Elizabeth Steyn

Elizabeth Steyn is a doctoral candidate and chargée de cours at the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal. She recently spent four months as Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the invitation of its Director, Professor Marie-Claire Foblets.

Originally from South Africa where she obtained her LLB and LLM degrees with the highest distinction, she is an admitted advocate of the High Court. She has both practised in the natural resources and energy law field and served on the Faculty of Law of the University of Johannesburg. She is the author/co-author of 11 articles/book chapters in peer-reviewed publications.

Elizabeth’s doctoral research focusses on finding remedies for clashes occasioned by the intersection of natural resource development projects and sacred Indigenous sites. Her research is directed by Dean Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens and involves a synthesis of comparative law, legal anthropology/Indigenous theory and international law.

Elizabeth holds a doctoral scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQSC) and has been awarded various Faculty and University scholarships of excellence over the course of her sojourn at UdeM.