Ian R. Kerr 1965- 2019

As Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law, & Technology, Ian Kerr was Canada's leading authority on how legal and ethical issues intersect with new and emerging technologies. Ian played a significant role in the development of national and international laws in e-commerce, privacy policy and digital copyright reform. He advised various Canadian agencies on legal policy for online activities, and served as a Canadian delegate to the United Nations' Special Working Group on e-Commerce, a project of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. Ian taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, where he co-designed a new graduate program in law and technology. He held cross-appointments to the Faculty of Medicine, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Information Studies. He won numerous awards for teaching excellence.

Ian completed a large collaborative research project, On the Identity Trail, a multi-disciplinary project supported by one of the largest ever grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and which studies the impact of information and authentication technologies on identity and anonymity. He also co-led An Examination of Digital Copyright, a large private sector grant from Bell Canada and the Ontario Research Network in Electronic Commerce examining the implications of copyright reform on Canadian values including privacy and freedom of expression. With his background in philosophy, technology and private law, Ian published numerous articles and papers and edited and contributed to several books and journals on the legal implications of doing business online, including the Canadian Business Law Journal and the Electronic Commerce Research Journal. He also contributed scholarly articles and chapters in several books on a range of other subjects, including privacy, surveillance studies, cyberspace law, nanotechnology, bioethics, contract law, information ethics, and the philosophy of law, and lectured world-wide on these topics.