First Year of Call
2001

Areas of Practice
Human Rights, International Law

Description
Sujit Choudhry is Head of Chambers for Hāki Chambers Global. He practices constitutional law, in Canada and globally (through Sujit Choudhry Professional Corporation).

Sujit has a broad public law practice on questions of constitutional law, administrative law, public international law, and international human rights law in the Canadian courts, including in judicial reviews, appeals, and arbitrations. He frequently appears as counsel, including in the Supreme Court of Canada, in Charkaoui (security certificates), and in Khadr 1 and Khadr 2 (Guantanamo detainees).

He has litigated and advised on public law issues in a wide variety of contexts, including social media, political party governance, public health, national security, telecommunications, aviation, labour relations, agriculture, education, social assistance, social services, gaming, democratic reform, and emergency powers.

He is currently leading one of the challenges to the public order emergency declared under the Emergencies Act and is counsel before the Public Order Emergency Commission (the Rouleau Commission).

Sujit is often retained by other lawyers to work with them on complex constitutional cases, including to serve as co-counsel. He also frequently appears as counsel for, or co-counsel with, legal clinics and public interest organizations.

He also has an extensive counsel practice, providing advice on complex constitutional issues to individuals, large and small corporations, Canadian governments, foreign governments, government commissions and committees, public sector agencies, industry trade associations, and international organizations.

For over 20 years, Sujit has been an advisor to constitutional reform, democracy support and peace processes, including in Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Libya, Myanmar, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yemen and Zimbabwe. He has lectured or spoken in three dozen countries.

He founded and directs the Center for Constitutional Transitions (Center for Constitutional Transitions) (CT) which generates and mobilizes knowledge in support of constitution building by assembling and leading international networks of experts to produce evidence-based policy options for decision-makers and agenda-setting research, in partnership with a global network of multilateral organizations, think tanks, and NGOs. CT has worked with over 50 experts from over 25 countries.

Sujit is a Senior Advisor to the Forum of Federations, and sits on the International Advisory Board of the International Institute for Integrated Transitions. He is currently co-convenor of the Initiative on Apex Court Appointments.

He served as Law Clerk to former Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada before being called to the Bar of Ontario in 2001.

For nearly two decades, Sujit was a full-time constitutional law scholar at the University of Toronto, NYU, and UC Berkeley (where he served as Dean). He has published over 100 articles, book chapters, working papers, and reports, and he has lectured or spoken in over three dozen countries. His work has been cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and courts across Canada.