Dr. Wolfgang Alschner is a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and an Associate Professor within the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, with cross-appointment to the Faculty of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
An empirical legal scholar specializing in international economic law and the computational analysis of law, Dr. Wolfgang Alschner heads the uOttawa Legal Technology Lab, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculties of Law and Engineering, funded by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), to conduct legal technology research and implement legal technology solutions at the University of Ottawa. He is also the Hyman Soloway Chair in Business and Trade Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa.
Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, Dr. Alschner worked for several years as an individual contractor for UNCTAD’s Section on International Investment Agreements and as a research fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and the World Trade Institute in Bern, Switzerland. He is co-founder of the investment treaty analytics portal http://mappinginvestmenttreaties.com/ and has published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as the Yale Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law and the Journal of International Economic Law. He also created the educational resource Data Science for Lawyers to help lawyers master the skills of computer and data scientists. His research uses social and computer science methods empirically to investigate international law. His areas of interest include international investment law and arbitration, WTO law, regional trade agreements, international dispute settlement, law & economics and empirical analysis of law.
Dr. Alschner holds a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, a Master of Law from Stanford Law School, a Master in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute as well as an LLB from the University of London and a BA in International Relations from the University of Dresden, Germany.
Dr. Alschner is a member of the California bar.
Students in law and computer science at the JD, LLM and PhD level are welcome to work with Dr. Alschner on projects in international economic law, computational analysis of law or a combination of both.