Nicole Aylwin

Nicole Aylwin is the Acting Executive Director of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, a national not-for-profit dedicated to civil justice reform. She is also the Assistant Director of the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution at Osgoode Hall Law School, a justice innovation hub dedicated to improving access to justice.

Nicole has conducted research for the IPinCH Project since 2008, working closely with the Working Group on Customary, Conventional and Vernacular Legal Forms on issues of cultural heritage and legal pluralism. She has worked with IPinCH Steering Committee member Catherine Bell and Research Associate Sheila Greer on the community-based Yukon First Nations Heritage Values and Heritage Resource Management project examining how international legal rules, norms and values are translated into local contexts, while also exploring how community norms and values are translated into larger federal legal frameworks. Most recently, she sat on the organizing committee for the IPinCH Working Better Together Conference on Indigenous Research Ethics that explored the dynamic intersection of policies, procedures, practices, and philosophies of contemporary Indigenous research ethics.

Nicole’s most recent research work focuses on issues related to access to justice and the design of innovative dispute resolution processes. She is currently leading the development of a new aboriginal dispute resolution initiative at the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution, which aims to build capacity, provide support, increase understanding and respect, and facilitate collaboration and innovation in dispute resolution, as it relates to Aboriginal people and disputes with both federal and provincial government and with industry.

She has previously taught at York University, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in the areas of law and globalization, intellectual property and cultural heritage, and transnational cultural policy. She has published widely on topics including indigenous cultural heritage, cultural diversity and intellectual property, access to justice, and innovation in the justice system.