"More and more expertise in a single field is a wonderful way to practice, but the potential for law being relevant to so much - certainly to public policy, history, international affairs - [allows it to] accommodate the widest possible interest..."
A former Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra, Stephen Owen was appointed Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations of The University of British Columbia on August 15, 2007. Owen completed his five year term in July 2012 to work more directly in public policy mediation and dispute resolution.
Stephen Owen was first elected to Parliament in November 2000, and re-elected in June 2004 and January 2006. In government, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, Secretary of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Receiver General for Canada, Minister of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of Sport.
Prior to his election to Parliament, Stephen Owen was the David Lam Professor of Law and Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Dispute Resolution at the University of Victoria; Commissioner and Vice President of the Law Commission of Canada; Deputy Attorney General, Commissioner of Resources and Environment, Ombudsman and Executive Director for Legal Services Society of British Columbia; and a practicing lawyer.
Stephen Owen has advised numerous governments and international institutions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe on issues of human rights, governance, conflict resolution and environmental sustainability. He has investigated security force killings in apartheid South Africa, Northern Ireland/Gibraltar, Somalia, Kosovo and Cambodia.
Stephen Owen received a JD from UBC, a LLM from UCL, University of London, and a MBA from the University of Geneva. He spoke with the Allard Law History Project in August of 2016
For more, read Profile of Stephen Douglas Owen from The Advocate, 56 (1998).
and listen to the Allard Law History Project interview with Stephen Owen
.