Robert Volterra

Career

Robert Volterra has been recognised for many years in the global legal directories as one of the world’s top public international law practitioners. In 2022, Chambers and Partners described Robert as “probably the best public international law lawyer on this planet”, while Legal 500’s 2023 publication called Robert “the best public international lawyer around”.

Robert is qualified as a barrister in Canada and as a solicitor-advocate in England and Wales. He advises and represents governments, international organisations and private clients on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious public international law and international dispute resolution issues, including international humanitarian law, the laws of war, international criminal law, boundaries and territorial integrity, UNCLOS, international investment agreements and BITs, the Energy Charter Treaty, ICSID, NAFTA, trans-boundary resources and pipelines, joint-development zones and straddling resource regimes, diplomatic and consular law, attribution, privileges and immunities, State responsibility, treaty interpretation and drafting, international arbitration and litigation, international organisations, human rights, resource concessions, Statehood and sanctions.

Robert regularly acts as co-agent, counsel and advocate before the International Court of Justice and international arbitration tribunals, including under the Permanent Court of Arbitration, ICSID, ICC, SCC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, WTO and UNCLOS rules. He regularly sits as an arbitrator in ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, SCC and LCIA arbitrations. He is on the UK Attorney General’s A-list for public international law practitioners.

Robert’s practice focuses on the resolution of complex disputes and evolving issues in the field of public international law. He is sought by clients globally to defend their interests in bet-the-country and bet-the-company disputes. He is the go-to public international law practitioner for cases dealing with novel and cutting-edge topics. His cases are widely referenced in public international law textbooks and journal articles; they are cited and relied upon extensively as precedents and guides by domestic and international courts and tribunals.

Robert combines being a seasoned practitioner with being a thought-leader in the field of public international law. He is a Visiting Professor of International Law at University College (UCL), University of London, where he has taught the international law of foreign investment for almost 20 years. He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College, University of London, where he has taught the international law of boundary disputes for several decades. He is invited to lecture on a variety of public international law topics in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. He publishes regularly on a wide variety of public international law matters.

Prior positions at legal practices: Latham & Watkins, Partner (2005 to 2011), London, UK and Paris, France; Herbert Smith, Partner (2001 to 2005), London, UK; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Associate (1996 to 2001), London, UK and Paris, France; Public International Law Practice of Professor Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, Junior (1994 to 1996), Cambridge, UK.

Robert is qualified as a barrister in Canada (1991) and as a solicitor-advocate in England and Wales (2005). Robert is a member of the Public International Law Advisory Panel of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the ICC Latin American Arbitration Committee, the Management Board of the Investment Treaty Forum, the editorial board of the University of Oxford Press Reports on International Investment Claims, and the Energy Charter Secretariat’s Legal Advisory Task Force.