Filip Balcerzak

Education:

2024 – Ph.D., University of La Coruña, Spain (Ph.D. thesis written in Spanish: “Arbitraje de energías renovables, ¿quo vadis? Implicaciones de la experiencia española para el derecho internacional de inversiones”)

2016, Ph.D., Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland (dissertation written in English: “Investor – state arbitration and human rights”)

2011 – LL.M., University of Ottawa, Canada (concentration in: “International Trade and Foreign Investment Law”)

Legal career:

• 2024 – currently, Brunel University of London, Lecturer in Law
• 2022 – currently, European Union, Candidate Suitable for Appointment as Arbitrator and TSD (Trade and Sustainable Development) Expert
• 2022 – currently, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Associate Professor (Research)
• 2013 – currently, SSW (SSW Spaczyński, Szczepaniak, Wickel, Goździowska), Partner (previously Associate, Senior Associate and Counsel)
• 2018 – 2022, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Associate Professor, Director and Main Researcher of an academic grant financed by the Polish National Science Centre: “International investment law and the renewable energy sector’s challenges”
• 2020 Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, Visiting Fellow
• 2010 – 2016, doctoral studies, Ph.D. degree in Public International Law granted by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (doctoral dissertation in English on “Investor – state arbitration and human rights”)
• 2015, called to the bar in Poland (Warsaw Bar Association)
• 2013 – 2015, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Director and Main Researcher of an academic grant financed by the Polish National Science Centre: “Arbitration based on international investment treaties and human rights”
• 2011 – 2012, DZP (Domański Zakrzewski Palinka), Junior Associate
• 2011, called to the bar in Spain (Madrid Bar Association)

Arbitrator experience includes acting as a sole arbitrator, side-arbitrator, presiding arbitrator and emergency arbitrator in over fifty cases, such as, for example, concerning:

Trade (Sale of Goods)

1. Sale of medical equipment supplies
2. Sale of sports equipment
3. Sale of dedicated machinery to a steel mill
4. Sale of food products
5. International sale of printing devices to a purchaser based in a state subject to international sanctions
6. International sale of crop
7. International sale of crude oil

Energy/Natural Resources

8. An international dispute concerning an investment agreement in renewable energy power plants
9. A dispute concerning a power plant
10. A dispute concerning termination of a long-term gas supply contract

Real Estate

11. The impact of COVID-19 on lease agreements for shopping malls and offices spaces, including counter-claims to amend long-term contracts based on a significant change of circumstances (rebus sic stantibus) (fifteen cases)
12. The non-performance of various obligations under lease agreements (three cases)

Construction

13. A guarantee for shopping mall construction works
14. A steel production-facility construction
15. The construction of a residential building
16. The quality of construction works of military infrastructure (two cases)
17. A guarantee for warehouse construction works
18. The performance of a real estate construction contract
19. The construction of a power plant
20. The construction of a warehouse and a related counter-claim to terminate the agreement due to a significant change of circumstances (rebus sic stantibus)

Technology

21. An IT system and related obligations related to a taxi corporation
22. The provision of IT solutions services for shopping malls
23. An agreement to develop software for a state-owned agency

Long-Term Investments

24. A post-M&A dispute
25. An agreement on a joint application seeking public funding for research projects
26. Auto vehicles distribution agreements (two cases)
27. A share-purchase agreement in a med-tech company, and responsibilities arising out of certain events of default

Selected publications (full list of publications is available at page):

Author of a monograph “Renewable Energy Arbitration – Quo Vadis? Implications of the Spanish Saga for International Investment Law” (2023, Brill/Martinus Nijhoff), ISBN: 9789004509337 (hardback), ISBN: 9789004509344 (e-book, open access)

Author of a monograph “Investor – State Arbitration and Human Rights” (2017, Brill/Martinus Nijhoff), ISBN: 9789004338999 (hardback), ISBN: 9789004339002 (e-book)

Editor of a book (together with Shahla F. Ali, Giorgio F. Colombo and Joshua Karton), “Diversity in International Arbitration. Why it Matters and How to Sustain It” (2022, Edward Elgar Publishing), ISBN: 9781803920030 (page)

Author of a chapter “The Role of Customary International Law in International Investment Law Remedies. The Curious Case of Natural Resources”, in: P. Merkouris, A. Kulick, J. M. Álvarez-Zarate and M. Żenkiewicz (eds.), “Custom and its Interpretation in International Investment Law” (2024, Cambridge University Press), ISBN 9781009255462 (e-book, open access)

Author of an article “Horthel v. Poland. Fair and Equitable Treatment embodies the Rule of Law, whereas “tax” is not always a tax”, ICSID Review – Foreign Investment Law Journal (2023, 38:1), ISSN: 0258-3690, e-ISSN: 2049-1999 (page)

Author of a commentary to Articles 1154-1156, 1158-1160, 1169-1179 and co-author (with Stanisław Sołtysik) of commentary to articles 1181-1182 of Part V (Arbitration) of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, in: P. Rylski (ed.), “Komentarz do Kodeksu postępowania cywilnego” (2021, C.H. Beck)