At the Faculty of Law, she leads a research program based on two main axes: international justice and reparation for human rights violations (Axis 1); and the interplay between human rights, new technologies and the empowerment of individuals and communities (Axis 2). She is also the founder of the International Justice and Human Rights Laboratory, where she supervises interdisciplinary research teams developing a specialized technological platform for the analysis of human rights jurisprudence. The project, developed in partnership with the Centre d'expertise numérique en recherche (CEN-R) of the University of Montreal, received a research infrastructure grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through the John R. Evans Leaders Fund, and a second grant from the Government of Quebec for the creation of the digital research infrastructure, for a total of nearly $400,000 (phase 1).

Before her academic career, Professor Cohen gained extensive experience in international organizations. She worked in the legal department at the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) and previously at the Appeals Chamber and Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She has also served as a Harvard Law School researcher, as rapporteur for a committee of experts on a draft convention on crimes against humanity, and as a member of a delegation to UN treaty negotiation in Geneva. As legal counsel (international law expert), she acted for the Republic of Panama before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Hamburg). As a member of the Quebec Bar, she has worked in a major law firm in Montreal and offered her expertise in pro bono cases.

Recipient of several awards, fellowships and grants, including from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canadian Bar Association (Law for the Future Fund) and the Legal Research Foundation, she works with several interdisciplinary and international research teams, and her research has been published in law journals and textbooks in Canada, the United States, Europe, South Korea and Brazil (her home country). She is the author of Realizing Reparative Justice for International Crimes: from Theory to Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and co-author of the third edition of the Précis de droit international public with Professor Stéphane Beaulac (LexisNexis, 2021).

Professor Cohen acts regularly as a consultant and trainer in international law. In addition, she is a rapporteur for the Oxford University Press project on international organizations and a member of the boards of the Canadian Council on International Law and the Quebec Society of International Law. Before joining the University of Montreal, she was an Assistant Professor of Law at Lakehead University (Ontario), where she lectured on international law and Canadian public law from 2015 to 2018. Professor Cohen is originally from Brazil and she works in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French, and has basic knowledge of Italian and Dutch.

Affiliations

Membre – CRDP — Centre de recherche en droit public
Membre – CICC — Centre international de criminologie comparée
Membre – CÉRIUM — Centre d'études et de recherches internationales
Membre – Observatoire des mesures visant la sécurité nationale

Education Programs

Law
Law Economics and Politics
Law Economics and Politics
Law Economics and Politics
Law Economics and Politics

Courses

DRT6830D Droit international public avancé
DRT6853 Droit pénal international

Expertises

Research projects Expand all Collapse all

Centre de Recherche en Droit Prospectif ( CRDP ) Projet de recherche au Canada / 2020 - 2028

Lead researcher : Vincent Gautrais , Nicolas Vermeys

Co-researchers : Violaine Lemay , Hugo Tremblay , Catherine Régis , Derek McKee , Marianne Quirouette , Jean-Louis Denis , Mylène Jaccoud , Pierre Trudel , Miriam Cohen , Pierre Noreau , Karim Benyekhlef , Annick Provencher , Marion Vacheret , Aude Motulsky , Catherine Piché , Georges Azzaria , Véronique Guèvremont , Christine Vézina , Jean-Frédéric Morin , Corinne Gendron , Shauna Van Praagh , Robert Sladek , Richard Gold , Fabien Gélinas , Lara Khoury , Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse , Yann Joly , Ma'n Hilmi Mohammad Zawati , Louis-Martin Rousseau , Ryad Titah , Bartha Maria Knoppers , Pierre-Luc Déziel , Nandini Ramanujam , Karine Gentelet , Emmanuelle Marceau , Ignacio Cofone , Françoise Bichai , Sébastien Jodoin Pilon

Funding sources: FRQSC/Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FQRSC)

Grant programs: PV129894-(RG) Programme Regroupements stratégiques

Canada Research Chair in Justice internationale et droits fondamentaux / international justice and human rights Projet de recherche au Canada / 2021 - 2026

Lead researcher : Miriam Cohen

Funding sources: SPIIE/Secrétariat des programmes interorganismes à l’intention des établissements

Grant programs: PVX50399-Chaires de recherche du Canada

Centre international de criminologie comparée (CICC) Projet de recherche au Canada / 2017 - 2025

Lead researcher : Rémi Boivin , Carlo Morselli (In memoriam)

Co-researchers : Frédéric Ouellet , Jean Proulx , Jean-Pierre Guay , Massimiliano Mulone , Samuel Tanner , Karine Côté-Boucher , Isabelle V. Daignault , Anthony Amicelle , Jean Bérard , Marc Ouimet , Maurice Cusson , Serge Brochu , Amissi Melchiade Manirabona , Denis Lafortune , Franca Cortoni , Céline Bellot , Francis Fortin , David Décary-Hétu , Jo-Anne Wemmers , Étienne Blais , Benoît Dupont , Chloé Leclerc , David Grondin , Anne Crocker , Jean Trépanier , Marianne Quirouette , Catherine Arseneault , Tamsin Higgs , Miriam Cohen , Chantal Plourde , Aurélie Campana , Isabelle Fortin-Dufour , Nadine Deslauriers-Varin , Patrick Lussier , Marc Alain , Martin Drapeau , Jason Carmichael , Marie Manikis , Stéphane Leman-Langlois , Decio Coviello , Monique Tardif , Natacha Brunelle , Christian Joyal , Sylvie Hamel , Julie Lefebvre , Julie Carpentier , Frank Crispino , Nina Admo , Serge Charbonneau , Michelle Cote , Estibaliz Jimenez , Yanick Charette , Amélie Couvrette , André Lajeunesse , Emmanuel Milot , Benjamin Ducol , Annie Gendron , Enid Gabriella Coleman , Mathilde Turcotte , Carolyn Côté-Lussier , Cyril Muehlethaler , Jan Doering , Elsa Euvrard , Shari Forbes , Maxime Bérubé , Jonathan James

Funding sources: FRQSC/Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FQRSC)

Grant programs: PV129894-(RG) Programme Regroupements stratégiques

Laboratoire de justice internationale et droits fondamentaux Projet de recherche au Canada / 2021 - 2024

Lead researcher : Miriam Cohen

Funding sources: FCI/Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation

Grant programs: PVXXXXXX-Fonds des leaders

Potentialiser le leadership normatif de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé: une étude internationale Projet de recherche au Canada / 2020 - 2024

Funding sources: CRSH/Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada

Grant programs: PVXXXXXX-Subvention Savoir

Defining reparations for victims of violent crimes: a comparative analysis Projet de recherche au Canada / 2018 - 2023

Lead researcher : Miriam Cohen

Funding sources: CRSH/Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada

Grant programs: PV153480-Subventions de développement Savoir

Supplément COVID-19 CRSH / Defining reparations for victims of violent crimes: a comparative analysis Projet de recherche au Canada / 2020 - 2021

Lead researcher : Miriam Cohen

Funding sources: CRSH/Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada

Grant programs: PVXXXXXX-Supplément à l’appui des étudiants, des stagiaires postdoctoraux et du personnel de soutien à la recherche COVID-19

Étude comparée des droits de la personne Projet de recherche au Canada / 2018 - 2021

Lead researcher : Miriam Cohen

Recognition and Awards

Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and International Reparative Justice ($ 600 000)

John R. Evans Leaders Fund, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)

Additional Information

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