Sophie Thériault is Dean (interim) and Full Professor at the Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section) at the University of Ottawa. She is also a member of the Barreau du Québec (2003). Professor Theriault holds a doctorate from Laval University (LL.D. 2009), for which she earned a doctoral scholarship from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle (2004-2005) and at the University of Victoria (2005-2007). She also served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Louis LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2002-2003.
Professor Thériault served as Vice Dean, Graduate Studies in Law, at the University of Ottawa from 2015 to 2017, and as Vice Dean, Academic in the Civil Law Section from 2019 to 2023. She has been the Dean (by interim) of the Civil Law Section since January 2025.
Professor Thériault's research and publications focus on the rights of Indigenous peoples in the context of natural resource extraction, particularly mining; environmental governance by Indigenous peoples, particularly from the perspective of the interaction between Indigenous and state legal systems; and environmental justice and rights, particularly for Indigenous peoples.
Professor Thériault participates in several international and multidisciplinary research networks, including MinErALnorth_eastexternal link, WAGEnorth_eastexternal link, and Ărramătnorth_eastexternal link. She is also a member of the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones (CIÉRA) and the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS, University of Ottawa). She was a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) from 2020 to 2025.
Professor Thériault welcomes graduate students working in the following fields:
- Law and Indigenous peoples;
- Environmental Law and Sustainability;
- Environmental Justice and the Law;
- Land and natural resources governance.