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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Natalie Oman
PhD, DJur

Associate Professor

Legal Studies

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Contact information

Bordessa Hall - Room 505
Downtown Oshawa
55 Bond Street East
Oshawa, ON

905.721.8668 ext. 5868

natalie.oman@ontariotechu.ca

Background

Natalie Oman is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. She earned her doctorate in law from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and an ad personam joint PhD in philosophy and political science from McGill University.

Dr. Oman's recent work falls into two converging streams. The first examines the sources of international law from a legal pluralist perspective, with a focus on the democratizing potential of general principles and customary international law as avenues of inclusion for non-state political communities. The second explores non-state agents’ roles as subjects and makers of specific transnational legal norms, such as the right of free, prior and informed consent and the responsibility to protect. These dual commitments are evident in her 2015-2016 report on behalf of the UN Office of the Special Advisers on Genocide Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect (developing recommendations to prevent atrocity crimes against Indigenous peoples in Latin America) and her 2019 book, The Responsibility to Protect in International Law: Philosophical Investigations (Routledge). Dr. Oman has been a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law, the Centre for Law & the Environment at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, and the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.

Education

  • DJur York University
  • PhD, Political Science and Philosophy McGill University
  • MA, Political Science McGill University

Courses taught

  • Indigenous Peoples, Law and the State in Canada
  • International Law
  • Legal Theory
  • Philosophy of Law
  • International Human Rights Law
  • Law and Globalization
  • Law and the Environment
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Research and expertise

  • public international law
  • philosophy of law
  • Indigenous law and politics
  • political theory
  • human rights
  • ethics

Involvement

  • Selected publications

    Oman, N. (2010). Human Security and Hannah Arendt’s ‘Right to Have Rights'. Journal of Human Rights, 9.

    Oman, N. (2009). The Responsibility to Prevent: A Remit for Intervention? Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, 22.

    Oman, N. (in press). Report on Drivers and Recommendations for Prevention of Atrocity Crimes Targeting Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, prepared on behalf of the UN Office of the Special Advisers on Genocide Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect.

    Oman, N. (in press). The Responsibility to Protect and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America: Contextual Factors Affecting the Implementation of Atrocity Crime Prevention Strategies. Working paper commissioned by the UN Office of the Special Advisers on Genocide Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect.

  • Presentations

    "Rethinking the Codification of International Law: The Permanent Court of International Justice's Advisory Committee of Jurists and the Inclusionary Potential of General Principles, The League of Nations Decentred conference, Faculty of Law, Melbourne University, Australia, July 2019.

    “The Implications of the Indigenous Right of Physical and Cultural Survival for Free, Prior and Informed Consent,” co-presented with Nelcy Lopez-Cuellar, Canadian Law & Society Association midwinter meeting, Ontario Tech University, January 2018.

    “Free, Prior and Informed Consent as a Transnational Legal Norm,” Law & Society Association conference, Mexico City, Mexico, June 2017.

    "Agents of Justice? Transnational Governance Mechanisms & Human Rights Advocacy," workshop on Transnational Business and Governance Interactions, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, May 2016 (funded participation).

    "Non-State Actors and Indigenous Rights," ICON-S conference of the International Society of Public Law, NYU School of Law, New York, July 2015 (funded participation).

    "The 'Conscience of Mankind' as a Source of General Principles: The Legal Normativity of Human Rights Protection Norms," visiting speaker, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 2015.

  • Media appearances

    Could R2P Justify a No-Fly Zone in the Absence of Security Council Approval?

    Opinio Juris | March 17, 2011

    As the Libyan rebels’ requests for an internationally-enforced no-fly zone have multiplied and regional support has coalesced among the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and some members of the African Union, public hand-wringing over the lack of a Security Council resolution to ‘legalize’ such action has intensified. But Security Council authorization under Chapter VII of the UN Charter is not the only available legal basis for military action to close Libyan airspace.

    View more - Could R2P Justify a No-Fly Zone in the Absence of Security Council Approval?