Geoffrey Sigalet

Expert Overview

Geoffrey Sigalet is an Assistant Prof. of Political Science at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan Campus. His research investigates how constitutional principles such as the separation of powers, proportionality in rights adjudication, judicial independence, and parliamentary supremacy relate to democratic politics.

He has held research fellowships at McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies, Stanford Law School's Constitutional Law Center, and Queen's Law School. He received his PhD from Princeton University's Department of Politics in 2018 (public law and political theory). He holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Alberta and a MA in political theory from McGill.

He has published articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Queen’s Law Journal, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Supreme Court Law Review, and elsewhere. His co-edited collection Constitutional Dialogue: Rights, Democracy, Institutions was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. He is currently working on two book manuscripts: the first project is titled Dialogue and Domination: A Republican Theory of Judicial Review. It offers a comparative analysis of legislative power over rights questions in Canada, the US, New Zealand, and the UK. The second project is titled: Notwithstanding Courts: Legislative Power and the Charter. It will explain the politics of the Canadian Charter's "notwithstanding clause" and the wider story about how legislative power over rights questions has developed in the Canadian context since 1982.

He also writes public commentary on Canadian constitutional politics for venues such as The Hub, the National Post, and Policy Options. He is originally from Calgary, Alberta.