Graham Mayeda

Graham Mayeda joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa in 2005. His current research focuses on criminal law, private law, administrative law, legal theory, and the impact of international law on sustainable development.

Graham began his academic career in philosophy, in which he received both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto. His work in this area focuses primarily on the philosophy of Japanese philosophers Nishida Kitarō, Watsuji Tetsurō and Kuki Shūzō. He also writes about Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, European phenomenology (esp. Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger), and Neo-Kantianism.

Graham’s legal career began at the University of Toronto, where he completed his J.D. in 2004. He was a law clerk to the Hon. Madam Justice Louise Charron at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004-2005, and he was called to the Bar of Ontario in July of 2005.

Graham is interested in the impact of cultural, socio-economic, racial and gender difference in Canadian criminal and private law. He has written about the nature of common law reasoning, both in private and public law. He has studied the law of social protest, with a focus on protests involving the protection of the environment and the rights of Indigenous People.

After teaching a course on administrative law for many years, Graham began studying methods for applying the reasonableness standard of review. He is also interested in the normative foundations of administrative law more generally.

Graham has recently begun research on artificial intelligence (AI) and the law. He is particularly interested in the ability of AI models to make legal judgments and to give legal advice.

Graham is also very involved in legal advocacy. From 2006 to 2010, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC). ISAC is a legal aid clinic established by Legal Aid Ontario in 2001 to conduct test-case litigation for low-income residents of Ontario (http://www.incomesecurity.org/). Graham has also been involved in litigation on behalf of the uOttawa-Ecojustice Legal Clinic.

Graham was an assistant Crown attorney in Ottawa. He also conducts criminal appeals.

In his spare time, Graham practices watercolour, Japanese calligraphy and photography. He likes to swim, bike and do yoga. He also practices at the Enpuku-ji Zen Centre in Montreal.

To read some of my publications, please visit my SSRN page.

• Vanessa Gruben, Graham Mayeda and Owen Rees (eds.), Controversies in the Common Law: Tracing the Contributions of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (University of Toronto Press, 2021)
• Graham Mayeda, Japanese Philosophers on Society and Culture: Nishida Kitarō, Watsuji Tetsurō, and Kuki Shūzō (Lexington, 2021) 298 pages.
• Graham Mayeda and Peter Oliver (eds), Principles and Pragmatism: Essays in Honour of Louise Charron (Markham, ON: LexisNexis, 2014) 385 pages
• J. Anthony VanDuzer, Penelope Simons and Graham Mayeda, Integrating Sustainable Development Into International Investment Agreements: A Guide for Developing Country Negotiators (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2013), 572 pages.
• Time, Space and Ethics in the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Watsuji Tetsuro and Kuki Shuzo (New York: Routledge, 2006).

• Graham Mayeda, “The Continuity of Private and Public Law Reasoning in Chief Justice McLachlin’s Criminal Law Judgments” in Mayeda, Gruben and Rees (eds.), Controversies in the Common Law: Tracing the Contributions of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (University of Toronto Press, 2021).
• “Philosophical Issues in Water Law” in Ingrid Stefanovic (ed.), Ethical Water Stewardship (Springer, 2020).
• Graham Mayeda, « Honoré de Balzac : une critique du droit innovateur » (2019) 49(1) Revue générale de droit 245. [hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.7202/1062171ar]
• “Squeezing Blood from the Stone: Narrative and Judicial Resistance to the Mandatory Victim Surcharge” (2016) 21 Canadian Criminal Law Review 186-224.
• “Integrating Environmental Impact Assessments into IIAs: Global Administrative Law and Transnational Cooperation” (2017) 18 Journal of World Investment and Trade 131-162.
• “Shedding Dōgen’s Light on Betweeness,” in Takeshi Morisato (ed.), Critical perspectives on Japanese Philosophy (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2016), 327-362.
• “Privacy in the Age of the Internet: Lawful Access Provisions and Access to ISP and OSP Subscriber Information” (2016) 53:3 Alberta Law Review 709-746.
• “My Neighbour’s Kid Just Bought a Drone . . . New Paradigms for Privacy Law in Canada” (2015) 35 NJCL 59-84.
• “Kuki Shūzō: A Phenomenology of Fate and Chance and an Aesthetics of the Floating World” in Bret Davis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (forthcoming in 2016).
• « L’espace naturel et la responsabilité envers l’environnement dans la philosophie de Nishida Kitarō et Watsuji Tetsurō » in Marie-Hélène Parizeau and Jacynthe Tremblay (eds.), Milieux modernes et reflets japonais : Chemins philosophiques (Laval : Presse de l’Université Laval, 2015) 129-152.
• " Practice Makes Perfect? The Role of Principle and Practice in Judgment: A Hypotehtical Engagement Between Immanueal Kant and Justice Louise Charron," in Peter Oliver and Graham Mayeda (eds.), Louise Charron at the Supreme Court of Canada (Markham, ON: LexisNexis, 2014).
• “The TBT Agreement and Developing Countries” in Michael J. Trebilcock and Tracey Epps (eds.), Research Handbook: TBT Agreement (Edward Elgar, 2014).
• “Has Public Protest Gone to the Dogs? A Social Rights Approach to Social Protest Law in Canada,” in Martha Jackman and Bruce Porter (eds.), Advancing Social Rights in Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2014).
• “Time for Ethics: Temporality and the Ethical Ideal in Emmanuel Levinas and Kuki Shūzō” (2012) 4:1 Comparative and Continental Philosophy.
• "Legal Aspects of the Security-Development Nexus: International Administrative Law as a Check on the Use of Development Assistance in the War on Terror" (2012) 13:1 Chicago Journal of International Law71.
• "Sustainable International Investment Agreements: Challenges and Solutions for Developing Countries Negotiating IIAs," in Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Markus W. Gehring and Andrew Newcombe (eds.), Sustainable Development in World Investment Law (Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2011) 539-559.  
• "Access to Justice: The Impact of Injunctions, Contempt of Court Proceedings, and Costs Awards on Environmental Protestors and First Nations" (2010) 6:2 McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy 143.
• “Between Principle and Pragmatism: The Decline of Principled Reasoning in the Jurisprudence of the McLachlin Court,” in Sheila McIntyre and Sanda Rodgers (eds.), The Supreme Court of Canada and the Achievement of Social Justice: Commitment, Retrenchment or Retreat (Markham, Ontario: Supreme Court Law Review and LexisNexisCanada, 2010) 41. 
• "Pushing the Boundaires: Rethinking International Law in Light of Cosmopolitan Obligations to Developing Countries" [2009] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 3.
• “Taking Notice of Equality: Judicial Notice and Expert Evidence in Trials Involving Equality-Seeking Groups” (2009) 6(2) Journal of Law and Equality 201.  
• “Who Do You Think You Are? When Should the Law Let You Be Who You Want to Be?,” in Laurie Shrage (ed.), You’ve Changed: Sex Reassignment and Personal Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) 194-216. 
• "Investing in Development: The Role of Democracy and Accountability in International Investment Law" (2009) 46:4 Alberta Law Review 1009-1037.
• “International Investment Agreements Between Developed and Developing Countries: Dancing with the Devil? A Case Commentary on the Vivendi, Sempra and Enron Awards,” (2008) 4:2 McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy 119-161.
• J. Anthony VanDuzer, Penelope Simons and Graham Mayeda,” Modeling International Investment Agreements for Economic Development,” in Veniana Qalo (ed.), Bilateralism and Development: Emerging Trade Patterns (London: Cameron-May, 2008) 359-410.
• “Is there a Method to Chance? Contrasting Kuki Shūzō’s Phenomenological Methodology in The Problem of Contingency with that of his Contemporaries Wilhelm Windelband and Heinrich Rickert,” in Victor S. Hori and Melissa Curley (eds.), Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 2: Neglected Themes and Hidden Variations(Nagoya: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2008) 7-35.
• “Development Policy in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom – The New Anti-Terrorism Policy?” in Craig Forcese & Nicole LaViolette (eds.), The Human Rights of Anti-Terrorism (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2008) 385-424.
• “Commentary on Fichte’s “The Illegality of the Reproduction of Books” – An Essay on Intellectual Property During the Age of the Enlightenment” (2008) 5:1&2 University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal 141-197. Includes a translation of J.G. Fichte’s: “Proof of the Illegality of the Unauthorised Reprinting of Books: An Argument and a Parable.”
• "Playing Fair: The Meaning of Fair and Equitable Treatment in BITs," (2007) 41(2) Journal of World Trade 273-291.
•  "A Normative Perspective on Legal Harmonization: China and the WTO," (2006) 13(2) Zeitschrift für Chinesisches Recht (reprint of my article in (2005) 38(1) U.B.C. Law Review 83-122).
• “Uncommonly Common: The Nature of Common Law Judgment,” (2006) 19(1) Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 107-131.
• “Appreciate the Difference: The Role of Different Domestic Norms in Law and Development Reform – Lessons from China and Japan,” (2006) 51(3) McGill Law Journal 547.
• “Re-imagining Feminist Theory: Transgender Identity and the Law,” (2005) 17(2) Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 423-472.
• "A Normative Perspective on Legal Harmonization: China and the WTO," (2005) 38(1) U.B.C. Law Review83-122.
• "Developing Disharmony? The SPS and TBT Agreements and the Impact of Harmonization on Developing Countries," (2004) 7 Journal of International Economic Law 737-764.
• "Where Should Johannesburg Take Us? Ethical and Legal Approaches to Sustainable Development in the Context of International Environmental Law," (2004) 15(1) Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 29-69.
• "The Wisdom Behind the Law: The Implications of Yang-ming Philosophy for the Law," in Vincent Shen and Willard Oxtoby (eds.), Wisdom in China and the West (Washington, D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2004), pp. 235-256.
• "Time, Space and Ethics in the Philosophy of Nishida Kitaro and Watsuji Tetsuro," (2000) 32(1)International Studies in Philosophy 147-155.
• "Generosity and Representation: Making Sense of a Non-Representational Model of the Passions," (2002) 41(2) Dialogue 291-312.

• Review of Daniel E. Lee and Elizabeth J. Lee, Human Rights and the Ethics of Globalization  (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010) in [2010] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 594-607.