Debra McKenzie

Associate faculty

Humanitarian Studies

Debra McKenzie’s research focus is legal development at the margins of change. She is interested in how local perspectives of justice are impacted by legal change, in particular, she has studied the development of legal systems in the South Pacific region and the impact of colonialism on that development.

Experience

McKenzie graduated from law school in 1986 and worked as a research lawyer in Vancouver for a number of years. Overseas, she developed a database for Maritime Law for PACLII in Vanuatu, taught Tort Law at the University of the South Pacific for two years and worked in the office of the Attorney General in the Kingdom of Tonga for a year. More recently she taught Indigenous Justice Perspectives at Royal Roads University and the Professional Legal Training Course in Kamloops for the BC Law Society.

Education

2017
PhD (faculty of law)

University of Victoria

1995
LLM

University of the South Pacific

1986
LLB

University of Victoria