'We can't evolve in a world without rules'

Born and raised in Bénin, Prince has held UdeM's Chair in Governance and International Trade Law since 2023 and is a past director of the university's Centre for Business and International Trade Law.

He holds a doctorate in law from Université Laval and a doctorate in public law from Université de Bordeaux. He also holds a postgraduate degree specializing in international affairs from the École des hautes études internationales, in Paris, France.

In 2023 Prince was appointed head of UdeM's Observatoire de la Francophonie économique. Now 50 years old and solidly in mid-career, like a lot of experienced trade experts he works largely in the shadows, behind the scenes of major international events.

"At this stage in my career, I'd like to switch gears a bit and dedicate some of my time to the challenges of the global South," he said. “Agreeing to head the Observatory, with my strong commitment to issues related to the African Francophonie, is fully in line with this approach.”

So is his working on issues involving the 10 member nations of the BRICS association (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and five others), as holder of the Chair in Governance and International Trade Law, he added.

The emergence of the global South, including Africa, in international relations and the growing influence of their political and economic weight in current global changes “deserve greater attention from specialists in international economic law”, he believes.

"In this sense, I am really motivated by the desire to give back to my native continent, absolutely."

Growing up, debating politics and philosophy ("Descartes, Montesquieu, they were my favourites") with his veterinarian father, a lover of literature and the French language, Prince always knew he wanted to be a lawyer, but didn't realize at first that there was more to it than penal law, more than the job of public prosecutor or defence lawyer.

"It was at university in Bordeaux that I truly discovered a broader conception of law and became aware of the vast possibilities offered to me by international economic law," Prince recalled.

“I discovered that international law was not limited to diplomacy or international politics, but could cover very concrete areas such as the practices of companies and states in the field of economic and commercial exchanges – something very practical and very rooted in reality.”

Academically, his domain "wasn't very developed in France," so his doctoral studies led him to Université Laval, “where I found a professor who was European-educated like me but had moved away from the overly theoretical approach that was the norm in France at the time.”

In 2011, a job opened up in the law faculty of UdeM, "a place I'd never stepped foot in before," Prince recalled, and after a highly competitive selection process involving 30 other candidates, he was hired as a specialist in international trade law — one of only two in the faculty.

"In Quebec, our profile got a boost in the lead-up to the signing of the CETA," the free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, in 2016, Prince said. “The work we did in that context made us better known.”

From rules governing admission of investor immigrants to Canada, to security challenges of foreign actors in Canadian industries such as telecommunication and mining, Prince put his expertise to use in researching the issues involved and advising policymakers.

In the Francophonie, that meant “figuring out how to use the French language as a lever of economic development, a task that continues to this day, helping our partners in Africa and the Maghreb in commerce, in finance, in the environment and agriculture, all kinds of things.”

One thing that hasn't changed over the years is his curiosity to understand the workings of the world from an economic point of view, and apply that understanding to the pressing needs of the day, here and around the globe.

"There's always so much more to learn," Prince said. "The job never stops."