21 July 2020
It’s an exciting time as we embark on the project of building the Refugee Law Laboratory.
The Lab will undertake research and advocacy related to new legal technologies and their impact on refugees, displaced communities, and other people on the move. We hope to replicate the feel and energy of a law and tech start-up, bringing together innovative and interdisciplinary researchers with expertise in law, data science, computer programing and statistics.
We’ve already taken an important first step by recruiting Petra Molnar, one of the leading thinkers on the intersection of technology, migration and human rights in Canada, to serve as Associate Director for the Lab. Petra’s influential co-authored report on the human rights impacts of automated decision-making in immigration and refugee law was one of the inspirations for this Lab, so we’re delighted that she has agreed to take on this leadership role.
I am grateful to York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies and Osgoode Hall Law School for supporting this initiative, as well as to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for providing funding.
I’m looking forward to getting to work on the Lab’s projects and to collaborating with the Lab’s staff, faculty, students, visitors and partners.
I very much hope you’ll join us as we move forward.
Sean Rehaag
Refugee Law Lab Director