2025 Vincent Lemieux Prize

Winner: Meaghan Williams, Toronto

The Same River, Together: Theorizing and Assessing Shared Rule in Treaty Federalism

Excerpt from jury report: This dissertation assesses the merit of treaty federalism for shaping the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state. Its main argument is that treaty federalism, in sharp contrast to frequently raised criticisms, allows for meaningful shared rule. It develops a sharing protocol that can be used to evaluate concrete attempts at furthering shared rule in the Canadian federation. Thoughtful, smart, and interesting, this dissertation makes a valuable contribution to a topic of importance both inside and outside academia.