Ian Kerr

Ian Kerr holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law & Technology at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, with cross appointments to the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Philosophy, and School of Information Studies. He teaches in the areas of moral philosophy and applied ethics, internet and ecommerce law, contract law, and legal theory. Professor Kerr has published books and articles on topics at the intersection of ethics, law, and technology and is currently engaged in research on two broad themes: Privacy and Surveillance and Human-Machine Mergers. He is recognized as an international expert in emerging law and technology issues.

Professor Kerr has published extensively in journals on ethical and legal aspects of digital copyright, automated electronic commerce, artificial intelligence, cybercrime, nanotechnology, internet regulation, ISP and intermediary liability, and online defamation. Building on his book Lessons from the Identity Trail (Oxford University Press, 2009), his ongoing privacy work focuses on the interplay between emerging public and private sector surveillance technologies, civil liberties, and human rights. His more recent work, including his new book Robot Law (with Ryan Calo and Michael Froomkin, Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc., 2016), focuses on legal and ethical implications of AI, robotics, and implantable devices. Professor Kerr is also the co-author of Managing the Law: The Legal Aspects of Doing Business (2nd ed., Pearson Education: Toronto, 2005), a business law text used by thousands of students each year at universities across Canada.

Every January Professor Kerr offers an upper-year seminar in Puerto Rico that brings students from very different legal traditions together to exchange culture, values, and ideas and to unite in the study of privacy and other technology law issues of global importance. He has earned several awards and citations, including the Bank of Nova Scotia Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Graduate Studies’ Award of Teaching Excellence, and the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Student Society Teaching Excellence Award.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Ottawa, Professor Kerr held a joint appointment in the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Information & Media Studies, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

Ian Kerr passed away in August 2019.