Law professor’s memory honoured with Air and Space fellowship

At the time of his death in 2004, Masao Sekiguchi was considered to be one of the world’s most influential aviation lawyers. He had served as Director of the Air Law Institute of Japan, Dean and Professor of Law at Tokyo’s Komazawa University and had played a pivotal role in developing unified rules for compensating victims of international air disasters. Yet Professor Sekiguchi had never forgotten his time as a graduate student at McGill’s Institute of Air & Space Law (IASL), where he earned his LL.M. in 1982.

To honour the role McGill played in advancing his career, Professor Sekiguchi’s widow, Teruko Sekiguchi, has established The Professor Masao Sekiguchi Fellowship in Air and Space law. Mrs. Sekiguchi’s generous donation of more than $100,000 was matched through challenge grant funding of $200,000.

“The Professor Masao Sekiguchi Fellowship in Air and Space Law will allow the Institute to recruit the best and brightest students in the field,” said Paul Dempsey, director of the IASL. “He was – and is – an inspiration to all graduates of the McGill Institute of Air & Space Law. This is a wonderful homage to his memory and his connection to McGill, and we are deeply grateful for Mrs. Sekiguchi’s generosity.”

The IASL also recently received funding to create the Erin J.C. Arsenault Fellowships in Space Governance, open to graduate students interested in advancing peace and security in outer space through law and policy.

For more information on the Professor Masao Sekiguchi Fellowship in Air and Space Law, please visit the Institute of Air and Space Law web site or the Faculty of Law's Graduate Admissions: Sekiguchi Fellowships web page.