Monckton Chambers

Door tenant.

Christopher Vajda QC had a wide-ranging practice. He acted on numerous occasions for the UK Government, Government Departments and public bodies such as the Bank of England, the BBC and various sectorial regulators. He also acted for a large number of companies in fields such as aviation and transport, competition and state aid, energy, IT and telecommunications and tax. He appeared frequently before the CJEU, and all English courts, including the UK Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. He was appointed to chair an arbitration panel in the Middle East involving a telecommunications dispute. Since his return to Chambers he has been asked to chair a conciliation panel set up to resolve a dispute involving one of the EU Institutions.

Judge at the at the Court of Justice of the European Union

Christopher Vajda was the UK judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) from 2012 until the withdrawal of the UK from the EU in January 2020 when his mandate ceased. During that time he was party to judgments in a broad spectrum of fields, including banking, competition and state aid, data protection and privacy, energy, environment, private and public international law, public procurement, sanctions, tax, trade and investment protection agreements, and transport. He has a particular expertise in investor-state dispute resolution following his time as a judge at the CJEU where he sat in Opinion 2/15 on the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore and in Opinion 1/17 on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada. Further details of the cases he sat on can be obtained from his clerk at Monckton Chambers.

MA (Cambridge), EC law – Université Libre Bruxelles