Peter Sankoff, BA (Concordia), JD (Toronto), LLM (Osgoode)

Professor, Faculty of Law - Admin

Contact

Professor, Faculty of Law - Admin
Email
psankoff@ualberta.ca
Phone
(780) 492-2599
Address
455 Law Centre
8820 - 111 St NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 2H5

Overview

About

Professor Peter Sankoff is an award-winning educator and researcher who focuses his work upon legal issues surrounding the criminal trial process and the relationship between animals and the law. He authors, co-authors or co-edits leading texts on the law of evidence (The Law of Witnesses and Evidence in Canada; the Portable Guide to Witnesses), criminal law (Manning, Mewett and Sankoff on Criminal Law, 5th ed.), legal writing (Professor Sankoff’s Guide to Persuasive Legal Writing) and animals and the law (Canadian Perspectives on Animals and the Law; Animal Law in Australasia: Continuing the Dialogue).

Peter graduated with a JD from the University of Toronto, and subsequently worked as a law clerk for Madame Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada. After pursuing an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall (York University), he joined the federal Department of Justice where he worked an advisor on human rights matters involving criminal justice. Peter then left Canada to teach as a Lecturer, and subsequently a Senior Lecturer, at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) from 2001-2011, before returning to the University of Alberta in 2012.

Peter has won numerous awards and recognition for his work on teaching pedagogy, including the 2016 Brightspace Award for Innovation in Teaching from the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and the 2014 Information Technology Innovation Award from the University of Alberta (awarded to the person at the University of Alberta who shows the most innovative use of technology in teaching or administration). He also won an Early Career Research Excellence Award from the University of Auckland in 2006.

Peter has taught as an invited visiting professor at the University of Ottawa (2004), Haifa University (Israel)(2008), the University of Melbourne(Australia)(2009) Lewis and Clark College of Law (Portland, Oregon)(2010), the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario)(2011-2012), Niigata University (Japan)(2012) and the University of Auckland (2013).

His work has been published in a number of the world’s most distinguished journals, including: the Queen’s Law Journal, the University of British Columbia Law Review, the Criminal Law Quarterly, the Alberta Law Review, The New Zealand Law Review and the Animal Law Review.

Peter has a real interest in the University of Alberta Moot Program. He has been a coordinator of the Brimacombe Moot Competition for several years, and in 2018 he coached the University of Alberta to victory in the Gale Cup, Canada’s preeminent criminal law moot, which Alberta had last won in 2001. In 2019, his team won the Gale Cup again becoming the first repeat winner since 1982. As a result of this win, the team qualified for the Commonwealth Law Moot in Zambia, where it competed against seven other national champions. Alberta ended up winning the Commonwealth Moot, the first time the University has ever achieved this honour. In 2020, Peter’s final year of coaching, Alberta won the Gale Cup for an unprecedented third time in a row.

Peter also works as a lawyer and has his own law firm, Sankoff Criminal Law. He is also the owner and founder of Criminal Defence Essentials, an educational company for criminal defence lawyers.


Research

  • Law of Evidence
  • Substantive Criminal Law
  • Criminal Justice Process
  • Animal Law
  • Constitutional Law in the Criminal Context

Courses

LAW 453 - Evidence

The principles, rules, and procedures governing the admissibility of evidence in criminal and civil trials. Topics include competence and compellability, relevance, prejudicial effect and probative value, and character, hearsay, and expert evidence.


LAW 558 - Animals and the Law

Over the past 50 years, the law has begun to regulate the human treatment of animals with increasing seriousness. Notwithstanding these developments, there are many concerns about the way our society treats the non-human animals in our care. This course explores the history, philosophy, and ethical foundation of humanity's treatment of animals and asks whether our current legal treatment of them accords with our stated goal of preventing unnecessary cruelty to animals. It also looks at common legal problems that arise under the existing paradigm, and considers what these problems reveal about our stated concern for non-human animals.


LAW 589 - Specialized Legal Topics

These courses will cover specialized topics of emerging importance in the law at a senior level in a format with a significant out-of-classroom component. The particular topic covered would vary dependent on the availability of Faculty with necessary teaching competence, student interest, and the needs of the legal profession.


LAW 599 - Seminars on Specialized Legal Topics

These seminars will cover specialized topics of emerging importance in the law at a senior level. The particular topic covered would vary dependent on the availability of Faculty with necessary teaching competence, student interest, and the needs of the legal profession. Sections may be offered at an increased rate of fee assessment; refer to the Tuition and Fees page in the University Regulations sections of the Calendar.


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