Expertise: Property Law

Mossman, Mary Jane

Professor Emerita Mary Jane Mossman joined the faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1976-77, after several years as a faculty member in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales. At Osgoode, she served as Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, Chair of Faculty Council, and Director of the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies, as well as numerous positions on Boards and committees at York University. Her research interests focus on women lawyers/legal professions; family law and economic dependency; property law and trusts; and access to justice and legal aid.

She has authored numerous scholarly articles and reports for governments and other organizations, and has been a Visiting Professor at a number of universities in Canada, the United States, Australia, France and Japan. In 2006, she published The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions (Hart Pub 2006); and is currently authoring a study of women lawyers in Ontario 1890s to 1960s, as well as other writing projects. Her co-authored books include Families and the Law (2nd Captus ed 2015); Property Law: Cases and Commentary (3rd ed Emond Pub 2014); and Reconsidering Knowledge: Feminism and the Academy (Fernwood 2012).

Professor Mossman was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for work with the Vanier Institute of the Family (2012); the Lexpert Zenith Award: Leadership for Change (2012); appointment as “University Professor” at York U (2007); the Bora Laskin Fellowship in Human Rights (SSHRC 2007); the Ontario Government Leadership in Faculty Teaching  Award (2007); an honorary doctorate by the Law Society of Upper Canada (2004); the Award of Excellence of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (2004); the Medal of the Law Society of Upper Canada (1990); the Supporter of the Year award by the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped (1988); and the CBAO Distinguished Service Award (1987).

She has received research grants from SSHRC and the Canadian Bar Association Foundation for Legal Research, and was appointed the Gordon Henderson Chair in Human Rights (University of Ottawa 1995) and the Walter L Gordon Fellowship (York University 2004). She was admitted as a Barrister in New South Wales in 1975 and a member of the Bar of Ontario in 1977; and served as junior counsel in an Australian appeal to the Privy Council in 1978. From 1979-1982, she was on leave from Osgoode as the first Clinic Funding Manager for the Ontario Legal Aid Plan, and she has provided ongoing support to community legal clinics, including serving on several clinic Boards. Since 1997, she has chaired the Administrative Committee of the Unifor/CAW Legal Services Plan.

D’Agostino, Giuseppina

Professor Giuseppina (Pina) D’Agostino is a law professor, lawyer, public speaker, board director and recognized international scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University specializing in intellectual property (IP), technology and innovation law and policy. She joined Osgoode in 2006 and is regularly called by Canadian and foreign governments for advice, has testified before Parliament and is a widely published author, regularly serves as a consultant and is a cited authority at the Supreme Court of Canada and in various media. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Intellectual Property Journal.

Professor D’Agostino brings her creativity and passion to trailblaze new initiatives and to serve in new roles as Founder and Director of the globally-recognized IP Osgoode, the award-winning, IPilogue, the IP Intensive, the IP Innovation Clinic, the first legal clinic of its kind helping inventors and start-ups across Canada and, more recently, founded the AI-powered IP Innovation ChatBot allowing underrepresented groups and the general public greater access to IP information.

She began her legal career as an Associate in a large Toronto law firm and was later recruited into the Canadian Government by the Recruitment of Policy Leaders (RPL) as a Senior Policy Analyst working on copyright policy. She serves on the Board of Directors of Alectra Inc. and Chairs its GRE&T Centre Advisory Committee advancing innovation and sustainable energy solutions. She held an Order in Council Appointment at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection where she served as Trustee, and currently sits on its Art Advisory Committee.

Professor D’Agostino is Co-Chair of the York University AI & Society Task Force, is appointed to the City of Vaughan Smart City Task Force and is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She spent her last sabbatical as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. Prof D’Agostino is the recipient of various tri-council grants, honours and awards and is currently working on the second edition of Copyright Law (with Prof David Vaver, Irwin Law). Her peer-reviewed articles and her three books Copyright, Contract, Creators: New Media, New Rules, The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Professor David Vaver and Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law (with A Gaon and C Piovesan) are widely available.

She holds a Masters and Doctorate in Law (University of Oxford) with distinction, an LLB (Osgoode Hall Law School), an HonBA, summa cum laude, in English and Political Science and a specialization in French (York University), is an ICD.D from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario (2001 call).

Should you be interested in working with Prof D’Agostino on any of her research projects, please feel free to get in touch with her directly at gdagostino@osgoode.yorku.ca

Research Interests: Intellectual Property, data governance & ownership, Innovation law & policy,  emerging technologies (ie Artificial Intelligence, IoT, robotics, 3D printing, Blockchain etc)