David Caron — expert on international law, UC Berkeley professor
Whether it was the price of Mexican corn syrup or the cost of reparations from U.S. nuclear tests, David Caron was good at straightening things out.
He not only straightened out the trickiest international disputes, he taught countless law students how to straighten them out, too.
Caron, a prominent international law expert and a UC Berkeley law professor for 26 years, died Feb. 20 in a London hospital after a brief illness. He was 66. His death came days after he had served as a judge in the Hague, on the verge of settling a complex, decades-old dispute on military sales between the U.S. and Iran.
“It goes without saying he had a brilliant mind and undeniable mastery,” said his former law student Sarah Wright-Schreiberg. “But his brilliance was matched by a genuine warmth and generosity.”
“He was larger than life and immensely personable,” said fellow instructor Asa Solway. “Conversations could flick in the blink of an eye between an arbitration, a salvage diving expedition and a song.”
Caron was an arbitrator, a judge, a law journal editor and, above all, a listener. Among the disputes he helped to iron out was a North American Free Trade Agreement dispute arising from a tax by Mexico on corn syrup, a fight over Bolivian water rights and a disagreement in the Marshall Islands over U.S. nuclear tests in the South Pacific.
A native of Hartford, Conn., Caron was a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a former lieutenant, stationed in the Arctic and off California. He also was a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law and joined its faculty in 1987.
At Berkeley Law School, he taught international law, dispute resolution and law writing, from 1987 to 2013.
“He had a way of explaining the law, of meeting students where they were — as novices,” said fellow law Professor Laurel Fletcher. “He listened. And he made you feel you were the only person in the room when he was talking to you.”
Caron was also known for performing in faculty follies shows and for playing Santa Claus at holiday parties. Former student Claudia Polsky recalled how Professor Caron characteristically put his students at ease during one final exam by having his 5-year-old daughter distribute and collect the exam papers.
He is survived by his wife, Susan Caron, and his children, Peter and Marina Caron, all of London.
Plans for a memorial service are pending.