Dr Elizabeth Kirley is a lawyer, educator and published author. She currently teaches in the Master of Laws program at Osgoode Professional Development, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She is a Visiting Scholar at Osgoode’s Nathanson Centre for Transnational Human Rights, Crime, and Security (2022-24) and has completed one book project on pandemic law 'Outsmarting the Next Pandemic' and a second book for University of Toronto Press (Big Crime, Big Policing: All about Big Money?) to be released in Fall, 2024. 

 

Dr Kirley is the recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award from Osgoode Hall Law School. Prior teaching appointments include in Osgoode’s juris doctor program (Criminal Law, National Security Law, Crime in the Digital Age and Law and Policing); York University’s Sociology Department (organized crime and money laundering; the sociology of policing); the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University in Melbourne Australia (internet law and statutory interpretation); and as Assistant Professor of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson).

 

Dr Kirley is called to the Ontario bar and has served as Assistant Crown Attorney and representative of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer for Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General. Elizabeth managed a sole practice as criminal defence counsel for over 15 years. She holds PhD and LLM degrees from Osgoode, and a JD from the University of Western Ontario. Her life before law involved establishing marketing departments for 3 of Canada's national museums, and broadcast journalism for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Dr Kirley’s PhD thesis, “Reputational Privacy and the Internet: a role for law?” has led to further research in social media law, cybercrime, and cognitive robotics related to journalism, defamation, national security, and evidentiary challenges raised by the emerging law of digital speech. Her work is published in several peer reviewed journals.