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Arbitration Counsel

Professor Peter Bekker is Arbitration Counsel and Head of Investment Arbitration Task Force. A US qualified lawyer, he practises at the crossroads of international dispute resolution and energy. He combines practising law with a professorial appointment as Chair in International Law at the internationally renowned Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) within the University of Dundee in Scotland, having previously taught at Columbia Law School in New York.

Peter focuses on dispute risk management and resolution, especially arbitration, and advice regarding issues of public international law, in which he holds a doctorate. In international arbitration matters, Peter draws upon a particularly rich background: he was educated and has practised, in both Europe and the United States, in Civil law, Common law and public international law, the legal systems on which international arbitral law and procedure are based. He has experience with all the major arbitration procedures and institutions. He is listed on the American Arbitration Association’s Panel of International Arbitrators (Neutrals) and regularly sits as an arbitrator. He has been recognised in The Who’s Who in Public International Law and New York “Super Lawyers.”

Peter also advises private and public sector clients on a wide range of issues relating to private and public international law, including issues of jurisdiction, immunity, enforcement, expropriation, the law of the sea, treaty law, and State responsibility. He has extensive experience in matters involving sovereign parties, including States, state-owned entities and international organisations before both domestic and international courts and tribunals.

A native of The Netherlands, Peter was in private practice in Amsterdam before serving for nearly three years as a staff lawyer in the Registry of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations seated in The Hague. He has been involved in over 20 ICJ cases between sovereign States as well as several advisory proceedings.

Peter has also represented a variety of corporate clients in cross-border commercial transactions and financings — especially in the maritime and oil & gas industries. He regularly counsels clients in the drafting of arbitration clauses for international contracts.

Peter has been featured in The Times (as Lawyer of the Week), The Sunday Times, The Scotsman, the New York Law Journal and The Economist and he has been interviewed multiple times for American, British and Dutch TV and radio.

Association of International Petroleum Negotiators Commission on Arbitration and ADR of the International Chamber of Commerce Founding Member, International Arbitration Club of New York American Bar Association's Section of International (former Chair, International Courts Committee) American Society of International Law (former Executive Council and Nominating Committee member) American and Dutch Branches of the International Law Association (former Chair, Committee on Intergovernmental Settlement of Disputes)

1994 - Ph.D. (Law), Leiden University, The Netherlands 1992 - US Qualified, New York 1991 - LL.M., (Fulbright grant), Harvard Law School 1991 - LL.B. (equiv.), Leiden University, The Netherlands