Joel Bakan

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Joel Bakan
Bakan in 2011
Born	Joel Conrad Bakan 1959 (age 64–65) Lansing, Michigan, US
Nationality	American Canadian
Notable credit	The Corporation (2003)
Spouses	Marlee Gayle Kline ​ (died 2001)​ Rebecca Jenkins ​ (m. 2004)​
Academic background
Alma mater	Simon Fraser University University of Oxford Dalhousie University Harvard University
Academic work
Discipline	Law
Sub-discipline	Constitutional law economic law jurisprudence socio-legal studies
Institutions	University of British Columbia
Website	joelbakan.com

Joel Conrad Bakan (born 1959) is an American-Canadian writer, jazz musician,^[1] filmmaker,^[2] and professor at the School of Law of the University of British Columbia.^[3]

Born in Lansing, Michigan, and raised for most of his childhood in East Lansing, Michigan, where his parents, Paul and Rita Bakan, were both long-time professors in psychology at Michigan State University. In 1971, he moved with his parents to Vancouver, British Columbia. He was educated at Simon Fraser University (BA, 1981), University of Oxford (BA in law, 1983), Dalhousie University (LLB, 1984) and Harvard University (LLM, 1986).

He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson in 1985. During his tenure as clerk, Dickson authored the judgment R v Oakes, among others. Bakan then pursued a master's degree at Harvard Law School. After graduation, he returned to Canada, where he has taught law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. He joined the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law in 1990 as an associate professor. Bakan teaches constitutional Law, contracts, socio-legal courses, and the graduate seminar. He has won the Faculty of Law's Teaching Excellence Award twice and a UBC Killam Research Prize.^[4]