WHO WE ARE
The Law Commission of Ontario is Ontario’s leading law reform agency. The LCO provides independent, balanced and authoritative advice on complex legal policy issues. Our work promotes access to justice and contributes to public debate.
The LCO’s multiyear AI in the Civil/Administrative Justice System project brings together policymakers, legal professionals, technologists, NGOs and community members to discuss the development, deployment, regulation and impact of artificial intelligence (AI), automated decision-making (ADM) and algorithms on access to justice, human rights, and due process.
The LCO’s Criminal AI Lifecycle project is the first legal and policy reform project in Canada to review how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts each stage in a criminal justice matter. Our goal is to help government and different criminal justice institutions anticipate the risks and benefits of AI on access to justice, due process, human rights, and civil liberties; and to help these institutions identify and adopt concrete and practical legal and policy reform responses to the shared challenges of AI.
The LCO’s Digital Marketplace Initiative collaborated with leading academics in Canada in an innovative, data-driven project to identify law reform options related to so-called “click to consent” or “terms of service” (ToS) contracts.
The LCO’s Improving Protection Orders project is examining why protection orders are failing to prevent intimate partner violence and family violence in Ontario.
The LCO considered possible reforms to Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights and other contemporary approaches to strengthening environmental accountability in Ontario. Issues included the desirability, feasibility and enforceability of legislating a substantive right to a healthy environment, the responsibilities corresponding to such a right, and proposals for enhancing environmental access to justice.
Environmental Accountability – Indigenous Engagement
This project began in the fall of 2024. Please check back for more details.
Law360: Ontario protection order regime in need of urgent reform
LCO Counsel Laura Snowdon discusses the state of Protection Orders in Ontario with Law 360 and shares some of the big questions for the Protection Orders project. Read the article here. [...]
LCO Student Scholar Fellowship Program, Summer 2026
The LCO is pleased to renew the LCO Student Scholar Fellowship Program for 2026. This summer, the LCO will hire up to 11 law students. This program is delivered in collaboration with participating Ontario [...]
LCO Launches Consultations to Improve Protection Orders
The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) has released its new Consultation Paper on Improving Protection Orders in Family, Child Protection, and Civil Law. We are seeking feedback on how Ontario can better respond to intimate partner [...]
