Eduardo Silva Romero

Practice Areas

Eduardo Silva-Romero is a founding partner at Wordstone Dispute Resolution, specialising in international commercial and investment arbitration, with a historic focus on disputes involving States and State-owned entities. Eduardo has advised and advises on arbitration matters conducted under the auspices of ICC, ICSID, PCA, LCIA, ICDR and SCC, as well as in ad hoc proceedings under the UNCITRAL and EDF arbitration rules. Eduardo has wide-ranging experience including international sales and distribution contracts, construction, mining, oil and gas, and electricity-related disputes.

Eduardo is also recognised as one of the world’s most in-demand arbitrators, having acted in over 180 international commercial and investment cases under a wide variety of institutional rules.

Eduardo is a former Deputy Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, and he currently is the Chair of the ICC Institute of World Business Law and a member of the ICC Court.

Eduardo has published several articles, books and chapters on international arbitration, including its lectures on “Legal Fictions in the Language of International Arbitration” delivered at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2019. He also lectures on Investment Arbitration and International Contracts at Sciences Po in Paris, international arbitration at Paris II University, international commercial arbitration involving States and State entities, Arbitration at the University of Paris-Dauphine, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Rosario in Bogotá.

Professional Memberships

Chair of the ICC Institute of World Business Law

Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration

Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) for Colombia

Former Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA)

Publications

Recent publications:

“Legal Fictions in the Language of International Arbitration” (Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law, Brill, 2022)

“The Legal Fiction of the Seat of the International Arbitration”, in Achieving the Arbitration Dream: Liber Amicorum for Professor Julian D.M. Lew KC, Kluwer Law International, 2023.

“What places for Compliance in investment arbitration?”, in Frison-Roche, M.-A.(ed.), Compliance Jurisdictionalisation, series “Compliance & Regulation”, Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) and Bruylant, 2023.

“L’arbitrage d’investissement impliquant les états, une tendance croissante au sein de l’ICC”, in Echanges internationaux, 2022.

“Arbitration, a Form of Life”, in “Arbitration and beyond… Une forme de vie”, Liber Amicorum pour Yves Derains, Éditions A. Pedone, 2021.

“Le règlement d’arbitrage de la Chambre de commerce internationale (CCI) de 2021”, in Revue de l’arbitrage, n° 4, 2020.

“Mining Arbitration in Latin America: Social and Environmental Issues in Investment Arbitration Cases” in The Guide to Mining Arbitrations, Global Arbitration Review, 2019.

“L’annulation des sentences CIRDI impliquant un État d’Afrique”, in Un demi-siècle africain d’arbitrage d’investissement CIRDI, LGDJ, 2019.

France Chapter in “Sovereign Immunity 2019”, in Lexology Getting The Deal Through, 2019.

Industry Sector Expertise

Energy, oil and gas, mining, construction, engineering, real state, financial services, transport, pharmaceutical/life sciences and telecommunications.

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish, French and Portuguese

Experience

Representing the Republic of Ecuador in ten investment and commercial arbitrations in, for instance, the telecommunication, oil and gas, construction and mining concession sectors.

Representing the Plurinational State of Bolivia in eleven investment arbitrations (under the auspices of ICSID or under the UNCITRAL rules) and one commercial arbitration involving several sectors, including telecommunications, infrastructure, mining, energy and oil and gas.

Representing the Republic of Colombia in five investment arbitrations (under the auspices of ICSID or under the UNCITRAL rules) in the mining and telecommunication sectors.

Representing a group of Costa Rican and Dutch investors against a Central American State in an ICSID arbitration relating to the construction and development of an ecotourist resort.

Representing a French multinational in a dispute with a Central American state entity in an ICC arbitration related to the construction of a hydro electrical plant.

Representing a Brazilian company against a Portuguese group of companies in an ICC arbitration arising from fraudulent schemes in the execution of several financial agreements concluded for the financing of a construction project.

Representing a leading American technology company against a South Korean company in an ICC arbitration relating to the softwares of the smartphones.

Representing a Spanish company against two Peruvian companies in an AAA arbitration related to the breach of a shareholders agreement.