Robert Diab

Professor

BA, MA (UWO), LLB, LLM, PhD (UBC)

Robert writes about constitutional and human rights, and topics in law and technology. This includes work on privacy, encryption, and AI, and on powers of detention, search, and public order policing. 

Robert is the author of Search and Seizure (in Irwin’s Essentials of Canadian Law series, with C. Hunt) (2023); The Harbinger Theory: How the Post-9/11 Emergency Became Permanent and the Case for Reform (Oxford UP, 2015); and Guantanamo North (Fernwood, 2008).

In 2014, Robert co-founded the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law and co-edited eight volumes of the journal on such topics as digital privacy, international law, and democratic decay.

Prior to teaching at TRU, Robert practiced criminal and administrative law in Vancouver. 

Links to his publications and course resources can be found here.

 Publications
Books
  • Search and Seizure (Irwin Law, 2023) [with Chris Hunt].
  • The Harbinger Theory: How the Post-9/11 Emergency Became Permanent and the Case for Reform (Oxford University Press, 2015).
  • Guantanamo North: Terrorism and the Administration of Justice in Canada (Fernwood Publishing: Halifax, 2008).
Journal Articles
  • "Too Dangerous to Deploy? The Challenge Language Models Pose to Regulating AI in Canada and the EU" (forthcoming 2024) UBC Law Review.
  • “‘Must the Police Refuse to Look?’ Resolving the Emerging Conflict in Search and Seizure Over Civilian Disclosure of Digital Evidence”. (forthcoming: 2024) McGill Law Journal.
  • “Harm to Self-Identity: Reading Goffman to Reassess the Use of Surreptitious Recordings as Evidence” (forthcoming: 2024) Manitoba Law Review.
  • "Public Order Policing in the Normal Course: a Proposal for a Charter-Compliant Federal Act” 46:2 Manitoba Law Journal 2023 (with Jamie Cameron)
  • “Surreptitious Recordings by Civilians in Criminal Trials: Challenging Their Admissibility at Common Law and Under the Charter” (forthcoming 2023) Canadian Criminal Law Review
  • "Searching Short-Term Rental Properties: When Will Police Require a Warrant?” (forthcoming 2023) Criminal Law Quarterly (with Colton Fehr)
  • “Reasonable Apprehension Under Mental Health Law” (2022) Queens Law Journal (with Jolene Sanderson)
  • “The Opioid Crisis and Section 7: Charter Implications of Safe Supply and Simple Possession” (forthcoming: 2022) 55:2 UBC Law Review (with Rose Morgan and Robyn Young)
  • “The Real Lesson of the Freedom Convoy ‘Emergency’: Canada Needs a Public Order Policing Act” (2022) 70 Criminal Law Quarterly
  • “Pathways to Police Adoption of Body and Dash Cameras in Canada: How and Why Parliament Should Intervene” (2022) 70 Criminal Law Quarterly (with Marshal Putnam)
  • “Striking the Right Balance? Complainant Privacy and Full Answer and Defence in the New First-party Records Regime” (2021) 69 Criminal Law Quarterly 191 (with Robyn Young)
  • "Search Engines and Global Takedown Orders: Google v Equustek and the Future of Free Speech Online" (2019) 56:2 Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 231
  • "Does the State Have a Compelling Interest in Searching Device Data at the Border? Emerging Approaches to Reasonable Search in Canada and the United States" (2018) Oxford U Comparative L Forum 1
  • "Protecting the Right to Privacy in Digital Devices: Reasonable Search on Arrest and at the Border" 69 University of New Brunswick Law Journal 96 (2018) (10,000 words)
  • "Justice as Invisibility: Law, Terror, and Dehumanization" (2016) 5 Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research (10,000 words).
  • "The Policing of Major Events in Canada: Lessons from Toronto's G20 and Vancouver's Olympics" (2016) Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues (16,000 words) (with W. Wesley Pue and Grace Jackson).
  • "R. v. Khawaja and the Fraught Question of Rehabilitation in Terrorism Sentencing" (2014) 39: 2 Queens Law Journal (10,000 words)
  • "Sentencing for Terrorism Offences: A Comparative Review of Emerging Jurisprudence" (2011) 15:3 Canadian Criminal Law Review (15,000 words).
  • "Security for the 2010 Olympics – The Gap in Police Powers Under Canadian Law" (2010) 28 Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues 87-107, (7,300 words) (with Wesley Pue)
Commissioned Report
  • “The Policing of Large-Scale Protests in Canada: Why Canada Needs a Public Order Policing Act” in The Honourable Paul S. Rouleau, Commissioner, Report of the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency, Volume 5: Policy Papers (Public Order Emergency Commission: Ottawa, February 2023).
Book Chapters
  • "The Demise of Rights as Trumps", in Ben Goold and Liora Lazarus, eds, Security and Human Rights, 2nd edition (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2019). (10,000 words)
  • "Counter-terror Law: Canada" in Kent Roach, ed., Comparative Counter Terror Law (Cambridge University Press, 2015) (14,000 words)
  • "Terrorism as Crime or War?" in Carolyn Brooks and Bernard Schissel, eds., Marginality and Condemnation: An Introduction to Criminology, 3rd edition (Fernwood Publishing: Halifax, 2015) (10,000 words)
  • "Sentencing of Terrorism Offences After 9/11: A Comparative Review of Early Case Law," in Craig Forcese and François Crépeau, eds., Terrorism, Law and Democracy: 10 Years After 9/11 (Montreal: Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 2011) (12,000 words)
  • "Reading Khadr: Making Sense of Canada's Reluctance To Do the Right Thing", in Janice Williams, ed., Omar Khadr, Oh Canada (McGill-Queens University Press: Montreal, 2012) (with Alnoor Gova)
Book Reviews
  • Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 2023 38:1, review of ‘Canadian Policing: Why and How It Must Change’ by Kent Roach (Delve Books: 2022).
  • New Media & Society, 2023 23:1, review of ‘Content’ by Kate Eichhorn (MIT Press: 2022).
  • Commonwealth Judicial Journal, 2022 26:2, review of The Courts and the People: Friend or Foe? (The Putney Debates 2019) (Hart: 2021).
  • University of Toronto Law Journal, 2017 67:1, review of 'False Security: The Radicalization of Canadian Anti-Terrorism,' by Craig Forcese and Kent Roach (Irwin: 2015).
  • Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 2015 30:3, review of 'The Disappearance of Criminal Law: Police Powers and the Supreme Court,' by Richard Jochelson and Kristen Kramar, with Mark Doerksen (Fernwood Publishing: Halifax and Winnipeg, 2014).
  • Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 2010 25:2, review of 'Canadian State Trials: Volume III – Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914 'Barry Wright and Susan Binnie, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).
  • Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 2007 22:1, review of 'How Patriotic is the Patriot Act?' by Amatai Etzioni (Routledge: New York, 2004).
  • The Advocate, Vol. 61, 2003, review of 'The British Columbia Civil Trial Handbook' ed. by D. Harris et al (C.L.E.: Vancouver, 2003).
  • Clarity, 45, 2000, review of 'Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose' by Francis-Noel Thomas and Mark Turner (Princeton UP: 2000).
Other law publications
  • "Compelling people to reveal their passwords is posing a challenge to police and courts" (27 May 2019) The Conversation | salon.com
  • "Is Password Compulsion Constitutional in Canada? Two Views" (July 2019) The Advocate (with Marshall Putnam)
  • "The Big Fail: The Internet Hasn't Helped Democracy" (15 October 2018) The Conversation
  • "Has ISIS Become the New Pretext for Curtailing Our Civil Liberties?" (June 2015) Oxford University Press blog
  • "Canada's Refugee Health Law and Policy from a Comparative, Constitutional, and Human Rights Perspective" (2015) 1:1 The Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law (14,000 words) (with Ruby Dhand).
  • "Security for the Olympics: British Columbia Needs a "Public Order Policing Act" The Advocate September 2009 (with Wesley Pue).
 Links
Robert Diab
Contact

Office:
OM 4765
Email:
rdiab@tru.ca
Phone:
778-471-8361

Courses
  • Evidence
    (LAWF 3920)
  • Advanced Criminal Law
    (LAWF 3570)
  • Crime: Law and Procedure
    (LAWF 3080)