Windsor Law Professors, Marcia Valiante, Maureen Irish and Myra Tawfik
Two longtime faculty members, Professor Maureen Irish and Professor Marcia Valiante, announced their retirement this spring.
Professors Irish and Valiante have been pillars at Windsor Law for many years teaching hundreds of students over the duration of their academic careers.
Professor Irish dedicated 37 years to Windsor Law. Her teaching contributions date back to the class of 1980. She taught International Economic Law, International Business Transactions, Canada/US Issues, Transportation Law, International Dispute Resolution, Conflicts (Private International Law), Judicial Review, Commercial Law, Property, and Statutory Interpretation. She publishes regularly on trade and development, World Trade Organization (WTO) law, climate change, regionalism, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and Canadian customs tariff law. She has served on dispute settlement panels under the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Professor Valiante also announced retirement after devoting 25 years to teaching law. Valiante taught courses in Canadian Environmental Law, Municipal Law, Land Use Planning Law, and International Environmental Law. Her research and publications cover a range of issues in Canadian environmental law and policy, Canada-U.S. environmental relations with a focus on the Great Lakes, water law, and citizen access to environmental decision-making.
She helped spearhead North America’s first Transnational Environmental Law Clinic, a partnership with Wayne State University that teaches students skills and strategies required to affect environmental policy. She sits on the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Science Advisory Board and is active in the Detroit River Canadian Cleanup. In May 2007, she was appointed a part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal.
Maureen and Marcia are both widely respected as a law teachers, mentors and researchers. They leave big shoes to fill at the Faculty.