Elizabeth Kirley
Elizabeth Kirley
Professor of Law & Technology
PhD, LLM, JD, BEd, BA
Bio
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. As a Visiting Scholar at Osgoode’s Nathanson Centre for Transnational Human Rights, Crime, and Security (2022-24) she has completed one book project on pandemic law 'Outsmarting the Next Pandemic' (released 2021) and a second book for University of Toronto Press (Big Crime and Big Policing: All about Big Money?) released in 2025. Audiobooks are available for both publications.
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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.
Outsmarting the Next Pandemic
Edited by
Elizabeth Anne Kirley & Deborah Porter
"The pandemic has exhibited and intensified material inequalities of all kinds within and between states...This book does not shy away from this reality; instead it adopts a forward-looking approach that takes seriously the call to solidarity in an effort to explore practical policy solutions...Congratulations to the editors and authors."
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-Professor Heidi Matthews,
Co-director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security
"Choosing "smart" for our title is a bold act, signifying hope that we can muster intelligence, embolden creativity in the hunt for solutions, and come out of this pandemic dilemma the wiser."
-Elizabeth Anne Kirley
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Big Crime and Big Policing: All about Big Money?
Edited by
Tonita Murray
Elizabeth Anne Kirley
&
Stephen Schneider
“This collection effectively links the notions of big money, big crime, and big policing. Murray, Kirley, and Schneider offer an approach that is based in current literature and which connects these three topics in an innovative way. Compiling this strong material together in a single volume is a significant contribution to the academic literature and will give a boost to those who are trying to change the current system of ignoring much of this Big Crime.”
-Rick Linden, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba
“This eclectic collection of essays approaches commercial crimes from a variety of perspectives: sociological, economic, political, historical, and journalistic. The authors reveal how big crime is more extensive, complex, profitable, and threatening to the social and economic fabric than what has been labelled as organized, white-collar, and street-level crime. This is a significant contribution to the criminological literature on major crimes committed by organizational structures.”
-Fred Desrochers, Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo
