John Borrows

John Borrows BA, MA, JD, LL.M. (Toronto), PhD (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, York, SFU, Queen’s & Law Society of Ontario), D.H.L, (Toronto), F.R.S.C., is the inaugural Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. He is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario.

Professor Borrows previously held the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Victoria, he was Professor and Robina Chair in Law and Society at the University of Minnesota Law School and Professor; Law Foundation Professor of Aboriginal Law and Justice at the University of Victoria Law School; Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto; Associate Professor and First Nations Legal Studies Director, Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia; and Associate Professor and Director of the Intensive Programme in Lands, Resources and First Nations Governments at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Borrows has edited and authored several award-winning books. His publications include, Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2002), Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (Canadian Law and Society Best Book Award 2011), Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide (2010), Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism (Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2016), The Right Relationship (with Michael Coyle, ed.), Resurgence and Reconciliation (with Michael Asch, Jim Tully, eds.), Law’s Indigenous Ethics (NAISA best subsequent book).

He has received the Killam Prize (2017) and the Molson Prize (2019), both from the Canada Council for the Arts; the Governor General’s Innovation Award (2020); and the Canadian Bar Association President’s Award (2021). He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020.