Stéphane Sérafin is a graduate of the Programme de droit canadien (PDC) at the University of Ottawa and holds a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto. He is also a member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Barreau du Québec.
Professor Sérafin’s research and teaching interests include legal theory, common law and civil law obligations (especially contract law), property law, corporate law, comparative legal traditions and fundamental rights.
He has published widely on doctrinal topics relating to contract law, tort law, and property law, as well as on more pointed issues such as the nature of private law rights, competing theories of law and justice, legal and constitutional interpretation, and the relationship between fundamental rights and the development of common law doctrine. Much of his current work focuses on the role of courts and legislatures in determining rights both at common law and under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Prior to joining the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, he maintained a diverse legal practice in the areas of aboriginal law, land law, commercial law and civil litigation. He has also served as a judicial law clerk at the Federal Court of Canada, as a part-time professor at the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, and was an editor of the Ottawa Law Review.