Noah Weisbord

Biography

Noah Weisbord is an Associate Professor at McGill Law. His research focuses on the role of the criminal law in managing, reflecting, or exacerbating intergroup conflict. One current project examines self-defence in Canadian criminal law from historical, comparative, and conceptual perspectives. Another is a study of group liability doctrines including seditious conspiracy, joint criminal enterprise, and RICO in international and comparative perspective. Noah is a leading expert on the crime of aggression—individual criminal responsibility for aggressive war—and he assisted diplomatic delegations to define the crime.  

Noah’s scholarly articles have appeared in the McGill Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, Harvard International Law Journal, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, Law and Contemporary Problems and other publications. Noah’s opinion and editorial commentary has been published in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail and the National Post. His monograph on the crime of aggression was published with Princeton University Press in 2019.  

Employment 

• Associate Professor, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2023- 

• Associate Professor, Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, 2018-2023 

• Visiting Professor, Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, 2017-2018 

• Associate Professor, Florida International University College of Law, 2013-2017 

• Assistant Professor, Florida International University College of Law, 2010-2013 

• Visiting Assistant Professor, Duke Law School, 2008-2010 

• Teaching Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2005-2006 

Education 

• Doctorate in Juridical Science (S.J.D.), Harvard Law School, 2004-2011 

• Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program, Harvard Law School, 2003-2004 

• Master of Social Work (M.S.W.), McGill University, 1999-2003 

• Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.), McGill University, 1999-2003 

• Bachelor of Common Law (LL.B.), McGill University, 1999-2003 

• Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.), McGill University, 1997-1998 

• Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. in Psychology), McGill University, 1994-1997 

Research

• Criminal law 

• Evidence 

• International Criminal Law 

• Comparative Criminal Law 

• Public International Law 

• Law and War 

Recent Professional Accomplishments

• Winner of The David Watson Memorial Award for “Licence to Khill: What Appellate Decisions Reveal About Canada’s New Self-Defence Law,” presented annually for the paper published in the Queen’s Law Journal judged to make the most significant contribution to legal scholarship 

• “Who’s Afraid of the Lucky Moose? Canada’s Dangerous Self-Defence Innovation,” cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Khill (2021) 

• Co-Chair of the Anti-Racism Working Group at Queen’s University, 2020-2021. 

• Member of the Council of Advisers on the Application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to Cyberwarfare, 2019-Present 

• Publication of The Crime of Aggression: the Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents and Autocrats (Princeton University Press, 2019) 

• Keynote Lecture, 2017 Annual McGill Law Graduate Conference, “Self-Defense in Climates of Fear.” 

• Invited expert participating in the activation of International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the crime of aggression alongside genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, United Nations Headquarters, 2017 

Selected Publications 

Books (Monograph) 

• Noah Weisbord, The Crime of Aggression: the Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents and Autocrats (Princeton University Press, 2019) 

Articles 

• Noah Weisbord, “Licence to Khill: What Appellate Decisions Reveal About Canada’s New Self-Defence Law,” 46(1) Queen’s Law Journal 97 (2020) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Who’s Afraid of the Lucky Moose? Canada’s Dangerous Self-Defence Innovation,” 64(2) McGill Law Journal 349 (2018) (published summer 2020). 

• Noah Weisbord, “A Practitioner’s Bildungsroman: Book Review of Payam Akhavan’s In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey,” Journal of Human Rights Practice (July 2019) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Bargaining Practices: Negotiating the Kampala Compromise,” 76 (3) Law & Contemporary Problems, 85 (Winter 2014) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Judging Aggression,” 50(1) Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 82 (Winter 2012) 

• Noah Weisbord & Matthew Smith, “The Reason Behind the Rules: From Description to Normativity in International Criminal Procedure,” 36 North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation 255 (Winter 2011) 

• Noah Weisbord, “The 1990s and the Use of Force: Anxiety, Realignment and New Justifications,” 22 (1) Global Change, Peace & Security 129 (February 2010) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Conceptualizing Aggression,” 20(1) Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 1 (Fall 2009) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Prosecuting Aggression,” 49 Harvard International Law Journal 168 (Winter 2008) 

Chapters 

• Noah Weisbord, “Civil Society,” in The Crime of Aggression: A Commentary, Claus Kreß and Stefan Barriga, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2017) 

• Noah Weisbord and Carla Reyes, “War Crimes,” in International Crime and Justice, Mangai Natarajan, ed. 321 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) 

Opinion and Editorial 

• Noah Weisbord, “Canada’s self-defence laws are too sweeping, and the Supreme Court just gave them a pass,” The Globe and Mail. Toronto: October 18, 2021 

• Noah Weisbord, “To deter war in the Gulf and elsewhere, hold leaders personally accountable for aggression,” The Globe and Mail. Toronto: July 12, 2019. 

• Noah Weisbord, “What does the Trump administration want from Iran?” The Conversation. Boston: June 13, 2019. 

• Noah Weisbord, “Canada’s rhetoric about strengthening the international order is at total odds with its actions at the UN,” The National Post. Toronto: June 20, 2017. 

• Noah Weisbord, “Who Started the Fight?” The New York Times (Global Edition). Paris: May 3, 2010. 

• Noah Weisbord, “You’re Under Arrest, Mr. President,” The New York Times (Global Edition). Paris: February 13, 2009: 6 

• Noah Weisbord, “A Dilemma in Northern Uganda; When Peace and Justice Clash,” International Herald Tribune. Paris: 29 April 2005: 8 

• Noah Weisbord, “Traditional Justice for a Genocide: Trials in Rwanda,” International Herald Tribune. Paris: 26 September 2003: 8 

Recent publications

• Noah Weisbord, “Licence to Khill: What Appellate Decisions Reveal About Canada’s New Self-Defence Law,” 46(1) Queen’s Law Journal 97 (2020) 

• Noah Weisbord, “Who’s Afraid of the Lucky Moose? Canada’s Dangerous Self-Defence Innovation,” 64(2) McGill Law Journal 349 (2018) (published summer 2020). 

• Noah Weisbord, “Canada’s self-defence laws are too sweeping, and the Supreme Court just gave them a pass,” The Globe and Mail. Toronto: October 18, 2021 

• Interview with Professor Lisa Kerr upon release of The Crime of Aggression: the Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents and Autocrats (Princeton University Press, 2019)