Joshua Karton teaches and writes about commercial dispute resolution (especially international arbitration), international and comparative contract law, international economic law, transnational legal theory, globalization and law, and linguistic issues in law. In general, his writing explores what happens when private actors from different backgrounds—legal, cultural, and linguistic—meet in the international legal arena. 

Professor Karton has taught at Queen’s Law since 2009, and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Program Development. As Associate Dean, he oversees all of Queen’s Law’s non-JD educational programs, and is responsible for developing new programs offered by the Law Faculty. He holds a BA from Yale, a JD from Columbia, a PhD from Cambridge, and a “Qualified Arbitrator” designation from the ADR Institute of Canada. A proficient speaker of French and Chinese, he has held visiting positions at a number of universities around the world, most recently in 2022-23 as the Tsai Wan-Tsai Visiting Chair Professor of International Law at the National Taiwan University College of Law. Before commencing his academic career, he practiced in litigation and arbitration at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York, and he remains a member of the New York bar.

Professor Karton has written or edited four books and dozens of articles in his fields of interest, and has received wide recognition for his research. Much of that research is interdisciplinary, influenced in particular by sociological theories and methods. His sociology of the international arbitration field, The Culture of International Arbitration and the Evolution of Contract Law, was published in 2013 to great acclaim in the academic and practitioner press. Currently, he is a co-lead investigator on the largest-ever empirical study of international commercial arbitration practice, The Social and Psychological Underpinnings of Commercial Arbitration in Europe, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. His most recent book, forthcoming in September 2025, is Research Methods for Contract Law and Scholarship, co-edited with Yuliya Chernykh. He is currently at work on a monograph entitled Contracts All the Way Down: A Contractarian Theory of Arbitration Law, which is supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant.

Professor Karton co-founded and remains the Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration, is a Book Review Editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law, a General Editor of Kluwer Arbitration Practical Insights (a leading online research guide for international arbitration practitioners), and sits on the editorial advisory committees of several other journals and blogs. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law, and was formerly Chair of its Younger Comparativists Committee.

Aside from his scholarly activities, Professor Karton practices as an independent arbitrator and legal consultant. He has been appointed as a sole arbitrator and tribunal chair in domestic Canadian and international arbitrations, both ad hoc and institutional, and also acts as an expert witness on matters of international and domestic arbitration and contract law. He is deeply involved in professional organizations in the arbitration and comparative law fields, especially in training and capacity-building programs. He is a core faculty member of the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society's “Gold Standard” course in arbitration, a member of the ADR Institute of Canada’s Academic Advisory Panel, an instructor in Osgoode Hall Law School’s Professional LLM program, an instructor and advisory board member of the Africa Arbitration Academy, a member of two ongoing International Bar Association Task Forces (on privilege in international arbitration and on res judicata in international arbitration), and a member of the board of directors of the Vis East Foundation, the non-profit that operates the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot East in Hong Kong.

A winner of Queen’s Law Student Society Award for Teaching Excellence, Professor Karton is passionately dedicated to teaching, including graduate supervision. He is particularly proud of his involvement with the Vis Moot, at which he has coached teams at four different universities to prize-winning results.

Research Foci

  • Commercial Arbitration, International and Domestic
  • Contract Law
  • International Investment Law
  • Transnational Commercial Law
  • Globalization and Law
  • International Legal Theory

Teaching Subjects

  • Contracts
  • Commercial Law
  • International Arbitration
  • Comparative Contract Law
  • Legal Research Methods and Perspectives

Selected Recent Professional Achievements

  • Named to International Bar Association Arbitration Committee Task Forces on Privilege in International Arbitration and on Res Judicata in International Arbitration
  • Named to the ADR Institute of Canada’s Academic Advisory Panel
  • Awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant, for project entitled “Contracts All the Way Down: A Contractarian Theory of Arbitration”
  • Presented at the biennial Congress of the International Council on Commercial Arbitration, on the topic of “International Arbitration as a Social Phenomenon”
  • Designated a “Qualified Arbitrator” by the ADR Institute of Canada
  • Awarded the 2023 Vancouver International Arbitration Centre Award for Outstanding Book or Article on Arbitration, for “Arbitration Appeals on Questions of Law in Canada: Stop Extricating the Inextricable!” (co-authored with Barry Leon, Joel Richler, and Lisa Munro)
  • Tsai Wan-Tsai Visiting Chair Professorship of International Law, National Taiwan University College of Law

Selected Recent Publications