CUSLI - Canada United States Law Institute- News

Christopher Sands of the Hudson Institute to Serve as CUSLI Distinguished Lecturer

To be held at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Moot Court Room, University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law

2008-09 Canada-United States Law Institute Distinguished Lecture

The Canada-United States Law Institute is happy to announce that Christopher Sands, a noted Canada-United States relations specialist at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC has been named the 2008-09 Canada-United States Law Institute Distinguished Lecturer. This year’s lecture will take place Monday, March 23rd, 2009 in the Moot Court Room, University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law.

Sands has been at the Hudson Institute since 2006, where he specializes in Canada and US-Canada relations, as well as North American economic integration. He is an adjunct professor in Government at the American University School of Public Affairs and a senior fellow in the American University Center for North American Studies. He serves as a member of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section of the North American Competitiveness Council, organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to consult with U.S. government officials in negotiations under the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership. He also lectures at the Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of State and for the US Department of Homeland Security.

From 2002 to 2007, Sands was the director of strategic planning and evaluation at the International Republican Institute (IRI), a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy and implementer of democracy and governance programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development and Department of State. At IRI, he was involved in evaluations and assessments of programs in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Slovakia and conducted training seminars for new policy research institutes and think tanks in emerging democracies. In 1993, Sands began a long association with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) where he focused on US-Canada relations and North American integration issues, including a major study with Sidney Weintraub of The North American Auto Industry under NAFTA (CSIS Press, 1998).

In 1999-2000, Sands was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. Dr. Sands holds a B.A. in political science from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Canadian studies and international economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the American Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, and the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States.

The Canada-United States Law Institute was founded in 1976 to serve as a forum for exploration and debate about legal aspects of the Canada-United States relationship. It is composed of the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law in London, Ontario and the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. Special funding was secured from the University of Western Ontario in 2006-07 for the establishment of a Canada-United States Law Institute Distinguished Lecture. The Inaugural Lecture was given on October 4, 2007 by Allan Gotlieb, Q.C., former Canadian Ambassador to the United States (1981-89), who spoke on “The Role of Law in Canada – U.S. Relations”.