Caron was a Member of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and a Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice.

Caron’s dental surgeon wrote to the Coast Guard about the “remarkable stoicism which underscored his determination to qualify as a Cadet at the Academy”.

[7] Caron’s first position after law school was as a legal assistant at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal for both Judges Richard M. Mosk and Charles N. Brower.

Upon his return to California, Caron briefly worked as an attorney, before he became a faculty member at Berkley Law School in 1987.

[4] He received the 1991 Deak Prize of the American Society of International Law for outstanding scholarship by a younger academic.

Caron left this position to take up membership of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, while he kept his links to the law schools in Berkeley and London.

[10] Caron then built up his extensive expertise as an international arbitrator, including as a Commissioner with the Precedent Panel of the U. N. Compensation Commission in Geneva that resolved claims from the 1990 Gulf War.

[17] In 2024 Oxford University Press published a collection of essays by judges, arbitrators, lawyers, and academics in Caron's honour.

Entitled By Peaceful Means: International Adjudication and Arbitration - Essays in Honour of David D. Caron, the volume was edited by then ICJ President, Joan Donoghue, as well as Judge Charles N. Brower, Cian C. Murphy, Cymie R. Payne, and Esmé R.