John Borrows (supplied image)
John Borrows receives 2024 Guthrie Award from Law Foundation of Ontario
Published: August 12, 2024
John Borrows, professor and inaugural Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the Faculty of Law, has received the Law Foundation of Ontario's Guthrie Award, which recognizes exceptional champions of access to justice.
Borrows was recognized for his transformative impact on how the academic and legal sectors understand and intersect with Indigenous law and for his innovations in teaching that have been recognized both nationally and internationally.
Borrows is Anishinaabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario. He teaches a course to first-year law students that addresses the intersection of Indigenous Peoples’ laws with Canada's laws. Over the past decade, he has taught an intensive course in Anishinaabe law and legal tradition, often bringing students to his People's Neyaashiinigmiing reserve to meet with Elders, Chiefs, colleagues and teachers and experience Indigenous law in context.
“John has integrated Indigenous law rooted in Indigenous Peoples’ natural and social environment into the very heart of legal education,” says University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair. “His extraordinary work revivifying Indigenous law has also contributed to a re-envisioning of the potential of law and participatory democracy."
