Cuming receives Distinguished Researcher Award

Posted May 19, 1998


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 19, 1998
98-05-10-OTHER

Law Professor to Receive Distinguished
Research Award

Law Professor Ron Cuming, an internationally respected expert and
reformer in commercial law, will be presented with the U of S
Distinguished Researcher Award at the Spring Convocation.

The award, which carries a $1,000 prize, is presented semi-annually
to a U of S faculty member who has made a major contribution to
knowledge or artistic creativity.

"His record of influential research is outstanding, and recognition of
his achievements with this award testifies to the excellence of the
University of Saskatchewan's research in the human sciences," said
Dr. Michael Corcoran, U of S vice-president of research.

Professor Cuming, who joined the U of S in 1966, is the leading
architect of modern laws on secured financing, the 'grease' that keeps
a country's economic machinery running smoothly by providing
lenders with an assured security interest in a borrower?s property.

He took a disparate mess of laws and registry systems that existed in
Saskatchewan and created a single statute that was more efficient
and provided better protection for borrowers. It was passed into law
in 1981 as the Personal Property Security Act. This became the
model that has since been adopted by all provinces except Ontario
and Quebec.

"We have in Saskatchewan one of the most sophisticated security
financing systems in the world," he said. "A buyer can do a computer
search and find out in less than a minute whether there's any secured
interest against that property by a lender."

A prolific scholar, Cuming's work is routinely cited by the Supreme
Court of Canada and lower courts.

His research has also led to law reform in various Third World
countries. He has been an advisor to several national governments
whose economies are struggling under primitive and inefficient security
financing systems. For instance, he has drafted security financing and
leasing laws for Jordan and Palestine and provided assistance to Israel
which is looking at adopting a law similar to Saskatchewan's.

"If Palestine, Israel and Jordan have the same law, this will be very
important in the development of trade connections among them," he
said.

He has also worked on World Bank projects to develop lease
financing laws in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Georgia, Armenia, and
Ukraine, as well as secured financing projects for Bangladesh,
Uruguay, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

"It's so much more than just drafting a law or imposing what has been
successful here. Countries have different legal traditions and different
concepts of property. They have to go to the religious court and it
takes months to get permission to seize the property."

He also had a hand in drafting what promises to be one of the most
important trade conventions ever made?a new international
convention on security interests involving mobile equipment such as
aircraft and satellite, oil drilling and railway equipment. The new
convention, which is likely to be approved by the year 2000,
addresses various problems. For instance, security interests taken by
a bank in one country for a major aircraft purchase aren't necessarily
upheld when the plane is flown to another country and seized for non-
payment of a gas or parts bill.

"Financing of big equipment that is moved from one country to
another is risky. The only way to solve it is to have an international
body of law and the same rules in every country," he said.

Cumin, who was born and raised in Saskatchewan, earned his
bachelor of arts in law from the U of S and did his master's in law at
Columbia University in New York in 1966.

He was Chair of the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan from
1978 to 1981 and appointed Queen's Counsel for Saskatchewan in
1982. He served as a member of the NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement) arbitration panel set up to consider the validity of
Canada's marketing board system and has represented Canada in
several international organizations.

In 1992-93, he received a teaching excellence award from the U of S
students' union.

Cuming acknowledges he has turned down offers from institutions
elsewhere in Canada. "I was always treated very well by the law
school and the university so I never felt it was necessary to leave," he
said.

For more information, contact:

Professor Ron Cuming
College of Law
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5883
(306) 966-5900 fax