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Professional background
Biography image

PeterBekker, Ph.D.

PartnerHead of Energy Disputesmoc.eniHnospmohT@rekkeB.reteP
New York

O 212.908.3981

M 917.510.3537

PeterBekker, Ph.D.

Partner
Head of Energy Disputesmoc.eniHnospmohT@rekkeB.reteP
New York

O 212.908.3981

M 917.510.3537

Focus Areas

Examples of Peter’s experience include:

  • Serving as lead counsel for a Southeast Asian country in the Nuclear Disarmament Case before the International Court of Justice.
  • Serving as lead counsel for a United Nations Specialized Agency in the Global Mechanism Case before the International Court of Justice.
  • Serving as lead counsel and advocate for a Caribbean intergovernmental organization in Case 21 before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (advisory proceeding).
  • Serving as lead counsel for the largest banking group in Central and Eastern Europe in its treaty-based arbitration against the Republic of Croatia before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID Case ARB/17/49).
  • Serving as counsel for the world’s largest national oil company in its Gulf War reparation claims against the Republic of Iraq before the United Nations Compensation Commission.
  • Serving as lead counsel for an Eastern European country in an investment treaty arbitration arising from an investment in the mining sector and conducted under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.
  • Serving as lead counsel for five respondents in an international arbitration under the ICC Rules in New York.
  • Serving as lead counsel for a Scandinavian party prevailing in an ad hoc accounting arbitration arising from a cross-border corporate transaction in New York.
  • The Legal Position of Intergovernmental Organizations – A Functional Necessity Analysis of Their Legal Status and Immunities, 2nd ed. Brill, 2025
  • Arbitration of International Disputes in New York, Juris, 2024
  • “The Human Impact of Defiance of International Law,” Harvard Social Impact Review, April 2022
  • “Transparency and Predictability of the Maritime Delimitation Process: Reverse-engineering the Somalia-Kenya Adjudicated Boundary,” The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, 2022 (co-author, with Clive Schofield and Robert van de Poll)
  • “Reimagining the Damages Valuation Framework Underlying Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard Violations through a Three-Stage Contextualized Approach,” ICSID Review, November 2021 (co-author, with Fatima Bello)
  • “Unlocking the Arctic’s Resources Equitably: Using a Law-and-Science Approach to Fix the Beaufort Sea Boundary,” The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, 2020 (co-author, with Robert van de Poll)
  • “Recalibrating the Investment Treaty Arbitration System Through Non-Compartmentalized Legal Thinking,” Harvard International Law Journal Online, 2013
  • “The Impact of Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) Proliferation on Demand for Investment Insurance: Reassessing Political Risk Insurance After the ‘BIT Bang’,” ICSID Review, 2013 (co-author, with Akiko Ogawa)
  • Making Transnational Law Work in the Global Economy – Essays in Honour of Detlev Vagts, Cambridge University Press, 2010 (as principal editor, with Rudolf Dolzer and Michael Waibel)
  • World Court Decisions at the Turn of the Millennium, Brill, 1997-2001 (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2002)
  • Commentaries on World Court Decisions, Brill, 1987-1996 (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1998) (as editor and principal author)
  • Author of chapters in a dozen books and over 100 articles and notes in publications including The American Journal of International Law (25 publications since 1993); ICSID Review – Foreign Investment Law Journal; American Society of International Law Insights; The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law; Global Energy Law and Sustainability; The International Lawyer; Leiden Journal of International Law; Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Journal; Stockholm Arbitration Report; Netherlands International Law Review; Harvard International Law Journal; The Yale Journal of International Law; Cornell International Law Journal; International Law FORUM du droit international; Chinese Journal of International Law; ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law; International Legal Materials; Project Finance International; American Diplomacy Magazine; Harvard Law Bulletin
  • “How Can New York Retain Its Position as America’s Leading Arbitral Seat?,” panel moderator, New York Arbitration Week 2025, November 17, 2025
  • Listed in Juris Arbitration Law’s Roster of International Arbitrators, 2024-present
  • Listed in Who’s Who in Public International Law, 2007-present
  • Listed in New York Super Lawyers (International & Alternative Dispute Resolution), 2006-2011
  • Recipient, Burton Award for Legal Achievement (Excellence in Legal Writing), 2005

Professional Activities

  • Permanent Court of Arbitration, member
  • International Arbitration Club of New York, founding member
  • UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, List of Conciliators and of Arbitrators, member
  • European Union List of Arbitrators and of Trade and Sustainable Development Experts, member

Professional Associations

  • American Society of International Law: Law of the Sea Interest Group, co-chair (2022-2025)
  • Association of International Energy Negotiators
  • International Law Association, American and Dutch Branches: ABILA Committee on Intergovernmental Settlement of Disputes, former chair
  • New York City Bar Association

Education

  • Leiden University, Ph.D., 1994
  • Harvard Law School, LL.M., 1991
  • Leiden University, LL.B., 1991

Bar Admissions

  • New York

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Supreme Court

Languages

  • Dutch
  • French
  • German