Catherine Savard

Catherine Savard (LL.B., LL.M., MPhil (Oxon)) is a Canadian human rights lawyer and a DPhil in Law researcher at the University of Oxford. Her thesis focuses on the concept of ecocide in international law. She is Contributing Editor of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law, Special Rapporteur for Canada with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Database, and co-chair and co-founder of the Queer Persons in International Law Interest Group of ASIL. She is a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholar, twice a John Peters Humphrey fellow, and her research is supported by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She holds two research-based master’s degrees, respectively from the University of Oxford (MPhil in Law) and Laval University, Canada (LL.M. (hons.)).

Before joining Oxford, Catherine clerked both at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Québec Court of Appeal. She also served as a legal adviser to Canada's National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and co-wrote the Inquiry's “Legal Analysis on Genocide”. From 2017 to 2021, she coordinated a multi-million Canada-wide research project, the “Canadian Partnership for International Justice,” which brought together prominent international scholars, practitioners and NGOs, to co-create knowledge and fight against impunity for international crimes. The Partnership notably won the 2023 Governor General’s Innovation Award, which recognizes and celebrates exceptional and transformational Canadian innovations, as well as the 2022 Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council ‘Impact’ award. Catherine’s research interests include public international law, international criminal law, human rights, environmental law, gender, transitional justice, and the use of international law by domestic courts.