Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, who was born in 1946 to Jewish parents in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, has been appointed by Harvard Law School to a chair endowed in the name of Samuel Pisar, a lawyer, memoirist and Holocaust survivor.
Abella, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004, becoming the court’s first Jewish justice and first refugee to serve on the bench. Abella, 74, will reach the court’s mandatory retirement age in July when she turns 75.
The three-year appointment as Pisar Visiting Professor of Law begins July 1, 2022. Abella, who is world-famous for her legal expertise, will be the first Canadian jurist given a chair at Harvard.
A statement by Harvard Law Today noted that Abella has “made groundbreaking contributions to the law in her 50-year career, including in human rights, constitutional law, law reform, labor rights, family law, international law, administrative law, and judicial education. “
“Justice Abella is a brilliant, principled, and impactful jurist who also has had a storied career of public service off the Court, including her transformative work defining equality rights in employment,” said John F. Manning, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean at Harvard Law School. “She will bring extensive experience, knowledge, wisdom, and commitment to equal justice to the classroom and to her engagement with the entire (Harvard Law School) community.”
At Harvard Law School, Abella will be tasked with running workshops, seminars and reading groups on a multitude of subjects, including comparative law, human rights, and the role of judges in a democratic society.
In 1950, when her family immigrated to Canada, her lawyer father Jacob Silberman was not allowed to practice law, due to being a non-citizen. From an early age, Abella resolved to become a lawyer.