Elizabeth Kirley
Professor of Technology and Law
PhD, LLM, JD, BEd, BA
Dr Elizabeth Kirley is currently teaching at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto and Deakin University in Melbourne Australia where she serves as Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Law. She is called to the Ontario bar and has served as Assistant Crown Attorney, Criminal defence counsel, and representative of the Office of the Children's Lawyer for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. She holds PhD and LLM degrees from Osgoode, and a JD from the University of Western Ontario. Her life before law involved broadcast journalism.
Dr Kirley's more recent research focuses on technology law, cybercrime, artificial intelligence, and cognitive robotics as they engage issues of data retention, global health, reputational privacy, national security, and evidentiary challenges raised by the emerging law of digital speech. In a series of publications, co-authored with Dr Marilyn McMahon, the emoji is examined as a tool of crime, a precursor of digital speech, and a means of conveying human diversity through social media. Dr Kirley is currently working on an article featuring institutional analysis of police and military collaborations in times of public emergency and a book project titled The Next Pandemic: The Law And Biotechnology of Global Health Crises.
Dr Kirley has received various distinctions for her work, including a Canada/France Foreign Government Award, European Union Centre of Excellence Award, the Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Program, the Osnabruck University Law & Culture Award, and two Nathanson Centre Fellowships at Osgoode Hall Law School. Dr Kirley has taught, conducted research, and presented her work at different universities including the American Graduate School of Paris, l' École des hautes études commerciales de Paris, Sciences-Po University (Paris), the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs, the International University Seminar in Chicago, the Quello School of Communications at Michigan State University, the University of Limerick Faculty of Law, Ireland, and the Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (Lisbon) in Portugal.