Liam Michaud

Socio-Legal Studies
Liam Michaud photo

Liam Michaud is a PhD candidate in Socio-Legal Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada and holds a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Informed by critical legal studies and policy studies, and drawing on ethnographic and community-based participatory methods, his research examines the tensions and convergences between medico-therapeutic and criminal-legal approaches in drug policy, as well as the place and role of people involved in the drug trade in law reform. He has published work on the barriers to health and healthcare posed by the legal environment in Policing & Society, Contemporary Drug Problems, and Surveillance & Society. He has conducted research and written on prison-based needle exchange, surveillance practices in healthcare settings, experiences of police discretion and drug law enforcement at overdose events, and is currently focusing on a project on overdose-related manslaughter prosecutions. He brings 15 years’ experience working in community-based healthcare settings with people in conflict with law.