Lara Khoury

Faculty of Law

 

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DPhil Oxford University, Law
BCL Oxford University
LLB Université de Sherbrooke
CERT Université du Québec à Montréal, Communication

 

Biography

Professor Khoury is an Associate Professor of Law, a member of McGill’s Institute of Comparative Law and a Research Scholar at the Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law. She teaches and conducts research in the fields of Comparative Extra-contractual Obligations, with a particular interest for Medical and Environmental Liability. She completed a doctoral (D.Phil) degree at the University of Oxford, from where she also holds a master’s degree (B.C.L.).

She is the author of "Uncertain Causation in Medical Liability" (Hart Publishing, Oxford and Yvon Blais, Cowansville) which received the 2004 Prix Minerve and the 2008 Quebec Bar Foundation Prize. This monograph deals with the impact of scientific uncertainties on the proof of causation in medical liability in English and Canadian common law, as well as in French and Québec civil law.

She currently holds a S.S.H.R.C. grant funding her work on legal responses to the phenomenon of nosocomial infections in Canada. She was also recently grant a F.Q.R.S.C. grant for her work on the impact of biomedical innovations on the transformation of civil liability principles.

Education

D.Phil.(Law), Oxford University, 2003

B.C.L., Oxford University, 1998

LL.B., Sherbrooke University, 1994 [winner of the Albert-Leblanc Medal]

Certificate in Communications Studies, UQÀM, 1991

Employment

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2009-present

Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2002-2009

Boulton Junior Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2000-2001

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke, 1995- 2001

Tort Tutor, Balliol College, University of Oxford, 1998

Invited Research Fellow, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht (Hamburg, Germany), 1999 & 2001

Member of the Quebec Bar, 1995-

Lawyer, Commercial and civil litigation, Heenan Blaikie, Montreal, 1995-1996

Areas of Interest

Science and Law; Medical Liability; Environmental Liability; Biotechnologies and Law; Extra-contractual obligations / Tort Law; Comparative and Transsystemic approaches to private law; Civil law obligations.

Science and Law – I am interested in the interactions between science and law, with a particular focus on the impact that scientific uncertainties have on the judicial decision-making process, especially in medical and environmental liability. I am also working on the broader question of the adaptability of the law of torts and civil responsibility in response to new types of injuries caused by modern (bio)technological and scientific developments.

Medical Liability – My main area of research and teaching is in the field of medical liability. Current and past interests include the examination of questions related to problems of evidence of fault and causation; juridical responses to problems provoked by advances in modern medicine, including injuries caused by nosocomial infections, contaminated blood, or pharmaceutical products; injury caused by developments in genetic testing and technology; and potential legislative and judicial responses to the proliferation of ‘medical accidents’.

Environmental Liability – My work in this area has centered mainly on liability issues flowing from potential economic, health and environmental impacts of the introduction in the environment of genetically modified organisms. Other interests include the development and recognition of the notion of ‘environmental injury’; the use of the precautionary principle in private law judicial decision-making; and the impact of causal uncertainty about effects of environmental pollution on human health and ecosystems on the development of liability rules.

Current Grants

2005-2008 - S.S.H.R.C. (69,433.00$) for « L’indemnisation de l’infection nosocomiale: Défi contemporain du droit de la responsabilité civile »

2007-2009 - F.Q.R.S.C. (44,378.00$) for "Innovation biomédicale, santé et évolution du droit de la responsabilité"

2007-2008 - Foundation for Legal Research (3,500.00$) for "Innovation biomédicale, santé et évolution du droit de la responsabilité"

2007-2008 - Fondation du Barreau du Québec (9,225.00$) for "Innovation biomédicale, santé et évolution du droit de la responsabilité"