Alan Cairns was born on March 2, 1930, in Galt, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto, receiving a Bachelor of Political Science in 1953 and a Masters in Political Science in 1957. He continued his political science study and received a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford University in 1965. The title of his dissertation was Prelude to Imperialism. It was about the British reaction to African society from 1840-1890. He joined the Department of Political Science at UBC in 1960 and remained there until 1995. He also held visiting professorships at the UBC Faculty of Law, Memorial University, Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Waterloo at different times in his career.
Cairns was also the recipient of several honours and awards. He was awarded the Molson Prize of the Canada Council in 1982 and the Killam award for 1989-1991. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has Honorary Degrees from British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan, University of Toronto, and Carleton University. Cairns' research interests included Canadian politics and Indigenous peoples. His most celebrated publications are the articles: Constitution, Government and Society in Canada (1988), Disruptions (1991), and Reconfigurations (1995), and the book Citizens Plus (2000). In 2001, a conference entitled "Rethinking Citizenship in the Canadian Federation: A Conference in Honour of Alan C. Cairns" was held at UBC.