Gib van Ert

I have a litigation practice including trials, petitions/applications, appeals and advisory work. My particular practice areas are as follows.

Public law, including: judicial reviews of administrative action; statutory appeals; Charter challenges; other constitutional challenges; judicial conduct matters; charity revocation appeals under the Income Tax Act.

National security, including: proceedings under ss. 38ff of the Canada Evidence Act; appeals under the Secure Air Travel Act ("no-fly list"); cases involving the powers of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.

International law, including: application of conventional and customary international law in Canadian courts; internationally informed judicial reviews of administrative action; legal effect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canadian law.

Private law, including: land law disputes; wills and estates claims; contracts; defamation; negligence, nuisance, trespass and other civil wrongs.

Called to the British Columbia bar, 2004.

Called to the bar of Ontario, 2018.

Made King's Counsel (BC), 2025.

From 2015 to 2018 I served as Executive Legal Counsel (ELO) to two successive chief justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Rt Hon Beverley McLachlin PC and the Rt Hon Richard Wagner PC. The ELO is the chief justice's principal advisor on all matters relating to the operation of the Court, media relations, the Canadian Judicial Council, the National Judicial Institute, and the Court's relationship with relevant federal government departments, chiefly the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Justice.

From 2021 to 2024 I served as President of the Canadian Council on International Law, the country's leading organization for the promotion of public international law in Canada.

• Board member and former president, Canadian Council on International Law

• Member, Supreme Court Advocacy Institute

• Member, American Society of International Law

• Member, County of Carleton Law Association

• Member, Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario

Books and major contributions

G. van Ert, Using International Law in Canadian Courts, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law / University of Toronto Press, 2024).

R.J. Currie, P.M. Saunders, O.D. Akinkugbe, P. Akhavan, K. Boon, C. Jefferies, G. MacNeil, G. van Ert and C. Waters, Kindred’s International Law: Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada, 10th ed. (Toronto: Emond Publishing, 2025).

G. van Ert, “Engagement of Canadian Courts with International Law,” in A. Nollkaemper, Y. Shany and A. Tzanakopoulos, eds., The Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law: Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024) 143–164.

P.M. Saunders, R.J. Currie, P. Akhavan, J. Brunnée, G. van Ert and others, Kindred’s International Law: Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada, 9th ed. (Toronto: Emond Publishing, 2019), contributor to ch. 3, “Reception of International Law in Canada.”

G. van Ert, “The Domestic Application of International Law in Canada,” in C.A. Bradley, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019) 501–518.

G. van Ert, “The Reception of International Law in Canada: Three Ways We Might Go Wrong,” in O.E. Fitzgerald, V. Hughes and M. Jewett, eds., Reflections on Canada’s Past, Present and Future in International Law / Réflexions sur le passé, le présent et l’avenir du Canada en matière de droit international (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018).

G. van Ert, “Canada,” in D. Sloss, ed., The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement: A Comparative Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) 166–208.

G. van Ert, Using International Law in Canadian Courts, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2008).

G. van Ert and S. Matiation, “Labour Conventions and Comprehensive Claim Agreements: A New Model for Subfederal Participation in Canadian International Treaty-Making,” in O.E. Fitzgerald, ed., The Globalized Rule of Law: Relationships between International and Domestic Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006) 203.

G. van Ert, “What Is Reception Law?” in O.E. Fitzgerald, ed., The Globalized Rule of Law: Relationships between International and Domestic Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006) 85.

G. van Ert and S. Matiation, “L’arrêt des Conventions du travail et la négociation d’ententes globales sur les revendications des Autochtones : un nouveau modèle pour une participation infranationale à l’élaboration des traités internationaux du Canada,” in O.E. Fitzgerald, ed., Règle de droit et mondialisation : rapports entre le droit international et le droit interne (Cowansville, QC: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2006).

G. van Ert, “Qu’est-ce que le droit de la réception?” in O.E. Fitzgerald, ed., Règle de droit et mondialisation : rapports entre le droit international et le droit interne (Cowansville, QC: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2006).

M. Freeman and G. van Ert, eds., International Human Rights Law: Texts, Cases and Materials (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2005).

G. van Ert, “What Is Treaty Implementation?” in Legitimacy and Accountability in International Law: Proceedings of the Canadian Council on International Law 2004 (Ottawa: Canadian Council on International Law, 2005) 165–174.

M. Freeman and G. van Ert, International Human Rights Law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2004).

G. van Ert, Using International Law in Canadian Courts (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2002).

G. van Ert, “Nationality, State Succession, and the Right of Option: The Case of Quebec,” in I. Molinaro and C. Rolfe, eds., Focus on Quebec 2: Further Essays on Quebecois Society and Culture (Edinburgh: British Association for Canadian Studies, 2000) 54–72.

Articles, essays and professional commentary

G. van Ert, R.J. Currie and A. Rock, “If It Comes to It, Canadian Courts Can and Must Be Ready to Resist U.S. Annexation,” Policy Options (26 March 2025).

G. van Ert and L. Abrioux, “Ensuring Consistency with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: The Need for a Joint Audit of Existing Laws” (2022) 80:1 The Advocate 23–28.

G. van Ert, “POGG and Treaties: The Role of International Agreements in National Concern Analysis” (2020) 43:2 Dalhousie Law Journal 901.

G. van Ert, “The Impression of Harmony: Bill C-262 and the Implementation of the UNDRIP in Canadian Law” 2018 CanLIIDocs 252.

G. van Ert, “A Suitable Population: British Columbia’s Japanese Treaty Act Litigation, 1920–1923” (2017) 3(1) Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law 133–158.

G. van Ert, “Three Good Reasons Why UNDRIP Can’t Be Law — And One Good Reason Why It Can” (2017) 75:1 The Advocate 29–36.

G. van Ert, “Portes et fenêtres — Louis LeBel et l’approche québécoise relative à l’interprétation du droit interne à la lumière du droit international” (2016) 57:2 Les Cahiers de droit 269–283.

G. van Ert, “Torture and the Supreme Court of Canada” (2014) 65 University of New Brunswick Law Journal 21.

G. van Ert, “Three Obstacles to a Successful Cost Recovery Action in Residential Oil Tank Cases” (2014) 72:4 The Advocate 503–508.

G. van Ert, “Investor-State Arbitration Arrives in Canada,” The Lawyers Weekly (12 September 2008) 7, 10.

G. van Ert, “A Return to International Law in Constitutional Adjudication” (2008) 1 Revue québécoise de droit constitutionnel.

G. van Ert, “Hape: International Law Expands Reach into Formerly Domestic Areas of Law,” The Lawyers Weekly (24 August 2007) 9, 13.

G. van Ert, “The Admissibility of International Legal Evidence” (2005) 84 Canadian Bar Review 31–46.

G. van Ert, “International Law Does Bind Canadian Courts: A Reply” (2004) 30:1 Canadian Council on International Law Bulletin.

G. van Ert, “Judicial Notice and Reception Theory: Thoughts on the Contribution of Ronald St-John Macdonald” [2002] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 251–264.

G. van Ert, “The Problems and Promise of Spraytech v. Hudson” [2001] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 371–385.

G. van Ert, “The Legal Character of Provincial Agreements with Foreign Governments” (2001) 42 Les Cahiers de droit 1093–1124.

G. van Ert, “Using Treaties in Canadian Courts” [2000] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 3–87.

D. Turp and G. van Ert, “International Recognition in the Supreme Court of Canada’s Quebec Reference” [1998] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 335–346.

G. van Ert, “Nationality, State Succession, and the Right of Option: The Case of Québec” [1998] Canadian Yearbook of International Law 151–180.

In addition, Gib van Ert has prepared the Yearbook’s “Canadian Cases in Public International Law” survey, alone or with co-authors, from 2004 to the present.

Book reviews and practice publications

G. van Ert, review of André Nollkaemper, National Courts and the International Rule of Law (2012) 49 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 632–635.

G. van Ert, review of Using International Law in Domestic Courts [2006] Cambridge Law Journal 460.

M. Stephens and G. van Ert, “Administrative Law,” in Annual Review of Law & Practice (Vancouver: Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, 2009).

M. Oulton, S. Ramsay and G. van Ert, “Court Rules,” in S. Munro and others, eds., Annual Review of Law & Practice (Vancouver: Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, 2006) 61–76.

McGill University

BA (Hons)

1991 - 1995

Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge

MA

1996 - 1998

University of Toronto

LLM

1999 - 2001