Background of the Speaker

Professor Ison began his career as a law student at the London School of Economics, where he graduated in the LL.B with first class honours. He was then awarded Fulbright and Harvard scholarships to take a graduate year at Harvard Law School, where he received the LL.M. Later, he was awarded the LL.D by the University of London in recognition of the quality of his academic publications. He was called to the Bar in London by the Middle Temple, and spent 6 months of practice in the common law courts, and 6 months in Chancery. He then moved to Canada and practised with a law firm in Vancouver. Then he joined the Faculty of Law at UBC, then at Queen's University, and then at Osgoode Hall Law School. While at UBC, he was invited to participate in a US national seminar for law professors on Social Science Methodology and design options for empirical research, For a few years while at Osgoode, he was also an adjunct professor on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. When on sabbatical leaves, he played visiting roles at the universities of Columbia, Wellington, Oxford, Stockholm, Adelaide, Kobe and Tokyo. In 1995, he retired from Osgoode Hall, but remains a Professor Emeritus. He then spent a term as the Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol. On returning to Canada, he left Toronto for the relaxation of Salt Spring Island.

Professor Ison's academic research includes 15 empirical research projects, largely in Canada, but also in England, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, New York, New Jersey, Sweden, and South Africa. His practical experience includes appellate adjudication (mainly as Chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board in BC, but also part-time in Ontario on Employment Standards appeals), heading administration, drafting statutes, providing expert evidence to courts and public enquiries, opinions for government agencies and other lawyers, and advocacy as counsel in court proceedings. Both the academic research and practical experience have included surveys, attendances at places of medical treatment and other fieldwork, reading case files, reading court and tribunal decisions, as well as other literature, attending conferences, and discussions about legal systems with other practising lawyers, and other professionals.

While on Salt Spring, he has practised law, though mostly in the cities, and in jurisdictions outside BC. He has also been an arbitrator, an expert witness, a speaker at conferences, and a consultant for other lawyers and government agencies. He also continues his academic work.

Professor Ison is the author of five books. The titles and cities of publication are:

• The Forensic Lottery: A Critique on Tort Liability as a System of Personal Injury Compensation. (London)
• Credit Marketing and Consumer Protection. (London)
• Accident Compensation: A Commentary on the New Zealand Scheme. (London)
• Workers' Compensation in Canada, (two editions) (Toronto)
• Compensation Systems for Injury and Disease: The Policy Choices, (Toronto)

He is the author of a chapter in each of four other books, published in Toronto, Stockholm, Geneva, and Oxford; and is also the author of 175 published decisions, and four published reports for governments in Canada.