About the Canadian Institute for International Law Expertise
A Toronto-based academic organisation dedicated to open research education, scholarly writing development, and publication process advisory in the field of international and comparative law.
← Return to HomeThe Canadian Institute for International Law Expertise was established in Toronto with a single question in mind: how do researchers working across different national legal traditions actually locate, evaluate, and write about primary sources? That question — straightforward on its surface — turns out to be surprisingly difficult to answer through standard course offerings, which tend to teach one system at a time rather than the cross-jurisdictional method itself.
We developed a public seminar format that brings graduate scholars, independent researchers, and members of the public into the same room to examine international institutions from the outside in — looking at how they are organised, how their documents are classified, and how a researcher builds a reliable account from primary material alone. The seminar series has run in six-session cycles since our founding, with a reading list and open discussion period structured to let participants work through disagreements with the method, not just absorb a fixed curriculum.
The Academic Writing and Citation Program grew out of a recurring observation: researchers who understood the material often struggled with the mechanics of getting work accepted for publication. Argument structure, abstract writing, and correct citation of translated instruments are areas where small errors carry outsized consequences. We capped cohorts at fifteen participants specifically so that every person in the program receives individual written feedback rather than aggregate comments.
Our institutional advisory work emerged when research departments and university presses began asking us to look at their full editorial pipelines rather than just the writing of individual scholars. The Institutional Publication Workflow Advisory now addresses peer-review coordination, translation scheduling, version control across author teams, and the archiving and identifier assignment questions that academic publishers handle inconsistently.
Established in Toronto, Ontario
Seminar cycles, writing cohorts, and advisory engagements since founding
National and supranational legal systems referenced across programs
Margaret Lévesque
Margaret leads program design across all three offerings, drawing on fifteen years of research into how international treaty bodies produce and classify their working documents.
David Krishnamurthy
David facilitates the Open Research Seminar Series and advises participants on primary source location and evaluation across common law, civil law, and hybrid systems.
Sophie Beaumont
Sophie manages the institutional advisory engagements and leads the Academic Writing and Citation Program, with particular depth in journal submission processes and citation standards for multilingual sources.
Source Verification
All materials used in seminars and programs are drawn from identified primary sources or peer-reviewed secondary literature. Sessions explicitly address how participants can verify sources themselves.
Participant Data Protection
Participant information is held securely and used only for program administration. We follow Canadian privacy legislation in how we collect, store, and manage personal information.
Feedback on Every Draft
The writing program provides written comments on two drafts per participant, not a single round of feedback. Comments address structure, evidence use, and citation alongside line-level writing.
Documented Engagements
Institutional advisory engagements produce a written process document and template pack that remain with the institution after the engagement concludes, so the work does not disappear with the advisor.
Open Discussion Format
Seminar sessions include a structured discussion period so participants can raise questions about method, push back on readings, and develop their own analytical positions rather than absorbing a fixed answer.
Post-Cycle Review
Institutional advisory includes a review meeting after the first publication cycle runs under the new process, so the team can identify what worked and adjust documentation before it becomes fixed practice.
The Institute occupies a particular position in the Canadian research landscape. We are not a law school, and we do not train lawyers. We are an organisation that addresses the methodological and editorial dimension of international law scholarship — the skills that govern how researchers find material, build arguments, and move work from manuscript to published record.
That focus reflects a view that these skills are often treated as secondary by formal academic programs, something a researcher is expected to pick up alongside their substantive training. Our programs treat them as a distinct discipline worth sustained attention.
We draw participants from across Canada and from institutions in other common law and civil law countries, which gives the seminars and writing cohorts a cross-jurisdictional character that individual national programs rarely achieve. Sessions are conducted in English, with materials in French available for certain citation standards modules.
The Institute is based at 2 Bloor Street West in Toronto, where our central office and seminar facilities are located. We are accessible by transit and maintain regular office hours for participants who wish to discuss program content in person. Phone: +1 416-849-6990. Email: [email protected].
Find the Right Program for Your Work
Contact us to discuss which program best suits your research stage and institutional context. We respond to all enquiries within two business days.
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