Catherine Valcke

Catherine Valcke is a Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where she served as Associate Dean and Acting Associate Dean. She holds degrees from the University of Sherbrooke (LL.B. Civil Law), University of Toronto (LL.B. Common Law), University of Chicago (LL.M.), and Columbia University (S.J.D.). Her academic career includes visiting appointments at the University of Montreal, University of Tunis II, and the Center for Transnational Legal Studies.

Education:

• J.S.D., Columbia University (1997)
• LL.M., University of Chicago (1989)
• LL.B. (Common Law), University of Toronto (1988)
• LL.B. (Civil Law), University of Sherbrooke (1985)

Research focuses on comparative legal theory, contractual obligations, and Anglo-French legal convergence, with a current SSHRC-funded project: French and English Private Law Paradigms. Her 2018 book Comparing Law: Comparative Law as Reconstruction of Collective Commitments proposes an interpretive framework for comparative studies.

Recent publications analyze legal harmonization in bilingual contexts and AI’s impact on legal scholarship, including co-authorship of the forthcoming Théorie des Obligations (5th ed., 2022) and co-editorship of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law (3rd ed., 2023). Awards include SSHRC grants and election to the International Academy of Comparative Law (2007). Her work has been cited by the UK House of Lords in Chartbrook Ltd. v. Persimmon Homes Ltd. (2009).