Professor Ben Berger has been elected vice-president of the Chile-based Justice Studies Centre of the Americas (JSCA), an independent agency of the Organization of American States (OAS) that supports justice system reform and modernization processes in countries belonging to the OAS. Berger was elected by the General Assembly of the OAS two years ago, after having been nominated by the Government of Canada. He will serve as vice-president for the period 2023-2024.
“It’s exciting work,” he says. “It’s research based but it has an immediate outcome in terms of policy and justice system reform.”
Berger said he’s entering the position at a very significant time in the region. “I think we’re living through profound transformations in legal systems and democracies in our region,” he noted. “We’re very mindful of those changes in Canada, but less so the profound diversity and enormous magnitude of change that’s taking place in Central America, the Caribbean and South America.”
In addition to his duties as professor, Berger also serves as York Research Chair in Pluralism and Public Law. He served as Associate Dean (Students) from 2015-2018 and in 2020 was elected as a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. He was elected to College Council in 2022. Berger has published widely in his areas of research and teaching expertise, including law and religion, criminal and constitutional law and theory and the law of evidence.