Hilary Evans Cameron
A former litigator, Hilary Evans Cameron represented refugee claimants for a decade and now holds a doctorate in refugee law from the University of Toronto.
A major focus of her work has been the process of judging a refugee claimant’s credibility. Her research brings insights from the social sciences, particularly cognitive psychology, to bear on this central aspect of refugee status decision-making. She has also explored other legal barriers that prevent people without status from accessing the courts and from winning their cases on judicial review. Her interest in clinical legal pedagogy arose from her experience teaching at the legal clinic of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, where she developed a method for involving law students in stopping deportations.
She is the author of Refugee Law’s Fact-finding Crisis: Truth, Risk, and the Wrong Mistake (Cambridge 2018) and has written in a number of journals including the International Journal of Refugee Law; Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice; Journal of Law and Social Policy; Canadian Journal of Human Rights; Dalhousie Law Journal; UBC Law Review.
Before coming to Toronto Metropolitan University, Evans Cameron was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School, as well as a lecturer at Trinity College in the University of Toronto in the Ethics, Society and Law program. She was the SSHRC’s 2017 Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research.
Book
Hilary Evans Cameron, Refugee Law’s Fact-Finding Crisis: Truth, Risk, and the Wrong Mistake (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Refereed Articles
“The analysis of nonverbal communication: The dangers of pseudoscience in security and justice contexts” (2020) 30 Anuario de Psicología Jurídica 1, with Vincent Denault and others (Denault first author)
“Experimenting with Credibility in Refugee Adjudication: Gaydar” (2020, forthcoming) Canadian Journal of Human Rights, with Sean Rehaag, second author.
“The Battle for the Wrong Mistake: Error Preference and Risk Salience in Canadian Refugee Status Decision-making” (2019) 42 Dalhousie Law Journal 1
“The E-Team Project: A Teamwork Approach to Clinical Legal Education” (2014) 23 Journal of Law and Social Policy 30-61
“Substantial Deference and Tribunal Expertise Post-Dunsmuir: A New Approach to Reasonableness Review” (2014) 27 Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice 1
“Under the IRPA and after Irving: The Right to Standing before the Federal Court for Canadian Children Seeking to Challenge Their Parents’ Deportations” (2013) 46 UBC Law Review 205 (first author; second author Josh Stark)
“Refugee Status Determination and the Limits of Memory” (2010) 22 International Journal of Refugee Law 469
“Risk Theory and ‘Subjective Fear’: The Role of Risk Perception, Assessment and Management in Refugee Status Determinations” (2008) 20 International Journal of Refugee Law 567
Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, 2017
| Degree | Institution | Year |
|---|---|---|
| SJD (Doctor of Juridical Science) | University of Toronto | 2016 |
| LLB (Bachelor of Laws) | Osgoode Hall Law School | 2001 |
| BA Hons. (Bachelor of Arts, Honours) | McGill University | 1998 |