Sarah Levy

Sarah Levy is a DPhil candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford. Her research examines the legal, political, and socio-cultural frameworks governing Canadian sealing activities, with a particular focus on how Inuit sealing practices have been historically conflated with the southern Atlantic commercial sealing industry in law and policy. Her work brings together socio-legal methods, Indigenous rights scholarship, and environmental and animal law to analyse how this conflation has shaped regulation, international trade measures, and the lived experiences of Inuit communities.

Sarah is a member of the Bar of Ontario and has held legal and policy roles at the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (Government of Ontario) and at Animal Justice Canada. She holds a B.A. (Hons) from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and a J.D. and Master of Environmental Studies from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.

Her master’s research on direct-action and international marine wildlife conservation law has since been developed into a monograph, The Only Flag Worth Flying: Direct Action and the Enforcement of International Marine Conservation Law (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2026), co-authored with Captain Paul Watson. The book examines the role of non-state actors in addressing enforcement vacuums in international environmental law and can be found here.

Beyond her academic work, Sarah enjoys scuba diving, hiking, painting, reading, traveling, and attending concerts.