William Duncan

William DUNCAN is deputy secretary general of The Hague Conference on Private International Law, having special responsibility for The Hague Children’s Conventions. He is also a Member of the Permanent Bureau and was a delegate of Ireland to The Hague Conference, where he was a member of the drafting committee for The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. He served as a professor of law and jurisprudence at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; an Irish law reform commissioner; a member of European Union Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia; and the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia. Mr. Duncan is a former vice-president and treasurer of the International Society of Family Law, and was a rapporteur and chairman of the International Family Law Committee of the International Law Association. He has been visiting professor at the University of the Western Cape and the University of San Francisco, has lectured in countries around the world, and has authored various books, chapters and articles on family law, private international law, civil liberties, jurisprudence, and racism and xenophobia.