Peter Bekker

Peter Bekker is an internationally renowned advocate, arbitrator, and professor of international law and arbitration.

Dr. Peter Bekker is a Partner and Head of Energy Disputes at Thompson Hine LLP in New York.  A US qualified lawyer, he combines practising law with a tenured professorial appointment as Chair in International Law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) within the University of Dundee (UK), having previously taught at Columbia Law School, where he was the first instructor to develop and teach a course in international investment arbitration. Peter focuses on dispute risk management and resolution, especially arbitration, and counseling 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 a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.  He is listed on the American Arbitration Association’s Panel of International Arbitrators (Neutrals) and regularly sits as an arbitrator. He has been recognized in The Who’s Who in Public International Law. Peter also advises private and public sector clients on a wide range of issues relating to private and public international law. He has extensive experience in matters involving sovereign parties, including States, state-owned entities and international organizations 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. Peter also has advised a variety of corporate clients in cross-border commercial transactions and financings. He regularly counsels clients in the drafting of arbitration and other clauses for international contracts. Peter obtained basic and doctoral law degrees from Leiden University (The Netherlands) and a Master's degree from Harvard Law School (1991).