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Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler is the immediate past President and now Honorary President of ICCA, the International Council for Commercial Arbitration. She practices international commercial, investment and sports arbitration and has acted in over 220 international arbitrations, mainly as arbitrator. Gabrielle appears on numerous institutional arbitration panels (including ICC, ICSID, AAA, LCIA, SIAC, CIETAC) and conducts arbitrations under the rules of all major institutions. She is regularly ranked among the top ten arbitrators worldwide; a study of investment arbitration released in 2016 concluded that she was the “most influential arbitrator in the world”. In 2021, she received Who’s Who Legal Switzerland‘s Award for Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, and the Chambers Europe Outstanding Contribution Award.

A Professor Emerita at Geneva University Law School, Gabrielle is also the founder, former director and a current faculty member of the Geneva LLM in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), a joint program of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and Geneva Law School. She is also a visiting professor at National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Georgetown University and the President of the Council of the Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS). Gabrielle teaches courses on international commercial and investment arbitration and heads research projects in the area of arbitration.

She is Honorary President of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and was ASA President from 2001 to 2005. Gabrielle is also a founder of the FIAA (Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy) and the President of its Advisory Board, as well as a former member of the ICC Court, LCIA Court, and AAA Board. She was and is a member of the Swiss delegation to UNCITRAL, including within Working Group II on transparency (until 2014), and presently Working Group III on the reform of investor-state arbitration, for which she has co-authored two CIDS reports.

Formerly, Gabrielle was a professor (international arbitration, 1997-2018) and assistant professor (private international law, 1993-1997) at the University of Geneva Law School; partner of Schellenberg Wittmer (1996-2007), and partner (1985-1995) and associate (1981-1985) of Baker & McKenzie, in Geneva and New York. After studies at the University of Geneva (law degree 1974) and a doctorate from the University of Basel (1979), she was admitted to the Geneva Bar (1976) and New York State Bar (1982).

Gabrielle has authored numerous publications in her areas of specialization.

Selected publications

Investor-State Dispute Settlement and National Courts

European Yearbook of International Economic Law - Special Issue: Investor-State Dispute Settlement and National Courts - Current Framework and Reform Options, Springer Open, 2020, 117 pages

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International Arbitration: Law and Practice in Switzerland

Oxford 2015, 672 pages

Arbitral Precedent: Dream, Necessity, or Excuse?

Arbitration International 2007, pp. 357-378

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Selected publications

Investor-State Dispute Settlement and National Courts

European Yearbook of International Economic Law - Special Issue: Investor-State Dispute Settlement and National Courts - Current Framework and Reform Options, Springer Open, 2020, 117 pages

Download (pdf)

International Arbitration: Law and Practice in Switzerland

Oxford 2015, 672 pages

Arbitral Precedent: Dream, Necessity, or Excuse?

Arbitration International 2007, pp. 357-378

Download (pdf)
See all my publications

Other members