Ucheora Onwuamaegbu*

Previous Work

For more than a decade, Uche was Senior Counsel at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in Washington, DC. He was involved, as Secretary or Team Leader, in over 70 cases in various economic sectors, including oil, gas, and mining, construction, agriculture, finance, and tourism; and was a core member of the 2016 ICSID Rules amendment team. Prior to ICSID, he was a lawyer at the United Nations Compensation Commission, Geneva, working on various types of cases, including a consolidated claim of over 800,000 migrant workers for lost remittances; as well as claims by airlines and shipping companies, banks and insurance companies. He was in domestic law practice in the UK and in Nigeria before that.

Professional Activities

Uche’s current practice focuses on international investment arbitration, commercial disputes, and advisory services. He advises the State of Kuwait’s multi-billion dollar National Focal Point for Environmental Projects. A member of the Board of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center, and of the Lagos Court of Arbitration, Uche is on the Panel of Arbitrators of ICSID and various other arbitration institutions around the world. He has also served as presiding-, sole-, and co-arbitrator in disputes before ICSID, the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, the American Arbitration Association, New York, and the Dubai International Arbitration Centre.

Publications, Presentations & Recognitions

Uche has written and spoken extensively on disputes between governments and foreign investors around the world. He is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.

Recent Publications

• “Blockchain, Smart Contracts and International Arbitration” International Commercial Arbitration Practice: 21st Century Perspectives, 2nd. Ed., Lexis Nexis, December 2021
• “International Dispute Settlement Mechanisms,” Arbitration under International Investment Agreements: A guide to key issues, 2nd. Ed., Oxford University Press, 2018
• “Ad hoc Arbitration,” Elgar Encyclopedia of International Economic Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017
• “Africa and the Changing Landscape of Investor State Arbitration,” ICCA Congress Series No. 19, Wolters Kluwer, 2017
• “The Dispute Resolution Trends in Treaties Affecting African/Asian Investors and African/Asian States,” TDM Special edition on Africa, TDM 4, 2016
• “Limiting the Participation of Developed States: Impacts on Investor State Arbitration,” CIGI Investor State Arbitration Series, Paper No. 11, August 2016
• “Directness of Claims by Foreign Companies in Remote Locations,” War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission, Oxford University Press, 2015
• “FDI, the Global Crisis and Sustainable Recovery,” Transnational Corporations, vol.20, UNCTAD, 2011
• “International Dispute Settlement Mechanisms, Arbitration under International Investment Agreements, A guide to key issues,” Oxford University Press, 2010
• “Using Treaties to Determine Rules of Procedure in Investor-State Arbitration,” The Future of Investment Arbitration, Oxford University Press, 2009
• “The Role of ADR in Investor State Dispute Settlement: the ICSID Experience,” AAA/ICC/ICSID Joint colloquium, New York, November 2005

Recent Presentations

• Moderator: Africa Technology and Arbitration Roundtable, Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Centre, July 13, 2022.

• Presenter: “A Possible Claims Program from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict,” Miami International Arbitration Society, Miami, May 4, 2022.

• Lecture: “Alternative Approaches to Energy related Investor-State Arbitration”, 5th Annual Conference on Energy Arbitration and Dispute Resolution in the Middle East and Africa, London, February 10, 2022.

• Moderator, Inaugural World Arbitration Update Conference, Panel on Investment Arbitration and Mining, Challenges and Opportunities Ahead, October 12, 2021.

• Debater, AR Connect: Breaking IN – How International Arbitration Becomes More Diverse, Debated The future of International Arbitration is Regional, September 1, 2021.

• Presenter, 10th Annual AtLAS Conference, Panel on Entertainment and Media Disputes – Entertainment Media and Technology Disputes in Investor State Arbitration, September 12, 2021.

• Panelist, GAR Live Atlanta Conference – The Year in Review, A Guide Through the Essentials, Panel on Major Developments in the Area of International Rule Making and Decisions and Judgements of Note, September 13, 2021.  

• Panelist, 5th ICC Africa Conference on International Arbitration Panel on Emerging Areas in Arbitration: Moving with the Trend, June 1 - 4, 2021.
• Moderator, Seventh Harvard International Arbitration Conference, Panel on Investment Protection and International Arbitration in Emerging Markets in a Pandemic Ridden World, March 6, 2021.
• Keynote Speaker, Global launch of Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers, January 18, 2021.
• Panelist, Washington Arbitration Week Panel on Energy & the Environment in International Arbitration, December 2,  2020.
• Moderator, AAA-ICDR Tertulia on the proposed changes to the ICDR International Arbitration Rules, December 1 and 2, 2020.
• Moderator, 2^nd Live Debate of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC) on the motion: Investor-State Dispute Settlement is better for Africa and the Middle East than State-to-State Dispute Settlement, October 30, 2020.
• Conference on African Courts and International Arbitration: Benevolent Eye or Cautious Approach? Center on International Commercial Arbitration, American University Washington College of Law, October 8, 2020.
• Treaty & Contract Claims; Fork in the Road and Waiver Provisions; Umbrella Clauses, ILI-ACLE, ICSID Program on Investor State Arbitration, September 28, 2020.
• Keynote Speaker, “Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Lecture,” Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Conference, Phoenix, AZ, January 17, 2020.
• “Proposals for better Compliance with Investor State Arbitration Awards.” Panel on ‘Current Issues in Compliance and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards’, 35th ICSID/ICDR-AAA/ICC Annual Joint Colloquium on International Arbitration, World Bank, Washington, DC, December 7, 2018.
• “Investment Arbitration involving African Parties - and the proposed changes to ICSID Rules,” CRCICA / Al Tamimi & Co Panel on Arbitration in Africa, Dubai Arbitration Week, November 14, 2018
• “Substantive Provisions in Investment Treaties (FET, NT & MFN),” ICSID / CIGI Interactive Meeting of African Investment Treaty Negotiators, The World Bank, September 28, 2018
• “The International Regime for Enforcing Rights of Foreign Investors in Emerging Economies,” The MIDA Institutional Investor Advisory Council Meeting at NASP’s 29th Annual Pension and Financial Services Conference, Houston, Texas, June 2018
• “ICSID, Investor-State Arbitration, and the UN Compensation Commission, International Economic Law, Business and Policy LLM Colloquium,” Stanford Law School, April 2018
• “Conducting International Arbitration in Africa,” Meeting of the International Arbitration Club of New York, December 2017
• Panelist, “Legitimacy of the International Arbitration Process,” Institute for Transnational Arbitration workshop, Dallas, Texas, June 2017
• Moderator, “Perspectives of foreign counsel,” SOAS Arbitration in Africa Conference Series: Rethinking the Role of Courts and Judges in supporting Arbitration in Africa, Lagos, June 2016
• “A Developing Country perspective on the Changing landscape of Investor State Arbitration,” Panel on Investment Arbitration in Africa and Beyond: What Does the Future Hold?” ICCA Congress, Mauritius, May 9, 2016
• “Legal Issues from the Implementation of KERP,” Conference on Environmental Effects of Armed Conflict - International Legal Dialogue – Middle East North Africa, Amman, Jordan,” December 13, 2015
• Panelist, “Lessons for Africa from CETA, TPP, TTIP, and Beyond,” Annual Conference, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Abuja, Nigeria, November 3, 2015
• Panelist, King’s College London, Shearman & Sterling, and BIICL’s Investment Treaty Forum, London, United Kingdom, October 29, 2015
• Panelist, “Investor State Arbitration between Developed Democracies: A Policy under Challenge,” Center for International Governance Initiative, Ottawa, Canada, September 25, 2015
• Panelist, “Refining ICSID’s Procedures,” Investment Treaty Forum of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL), London, United Kingdom, September 10, 2015