Rate My Professor Yan Campagnolo

Yan Campagnolo is a Full Professor in the Common Law Section of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. He holds a Licentiate in Laws (LLL) from the Civil Law Section and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the Common Law Section of the University of Ottawa, where he graduated summa cum laude and received the Gold Medal for highest standing in law. He earned a Master of Laws (LLM) in public international law from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, as a recipient of the Right Honourable Paul Martin Sr. Scholarship, and a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) in constitutional law from the University of Toronto, Massey College, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Professor Campagnolo is a member of the Ontario Bar and served as a law clerk to Justice Morris Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada from 2004 to 2005.

He joined the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa in 2006 as an assistant professor, also serving as assistant dean and co-director of graduate studies in law until 2008. From 2008 to 2015, he practised as counsel for the Privy Council Office, advising on Supreme Court of Canada constitutional litigation, commissions of inquiry, democratic reform, and access to information. In 2015, he joined the Common Law Section as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2020, and to full professor in 2024. He served as vice-dean of the French Common Law Program from 2023 to 2025 and currently serves as faculty advisor to the Ottawa Law Review. His research focuses on constitutional law, cabinet secrecy, access to information law, administrative law, comparative law, public international law, and trusts. He is the author of Behind Closed Doors: The Law and Politics of Cabinet Secrecy (UBC Press, 2021) and its French edition Le secret ministériel: théorie et pratique (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2020), and co-author of La Constitution canadienne (Dundurn, 2019). He received the 2025 AJEFO Ordre du mérite for advancing access to justice in French and awards from the Canadian Legal Research Foundation and Quebec Bar Foundation for his doctoral work. He leads initiatives to improve access to Canadian common law for French-speaking communities and has contributed to edited volumes and peer-reviewed articles on administrative and constitutional topics.