Leon E. Trakman

Professor

BCom LLB Cape Town, LLM SJD Harvard

Contact details

Room:

369 Law Building

Phone:

9385 9658

E-mail:

l.trakman@unsw.edu.au

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Brief overview

Professor Trakman is the Immediate Past Dean and Professor, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, 2002-2006 (five years); Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of California, Davis, 1999/2000. Professor of Law, Dalhousie Law School, 1975-1999; Visiting Professor, Wisconsin Law School, 1992/93; Visiting Professor of Law, University of Cape Town, 1990; Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights, Canada, 1997/98; Killam Professor, Killam Foundation, 1986; Visiting Professor, Tulane Law School, 1983. Bolton Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 1982.

Professor Trakman specializes, inter alia, in dispute resolution, commercial arbitration and trade and investment law. He is author and editor of 8 books and has written over 100 articles and papers on dispute resolution, contract, trade and investment law.

Trained as an international commercial arbitrator and mediator, Professor Trakman chairs or serves on various panels, boards and associations devoted to arbitration and mediation, on four continents. He has also served extensively as a trade adjudicator, appointed by US, Canadian and Mexican Governments under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since 1994 and before then, under the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, 1993-94.

Professor Trakman has acted as constitutional advisor to the Canadian Government on the Canadian Charter of Rights, 1983, 1996-99, and on human rights and aboriginal justice in Canada, 2000. He has served as a constitutional consultant to the African National Congress and the Law Commission of South Africa, on their adoption of a bill of rights, and on the creation of a constitutional court for South Africa (1990-02). He has provided constitutional advice elsewhere, such as to the Constituent Assembly of Lesotho (1991); and to the Supreme Court of Malawi (1997), among others.

As Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales, Dean Trakman initiated a campaign for a new law building in 2002 which was completed during his deanship in July 2006 (on this purpose designed building). He conducted an extensive governance review of the Faculty, including the creation of two schools, which was implemented in 2005. He initiated an international UNSW Law Alumni Chapter in 2003. He also spearheaded a lucrative Major Gift Campaign to fund the law building and to establish chairs, fellowships and scholarships in law.

Professor Trakman has chaired and served on a variety of university and faculty committees relating to tenure, promotion, discipline, legal education and research. He has served as a consultant on dispute resolution to, amongst other organizations, the Canadian Bar Association. He is a past chair of the Legal Education Section on Legal Education for the Canadian Bar Association (N.S.). He has also chaired or participated on research grants committees of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Bora Laskin National Fellowship Committee on Human Rights and The Molson's National Fellowship Committee (variously between 1985 and 2000).

He is a Barrister in New South Wales (2003); a Barrister, Solicitor and Notary Public in Nova Scotia, Canada (1981); and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa, Cape Provincial Division (1971).

Professor Trakman holds masters and doctorate degrees in Law from Harvard Law School.

For further information on his background, see www.trakmanassoc.com

Courses taught

Areas of expertise

Dispute resolution, trade law, constitutional jurisprudence and education

Professional memberships and affiliations

• Doing Business in Mexico, Co-Editor in Chief and Editor, Legal Letter
• Constitutional Review (Canada), Member, Editorial Board
• South African Law Journal, International Editoral Board
• University of New South Wales Law Journal, Decanal Advisor

Research supervision

Currently supervising a number of doctoral students writing theses on international commercial arbitration, contract law, comparative legal institutions and on law and culture.

Grants

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada - Rights and responsibilitiesUniversity of New South Wales, staff grant