Christopher  Gibson

Biography

Professor Christopher Gibson is a Professor of Law and Director of the Business Law and Financial Services Concentration at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. He is an expert in international law, international arbitration and intellectual property and technology issues. He has numerous articles, books, chapters and reviews published on topics involving international dispute resolution, intellectual property, technology and international investment law.

Professor Gibson has had a successful career of service in the public international and private sectors. Following law school, Professor Gibson was clerked for a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, then served as a Legal Assistant at the Iran-United States Claim Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands and was later engaged in private practice in San Francisco for the law firms of Howard Rice and Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro. Professor Gibson served for three years as section chief at the UN Compensation Commission (Head of the "C" Claims Division), a special division of the UN Security Council, followed by a four year period as Senior Legal Officer of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center and later as Head of WIPO's Electronic Commerce Law Section. At WIPO he was a principal officer responsible for developing recommendations for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which lead to implementation of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) now in effect.

Professor Gibson is a tenured professor of law and the Director of (i) the ADR Program and (ii) the Business Law and Financial Services Concentration at Suffolk University Law School. He served as an Associate Dean of the Law School from 2010 to 2014 and previously as a Co-Director of the International Law Concentration. He was the 2008 recipient of the Law School's highest teaching honor, the Cornelius J. Moynihan Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2011 he was recipient of the Law Schools' other high honor, the Thomas J. McMahon Award for Dedication to Students. Professor Gibson has taught in Suffolk's LL.M. Program in U.S. and Global Business Law at the Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law in Budapest, Hungary. He has also taught at Lund University in Sweden during 2008 and 2015. He has taught as a visiting professor at Boston University Law School during the 2010, 2011 2015 2016 and 2019 spring terms, with courses on International Business Transactions and International Intellectual Property.

Professor Gibson is a member of the Advisory Board of the Boston International Arbitration Council (BIAC). He served for eight years as Vice-Chair of the Academic Council of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA), and was co-chair for the ITA's 2010 Annual Conference on International Arbitration. He was a member of the ICC Task Force on Amiable Composition in Arbitration. He has also been Chair of the Boston Bar Association's International Law Section and Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). Professor Gibson is a member of the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Boston Bar Association. Professor Gibson is a co-founder and Director of the Foreign Direct Investment International Moot Competition (FDI Moot), which focus on investor-State arbitration.

Professor Gibson serves as an arbitrator and expert witness in complex commercial disputes, while also advising on transactions involving technology and intellectual property. Before joining Suffolk Law School, Professor Gibson was a partner in the London office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he specialized in the areas of international arbitration and litigation, as well as intellectual property and technology transactions and disputes. During his years in practice, he acted as counsel or arbitrator in a variety of international disputes, involving the governing laws of different jurisdictions and under various institutional rules, including arbitrator in both institutional and ad hoc proceedings and in more than 100 domain name disputes under the UDRP and Nominet DRS rules. He acted as lead counsel in arbitrations with sums in dispute ranging from $5 million to more than $350 million. Subject matters include technology, intellectual property, telecommunications, investments and insurance, joint venture agreements, financial and loan agreements, and disputes involving domain names.

Professor Gibson is on the roster of arbitrators for a number of the leading arbitration institutions. Professor Gibson is on the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center's 2024 List of the World's Leading Technology Neutrals.

Education

• BA, University of Chicago
• MPP, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• JD, University of California, Berkeley

Publications

Books and Articles

• Intellectual Property Licensing Under International Investment Law, Research Handbook of Intellectual Property Licensing (Edward Elgar 2024).
• Domain Names Disputes and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, in Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Rights and Arbitration (2024).
• THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW, with Dr. Simon Klopschinski and Dr. Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan (Oxford Univ. Press 2021).
• GULF WAR REPARATIONS AND THE UN COMPENSATION COMMISSION: DESIGNING COMPENSATION AFTER CONFLICT, with Timothy Feighery and Trevor Rajah as co-editors (Oxford Univ. Press, 2016).
• Yukos v The Russian Federation: A Classic Case of Indirect Expropriation, 30:2 ICSID Review Foreign Investment Law Journal (Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Breaking Down Barriers to Technology Transfer: Reforming WTO Standard-Setting Rules and Establishing an Advisory Facility in Standard-Setting for Developing & Least Developed Countries, in H. H. Lidgard, J. Atik and T.T. Nguyen eds., SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (Wolters Kluwer 2012).
• Latent Grounds for Investor-State Arbitration: Do International Investment Agreements Provide a Powerful New Means to Enforce Intellectual Property Rights?, in K. P. Sauvant ed., YEARBOOK ON INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW & POLICY 2009-2010 (Columbia Univ. Vale Center & Oxford Univ. Press 2010).
• A Look at the Compulsory License in Investment Arbitration: the Case of Indirect Expropriation, 25 AM. U. INT'L L. REV. 1 (2010).
• Arbitration, Civilization and Public Policy: Seeking Counterpoise between Arbitral Autonomy and the Public Policy Defense in View of Foreign Mandatory Public Law, 113 PENN ST. L. REV. 101 (2009).
• Book Reviews: Redressing Injustices through Mass Claims Processes: Innovative Responses to Unique Challenges, Permanent court of Arbitration ed., and International Mass Claims Processes: Legal and Practical Perspectives, Howard M. Holtzmann and Edda Kristjansdottir, eds., in AMER. J. OF INT'L LAW (2009).
• Globalization and the Technology Standards Game: Balancing Concerns of Protectionism and Intellectual Property in International Standards, 22 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 1401 (2007).
• THE IRAN-UNITED STATES CLAIMS TRIBUNAL AT 25: THE CASES EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW FOR INVESTOR-STATE AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION, with Prof. Christopher Drahozal (Oxford Univ. Press 2007).
• Chapter: Technology Standards - New Technical Barriers to Trade? in THE STANDARDS EDGE, Sherrie Bolin ed. (Stanford Univ. Press 2007).
• Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Precedent in Investor-State Arbitration, with Prof. Christopher Drahozal, 23 J. INT'L ARB. 521 (2006).
• Book Review: Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age by J. Nuechterlein and P. Weiser, in BI-MONTHLY REVIEW OF LAW BOOKS (2005).
• Book review: Legal Issues in the Global Information Society by Stephen C. Hicks and Michael L. Rustad eds., in BI-MONTHLY REVIEW OF LAW BOOKS (2005).
• WIPO Copyright Treaties Coming into Force, COMPUTER AND RECHT INT'L. (2002).
• Chapter: The Domain Name System and Issues for Developing Countries, in E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002, UNCTAD/SDTE/ECB/2, (2002).
• Keeping the Confidence in International Arbitration, ICC Members Handbook (2002).
• Digital Dispute Resolution, Internet Domain Names and WIPO's Role, COMPUTER UND RECHT INTERNATIONAL (Feb. 2001); re-published in The California International Lawyer.
• Chapter: The Role of Intellectual Property: Creating a Positive Environment for Electronic Commerce," in book by The Commonwealth Business Council, E-COMM3: COMMONWEALTH, COMMERCE AND COMMUNICATIONS (Nov. 2000).
• Intellectual Property Issues and Standards, 11 MULTILINGUAL COMPUTING AND TECH., No. 33, Issue 5 (Aug. 2000).
• WIPO Primer on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property, Editor and Principal Author, WIPO/OLOA/EC/PRIMER (May 2000).
• Awards and Other Decisions, 9 AMER. REVIEW INT'L ARB., Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law (Columbia Univ. 1998).
• Enforcement of Foreign Judgments, International Litigation, THE INT'L BUSINESS LAWYER (Summer 1997).
• Using Computers to Evaluate Claims at the United Nations Compensation Commission, 13 ARB. INT'L NO. 2, J. LONDON CT. INT'L ARB. (1997).
• Arbitration in International Intellectual Property Disputes, THE CALIFORNIA INT'L PRACTITIONER, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1997).
• Chapter: Mass Claims Processing: Techniques for Processing Over 400,000 Claims for Individual Loss at the United Nations Compensation Commission, in THE UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION, Richard B. Lillich ed. (Transnational Publishers 1995) (Thirteenth Sokol Colloquium on International Law, Univ. of Virginia Law School 1994).
• Proposed Regulations Implementing the "Single Class of Stock, Requirement for S Corporations Create Tremendous Furor and Needless Complexity," with Stuart S. Lipton, 8 J. TAXATION OF INVESTMENTS 334 (1991).
• Note, Narrow Grounds for a Complex Decision: The Supreme Court's Review of an Agency's Statutory Construction in Japan Whaling Association v. American Cetacean Society, 14 ECOLOGY LAW QUARTERLY 485 (1987).
• Creative Oil Stockpiling: Evaluating a Three Country Agreement and Designing a Negotiating Strategy, published by Energy and Environmental Policy Center, Harvard University Energy Security Program and submitted to United States Department of State (H-84-03(1984).
• THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW, with Dr. Simon Klopschinski and Dr. Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan (Oxford Univ. Press 2021)
• GULF WAR REPARATIONS AND THE UN COMPENSATION COMMISSION: DESIGNING COMPENSATION AFTER CONFLICT, with Timothy Feighery and Trevor Rajah as co-editors (Oxford Univ. Press, 2016)
• Yukos v The Russian Federation: A Classic Case of Indirect Expropriation, 30:2 ICSID Review Foreign Investment Law Journal (Oxford University Press, 2015)
• Breaking Down Barriers to Technology Transfer: Reforming WTO Standard-Setting Rules and Establishing an Advisory Facility in Standard-Setting for Developing & Least Developed Countries, in H. H. Lidgard, J. Atik and T.T. Nguyen eds., SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (Wolters Kluwer 2012)
• Latent Grounds for Investor-State Arbitration: Do International Investment Agreements Provide a Powerful New Means to Enforce Intellectual Property Rights?, in K. P. Sauvant ed., YEARBOOK ON INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW & POLICY 2009-2010 (Columbia Univ. Vale Center & Oxford Univ. Press 2010)
• A Look at the Compulsory License in Investment Arbitration: the Case of Indirect Expropriation, 25 AM. U. INT'L L. REV. 1 (2010).
• Arbitration, Civilization and Public Policy: Seeking Counterpoise between Arbitral Autonomy and the Public Policy Defense in View of Foreign Mandatory Public Law, 113 PENN ST. L. REV. 101 (2009).
• Book Reviews: Redressing Injustices through Mass Claims Processes: Innovative Responses to Unique Challenges, Permanent court of Arbitration ed., and International Mass Claims Processes: Legal and Practical Perspectives, Howard M. Holtzmann and Edda Kristjansdottir, eds., in AMER. J. OF INT'L LAW (2009).
• Globalization and the Technology Standards Game: Balancing Concerns of Protectionism and Intellectual Property in International Standards, 22 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 1401 (2007).
• THE IRAN-UNITED STATES CLAIMS TRIBUNAL AT 25: THE CASES EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW FOR INVESTOR-STATE AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION, with Prof. Christopher Drahozal (Oxford Univ. Press 2007).
• Chapter: Technology Standards - New Technical Barriers to Trade? in THE STANDARDS EDGE, Sherrie Bolin ed. (Stanford Univ. Press 2007).
• Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Precedent in Investor-State Arbitration, with Prof. Christopher Drahozal, 23 J. INT'L ARB. 521 (2006).

Professional Activities

Christopher Gibson is a Professor of Law and Director of the ADR Program and the Business Law and Financial Services Concentration at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, where he teaches and writes in the areas dispute resolution (domestic and international arbitration); international business transactions; intellectual property; international intellectual property; international investment law; international trade law; transactional skills and contract drafting, and Internet law. He writes in the field of international dispute settlement and intellectual property.

He is an expert in international arbitration, intellectual property and technology issues, as well as international business and related commercial issues. He has numerous articles, books, chapters and reviews published on topics involving international dispute resolution, intellectual property, technology and international investment law.