Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories

Janet Walker, C.M., C.D., B.A. (Hons.), M.A., J.D.., D.Phil. (Oxon), is a distinguished research professor and past Associate Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, where she teaches Conflict of Laws and International Commercial Arbitration. She is the author of Canadian Conflict of Laws, 7th Edition, co-author of Civil Litigation, and general editor of The Civil Litigation Process, 9th Edition, Class Actions in Canada, 3rd Edition and Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories.

Professor Walker is an executive editor of the Canadian Journal of Commercial Law, a board member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb) Canada Branch, past chair of the Arbitration Committee of ICC Canada, and a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. She has taught as a visiting professor at Monash, Haifa, U of T, NYU, NUS, Oxford, and for 13 years as a foreign research professor at Tunis II.

Professor Walker is a member of the Bar of Ontario, a chartered arbitrator of the Ciarb, and a licensed legal consultant of the New York State Bar. She has served as the advisor (common law) to Canada’s Federal Courts Rules Committee, the academic advisor to the Ciarb, and on numerous law reform initiatives. These include as an international advisor to the American Law Institute in its project with UNIDROIT to develop Transnational Principles and Rules of Civil Procedure, and as a member of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada Committee on National Class Actions, the IBA Task Force on International Procedures and Protocols for Collective Redress, the American Bar Association Litigation Section Working Group on Protocols for Parallel Class Actions, and Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society Arbitration Act Reform Committee in Ontario.

Professor Walker has served on many occasions as a consultant and expert in cross-border disputes, and as an international arbitrator in commercial and treaty disputes under a variety of institutional rules in many jurisdictions, and she is a recipient of the Ciarb Canada's Award for Distinguished Service to Arbitration. MWO Walker (retd) holds the Canadian Forces decoration for more than 40 years of service in the Canadian Forces Reserve, the Governor General’s Horse Guards Commanding Officer and Regimental Sergeant Major’s Award of Excellence, the Land Force Central Area Commander’s Award of Excellence, and the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals.

Professor Walker is a member of the Order of Canada.

Oscar G. Chase, J.D., is the Russell D. Niles Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Co-Faculty Director, Institute of Judicial Administration. A graduate of NYU and Yale Law School, Professor Mr. Chase has written on comparative procedure, law and culture, and American civil procedure, recently authoring or co-authoring Law, Culture, and Ritual: Disputing Processes in Cross-Cultural Context, Civil Litigation in Comparative Context, and Civil Litigation in New York (5th ed.). He serves on the Civil Advisory Committee of the Federal District Court, E.D.N.Y., and the Civil Practice Law and Rules Committee of the New York State Bar Association. He is also a member of the American Law Institute and Vice-President of the International Association of Procedural Law.