Lionel Smith

Lionel Smith studied law at the University of Western Ontario (LL.B.), Cambridge University (LL.M.), Oxford (D.Phil., M.A.) and the Université de Montréal (LL.B.). He previously taught at the University of Alberta (1991-2; 1994-96), Oxford University (1996-2000), McGill University (2000-2022) and the University of Cambridge (2022-24), where he was Downing Professor of the Laws of England and Director of the Cambridge Private Law Centre. He was appointed to the Professorship of Comparative Law in 2024.

Smith's latest book, The Law of Loyalty, was published by OUP in 2023, including in an electronic version by subscription. He is the author of The Law of Tracing (OUP 1997) and a co-author of Waters’ Law of Trusts in Canada, 5th edn (Carswell 2021). He is also a co-author and the English reporter of Commercial Trusts in European Private Law (CUP 2005; paperback 2009) and is the editor or co-editor of several books and special issues of law journals, including Equity and Trusts (Edward Elgar 2019) (with Alexandra Popovici), Comparative Property Law: Global Perspectives (Edward Elgar 2017) (with Michele Graziadei), The Worlds of the Trust (CUP 2013), La fiducie en droit civil (a special issue ((2013) 58:4) of the McGill Law Journal) and Re-imagining the Trust: Trusts in Civil Law (CUP 2012; Chinese translation, Law Press China 2021). 

Smith is a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, the European Law Institute, and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He is a non-practising member of the Bar of Alberta and the President of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists.