He was a law clerk to Madam Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1984-85.
Morgan teaches public international law, private international law, and international criminal law.
He started teaching in 1986, and from 1989-97 practiced at Davies, Ward & Beck in Toronto. Morgan has appeared at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations, and has provided expert evidence on international law to U.S. federal and state courts. He has testified on matters of law reform, national security, and foreign affairs before Parliamentary committees in the House of Commons and the Senate.
In July 2008, discussing a lawsuit for damages by the Palestinian village of Bil'in in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal against two companies registered in Montreal that are building and selling apartments in Modi'in Illit's new Matityahu East neighborhood, he said there while the move was "imaginative", there were obstacles in the case that might prevent it from prevailing. For one thing, The Geneva Convention was intended to apply to countries, and not to companies.
In December 2008, commenting on a House of Commons committee call for a review of the role and selection of the governor general, he noted that it would require amending Canada's Constitution. He said: "In Canada, the idea of tinkering with the Constitution is a tinderbox. It would have to be a really strong public sentiment to start the process for a constitutional amendment."
Commenting in September 2009 on efforts by Canadian tax officials to press UBS for details of Canadians who might be using UBS accounts to evade taxes, he said "They can go to court to try to compel UBS to disgorge names of Canadian taxpayers that have accounts there, but I'd say it's a toss-up as to whether they'd get that court order. It remains to be seen whether the courts think that banks are obliged to give up information about taxpayers that the taxpayers won't, on our voluntary disclosure system, give up."
When in February 2010 Toronto school Trustee Josh Matlow refused to apologize for criticizing a decision to spend $345,000 on a one-day conference, he said the board did not have a right to stop Matlow from speaking out, saying: "I think Matlow is doing exactly what we want school trustees to do. He's speaking his mind and speaking in criticism of board decisions. That's why we elect independent thinkers."
The Aesthetics of International Law (U. Toronto Press, 2007)
International law and the Canadian courts: sovereign immunity, criminal jurisdiction, aliens' rights, and taxation powers (Carswell, 1990)
Editor
Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 2002, guest editor of special issue on international law theory
Canadian Yearbook of International Law, member of the Board of Editors, 1997-present
Articles
"Traffic Circles: The Legal Logic of Drug Extraditions", University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law (forthcoming).
"The Law of Betrayal in the Wild West Bank", 1 Journal of International Law and International Relations 345 (2005).
"Slaughterhouse-Six: Updating the Law of War", 5 German Law Journal 525 (2004).
"The Other Death of International Law", 14 Leiden Journal of International Law 3 (2001).
"An International Legal Perspective on Resolution 242", United Nations Security Council Resolution 242: A 25 Year Retrospective 12 (1992).
"The Hermaphroditic Paradigm of International Law, State Sovereignty: The Challenge of a Changing World", 78 Canadian Council on International Law (1992).
"Aliens and Process Rights: The Open and Shut Case of Legal Sovereignty", 7 Wisconsin International Law Journal 107 (1989).
"International Law in a Post-Modern Hall of Mirrors", 26 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 209 (1988).
"Internalization of Customary International Law: An Historical Perspective", 12 Yale Journal of International Law.
Select Constitutional and International Law Casesmoreless
Islamic Sunni Verra Community v. Navlakhi, representing board of Toronto-based mosque
Wheeler v. China National Petroleum Co., representing Chinese national oil company in Alberta in jurisdictional challenges to class action
Flato v. Islamic Republic of Iran, expert witness for plaintiff attaching foreign state's bank account in Italian Corte di Cassazione
Ungar v. Palestinian Authority, expert witness in U.S. District Court on status of the Palestinian Authority under international law
Suresh v. Minister of Immigration, counsel to Canadian Arab Federation as intervenor in Supreme Court of Canada appeal regarding membership in a "terrorist organization".
