Lionel D. Smith is Sir William C. Macdonald Professor of Law at McGill University, Montréal and Professor of Private Law at Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. He has written extensively on many aspects of comparative private law and is particularly engaged with how private law understands aspects of unselfish behaviour. Smith is a member of the American Law Institute, the European Law Institute, the International Academy of Comparative Law and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.