Dean Caron receives Distinguished Alumnus Medal

Professor David D Caron, Dean of The Dickson Poon School of Law, has been honoured with a Distinguished Alumnus Medal from the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association. 

The Distinguished Alumnus Award is the association’s top award.  The award 'honours those alumni who have distinguished themselves and have brought exceptionally great honour to the Academy through their outstanding accomplishments and achievements in either military or civilian life; and who serve as outstanding examples of the type of character, courage, leadership, and well-rounded people the Academy seeks to attract.'

Professor Caron attended the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, graduating with high honours as commander of the Corp of Cadets in 1974. After  his service with the Coast-, he was named a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom in 1979 and attended the University of Wales, where he received a master's degree in Marine Law & Policy, before studying Law at the University of California at Berkley. 

Following Berkeley, Professor Caron served as a legal assistant to Judges Richard M. Mosk and Charles N. Brower at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.  While there, Professor Caron began his associations with The Hague Academy of International Law - becoming the 25th American to receive its Diploma - and with the University of Leiden, where he received his Doctorate in Law. He thereupon served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law in Heidelberg and thereafter practiced with the San Francisco firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro before joining the law faculty at Berkeley in 1987.

Professor Caron’s scholarship addresses international law and organization, with the corpus of work focusing on public and private international dispute resolution, international courts and tribunals, the United Nations, the law of the sea, international environmental law, climate change and general theory of international law.

David Caron served as Chair of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration from 2005 to 2009 and is a Co-Editor in Chief of World Arbitration and Mediation Review. He has served as an arbitrator in international matters, including from 1996 to 2003 service as a Commissioner with the Precedent Panel (E2) of the U. N. Compensation Commission in Geneva resolving claims arising out of the 1990 Gulf War. He is a member of the Bars of the State of California and of England and Wales, and is a Barrister Member of Chambers at 20 Essex Street.

Professor Caron received the Deák prize of the American Society of International Law for outstanding scholarship by a younger scholar in 1991. In 2000, he received the Stefan A. Riesenfeld Award of the University of California for outstanding achievement and contribution to the field of international law. In 2006, he served as a member of the Faculty in the Public International Law Session of the Hague Academy of International Law. He served as the President of the American Society of International Law from 2010 to 2012. In 2014 Professor Caron was elected as Bencher of the Inner Temple.

The award was made at the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association Awards Dinner on 9 October 2014. 

Read more news from The Dickson Poon School of Law.