Queen’s Law has named Professor Joshua Karton the recipient of the 2026 Professor Les Green Award for Research Excellence.
An internationally recognized scholar, Karton’s work has made a sustained and influential contribution to international and domestic arbitration, transnational contract law, and comparative law. His research focuses on how legal ordering operates beyond the state, particularly through private contracts and the decisions of arbitral tribunals. A defining strength of his work is its ability to connect theoretical and sociolegal insights with the realities of legal practice, making it influential for both academic and practitioner audiences.
“Professor Karton has established a record of sustained, high-impact research with clear international reach,” says Dean Colleen M. Flood, “He combines strong publication output, major external recognition, and leadership in global scholarly networks. He is a worthy recipient of the Les Green Award for Research Excellence.”
Educated at Yale University (BA), Columbia University (JD), and the University of Cambridge (PhD), Karton joined Queen’s Law in 2009 while still completing his doctoral studies. Since then, he has been accredited as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and as a “Qualified Arbitrator” of the ADR Institute of Canada. As the Faculty’s Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Program Development (previously Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, 2017–2022), he oversees all non‑JD educational programs and is responsible for new program development.
Karton is the author or editor of five major scholarly books, including the widely cited The Culture of International Arbitration and the Evolution of Contract Law (Oxford University Press, 2013). His recent and forthcoming work builds on this trajectory. He is a co-editor of Research Methods for Contract Law and Scholarship (Edward Elgar, 2025) and Unveiling Arbitration’s (New) Identity in a Changing World (forthcoming 2027), both of which bring together leading international scholars and reflect his central role in shaping the field.
Another project in progress is an international comparative report on the mutual influence of arbitration and international commercial courts, which Karton is leading with collaborators including Queen’s Law colleague Professor Alyssa King. Featuring contributors from more than 20 countries, the report will be presented in fall 2026 at the Quadrennial Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law (to which Karton was elected in in 2021) and published as an edited volume (Brill, forthcoming 2027).
Having published more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, along with numerous book chapters and shorter scholarly and practitioner-oriented pieces, Karton’s widely cited work appears in leading journals and with top academic presses. His scholarship has helped define key debates on topics such as the nature of arbitral authority, the role of culture in arbitration practice, contractual interpretation, and the structure of transnational commercial law.
The quality of Karton’s work has been recognized through major awards. He received the James Crawford Prize for best article in the Journal of International Dispute Settlement and, more recently, the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre Award for Outstanding Book or Article on Arbitration. Earlier in his career, he was recognized with the International and Comparative Law Quarterly Young Scholar Prize and selection for the Harvard–Stanford International Junior Faculty Forum.
Karton has a truly international research profile. He is regularly invited to present at leading conferences and workshops globally. His visiting appointments — including as Tsai Wan-Tsai Visiting Chair Professor of International Law at the National Taiwan University and stints in Japan, Ecuador, Hong Kong, and China — reflect his standing as a leading international scholar. His editorial leadership, including as the founding Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration, Co-Book Review Editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law, and General Editor of Kluwer Arbitration Practical Insights (a leading online resource for international arbitration practitioners) — further demonstrates his role in shaping the direction of scholarship and practice in his fields.
Karton has also demonstrated success in competitive research funding. He is currently the principal investigator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for “Contracts All the Way Down: A Contractarian Theory of Arbitration” (2024–2027), an ongoing project that is expected to culminate in a significant monograph. It is his third SSHRC grant. In addition, in 2018, Karton was part of a 10-member international research team (and the only member from outside Europe) awarded a UK Economic and Social Research Council grant worth GBP £1.1 million (at the time, just under CAD $2 million) to study how European arbitrators make decisions in cross-border commercial disputes.
Karton is passionately dedicated to teaching, including graduate supervision, and has received a Queen’s Law Students’ Society Award for Teaching Excellence. He is particularly proud of his involvement with the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, having coached teams from Queen’s and three other universities to prize-winning results and served as a director of the charitable foundation that operates the Vis East Moot in Hong Kong. He is active in professional societies, especially for arbitration practitioners, sits as an arbitrator in domestic and international disputes, and has acted as an expert on Canadian and international law in investor-state arbitrations.
“When I decided to pursue a PhD, I wasn’t planning on an academic career,” Karton says. “But I already knew I enjoyed teaching, and as a PhD student I discovered a passion for research that has never abated.
“It was pure luck that, the year I hit the academic job market, Queen’s Law advertised international commercial law as a priority hiring area. Queen’s has given me mentors, colleagues, and friends who have shaped me as a researcher and teacher. I am proud to be selected for this prize, not just because I know how many brilliant and inspiring colleagues populate our Law Faculty, but especially because it honours Les Green, a scholar’s scholar and a real mensch — a role model for me and for legal academics everywhere.”
Established in 2022 to honour Professor Emeritus Leslie Green (Artsci’78), the Professor Les Green Prize for Research Excellence is awarded annually to a Queen’s Law faculty member in recognition of their research excellence and to assist in funding their research.
Green graduated as Queen’s University’s political studies medalist in 1978 and went on to hold one of the most prestigious research positions in his field, the Professorship of the Philosophy of Law at Oxford University. From 2011 until his retirement in 2022, he returned to his alma mater for a term each year, teaching and furthering his research at Queen’s Law.
Recognized as one of the world’s foremost legal philosophers in analytical jurisprudence, Green is a revered figure at Queen’s Law who has been a mentor to many of Queen’s legal philosophers. Read more about Green and his time at Queen’s.
Previous recipients of the Les Green award are Professors Ashwini Vasanthakumar and Grégoire Webber (2024) and Professor Jacob Weinrib (2025).
By Tracy Weaver