Emmaline English

Contact Details

Emmaline English

Assistant: Lori Glaseman

She/Her

Emmaline joined Woodward and Company as a Lawyer in 2024 after having completed shared articles with Woodward & Co and the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria and summer work term at Woodard & Co.

Emmaline is driven by her commitment to serve Indigenous communities as they assert jurisdiction, address historic and ongoing colonial injustices, and revitalize their legal systems. Her practice focuses on Aboriginal rights litigation, governance, and lands and she has assisted non-profits and First Nations on environmental conservation and sustainability. She has also appeared before the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Emmaline is a settler of mixed British, Irish and Ashkenazi Jewish descent and grew up on the traditional territory of the Six Nations of the Grand River (Waterloo, Ontario). She now has the privilege to live and work on lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Unceded Territories. Emmaline earned a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the University of Ottawa (2014), graduating summa cum laude, and JD/JID degrees (Common law and Indigenous legal orders) from the University of Victoria (2023) (with a concentration in Environmental Law and Sustainability). Emmaline also has a Master of Arts from Dalhousie University and has worked for the federal government in Crown-Indigenous Relations. While at law school, Emmaline served on the executive of the fem-law student club, completed research assistantships and experiential learning opportunities on the advancement of Indigenous governance and conservation legal principles, and co-authored and presented a paper on the intersections of Indigenous law and colonial contract law. She was the recipient of the Gold Medal from the Law Society of British Columbia, and the Law Foundation of BC Public Interest Award.

Membership & Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Law Society of British Columbia (2024)
  • Member, Canadian Bar Association (2024)

Practice Areas

  • Aboriginal and Treaty Rights
  • Employment and Human Rights
  • First Nation Constitutions, Laws & Policy
  • Governance support
  • Indigenous Legal Orders and Law
  • Land Code
  • Land Interests
  • Specific Claims
  • Wills and Estates

Selected Presentations & Publications

Alan Hanna and Emmaline English, “Can a Moose Be A Party to a Contract? Nuanced Spaces for Indigenous Perspectives in Canadian Contract Law” (delivered at the Canadian Law of Obligations: The Power and Limits of Private Law Conference, Vancouver, BC, June 23, 2022) in M. Moore, S. Beswick, eds. (2023) 109 SCLR (2d); Environmental Law Centre, “Protecting Indigenous Cultural Heritage Resources” (2023), online:

https://elc.uvic.ca/publications/protecting-indigenous-cultural-heritage-resources-on-private-land/

 

  • Law Society of British Columbia Gold Medal (2023)
  • Terry J. Wuester Graduation Award in Law (2023)
  • James H.C. Walker Memorial Award (2023)
  • Law Foundation of BC Public Interest Award (2023)
  • Bonnie Bryan Memorial Scholarship (2021)
  • Alexander, Holburn, Beaudin and Lang Scholarship (2020)
  • Predoctoral Killam Scholarship (2015)
  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2014)