work. I had to make a choice, and that’s what I did. I will miss many things about being in this role, and I hope that I will be able to make a small difference on that other front.
UV: What is next for you and your research?
DB: I’m anxious to go back to thinking and writing about how law—in my case, mostly international law—works or doesn’t. I think of law as not just a thing or rules that you just take, apply, and out comes your answer. I think of law as a social practice. I developed a theory with a colleague and friend, which we call interactional law. Law is a certain kind of human interaction, and I would say it’s a distinctive social practice. It’s one that is grounded in, made by, and kept alive by a distinctive form of argumentation, reasoning, and justification. For the legal order writ large to exist, it must be upheld in practice. That means making not just any argument that seems to fit the point you want to make, but to make a disciplined legal argument. But it also means that when somebody else is outside of the scope of rules or makes an argument that isn’t recognizable as legal to insist on legal justification.
We do live in precarious times, and one of the things that is coming under pressure in the international arena, as well as in certain national contexts, is legality and insisting on upholding a legal order. My focus will be on, how can we preserve legality? How can we maintain the foundations of the international legal order, when more and more actors seem to be left and right of the rules, or even ignoring them altogether, when what we often hear is not legal argumentation? Also, in the climate context, what’s the role for law and lawyers at a time when we often hear that you can’t do this, we can’t do that. What can we actually do?
UV: What is your advice for the next Dean?
DB: Never hesitate to ask for advice. Beyond that, build relationships and be present with the people in your community. You need to be immersed in what’s happening in the faculty.
UV: What do you see as the future of U of T Law? Where is the Faculty headed?
DB: Part of this question is for whoever will take over as the next Dean. But broadly, I see the Faculty continuing to be the best law school in Canada and one of the top 20 law schools in the world. I think that our approach to teaching law is more important now than it’s ever been before.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
