Dr. Laura Spitz

Biography

Laura Spitz is the Dean and Professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law and serves as a regular Visiting Professor at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Law School. Her teaching areas encompass contracts, commercial law, business law, and corporate social responsibility. Prior to her role at the University of Calgary, she was Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Seattle University and has held several prestigious positions including the Carl Hatch Endowed Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Cornell University. Dean Spitz has a rich teaching history at Emory University, the University of Colorado, Thompson Rivers University, and the University of Ottawa. As a non-practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia, she provides consulting and expert testimony in her field. Her legal practice experience includes both domestic and international business transactions. Dean Spitz has actively contributed to LEAF subcommittees and has authored factums and briefs submitted to the Supreme Court of Canada and the U.S. Supreme Court. Her current scholarly work investigates law's role in the social construction of personal, community, and national identities. She has a particular interest in the intersections of common law systems with social categories, as evidenced by her recent co-authored article in the Harvard Environmental Law Review that discusses legal personhood in the context of environmental law.

Research Interests

Awards