ANU Law School alumnus Professor Ian Holloway PC, AOE, CD, KC, PhD, LLD (PhD ’99), has been invested into the Alberta Order of Excellence, the Canadian province’s highest honour.

Professor Holloway was one of eight recipients inducted in October 2026, in recognition of his significant contributions to legal history scholarship and Canadian legal education.

Professor Holloway is a lawyer, professor and naval veteran who has lived and worked around the world.  

His connection with ANU was important to his distinguished academic career that would later span Australia and Canada.

At ANU, he served as a faculty member and completed his PhD in Law in 1999. ANU was also where he met Dr Mousumee Dutta, a fellow alumna and his future wife.

Reflecting on his time at ANU, he said:

 “That began a thirty-year career as a law professor. ANU was an amazing place – absolutely amazing.”  

After returning to Canada, Professor Holloway became Dean of Law at Western University before taking up the deanship at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law.  

During his leadership at Calgary, he helped transform legal education through the development of the Calgary Curriculum, an innovative approach that integrates legal theory with practical skills to better prepare students for the profession.  

Serving as a law dean for more than two decades, he became the longest-serving law dean in modern Canadian history.  

His work helped position Alberta at the forefront of innovation in legal education in Canada and internationally.

Professor Ryan Goss, Head of the ANU Law School, said: 

“The whole ANU Law community sends its warm congratulations to Professor Holloway on this high Albertan honour and its recognition of his many contributions to the academic and military fields and beyond.”