Adelle Blackett, F.R.S.C., Ad. E., is Professor of Law and Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law and Development at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. She holds a B.A. in History from Queen's University, a dual degree in Common Law and Civil Law from McGill University, and an LL.M. and J.D. from Columbia University. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Queen's University and the Université catholique de Louvain.
An elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she has been a visiting professor and senior lecturer at leading institutions around the world, and has received the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship. She publishes in the area of transnational labor law, with an emphasis on decolonial approaches. Her 2019 book manuscript, Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers' Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law (Cornell University Press) won the 2020 Scholarly Book Award from the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL). Her current research, funded by SSHRC (Insight Grant), focuses on slavery and the law and supports her role as general rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery for the International Academy of Comparative Law, of which she is an elected associate member. An innovative educator, she was awarded the 2020 McGill Principal's Prize for Excellence in Teaching (full professor category) and the 2019 Canadian Association of Law Teachers' Advancing Knowledge in Teaching and Learning Law Award.
Professor Blackett brings her knowledge to the human rights and labour rights community both internationally and domestically. Internationally, she has served as the lead expert for the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a labour treaty process for domestic workers, and led a social dialogue process to develop a draft Haitian labour code. She is a member of the ILO Advisory Committee on Trade and Labor.
At the national level, she was unanimously appointed by the Quebec National Assembly to the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. She also chaired the Federal Committee of Experts on Human Rights. In July 2021, she was appointed by the federal Minister of Labour to chair the new Task Force on the Review of Canada's Employment Equity Act.
Professor Blackett has been active in promoting equity in the academic community at McGill and beyond. She founded the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty Caucus and served as its first convenor. She is the principal drafter of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education and a member of its inter-institutional steering committee.
Professor Blackett's work has also been recognized by the Quebec Bar's Christine Tourigny Merit and Emeritus status, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers Pathfinder Award.