Robert G. Volterra

Robert Volterra is a partner in the London office and is also present in the Paris office. He heads the firm's Public International Law Group (which is consistently ranked in the top-tier by both the Legal 500 and the Chambers UK directories).

He advises and represents governments, international organizations and private clients on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious public international law and international dispute resolution issues, including: international investment agreements and BITs; boundaries and territorial integrity; international arbitration and litigation; diplomatic and consular law; State responsibility; treaty interpretation; ICSID; NAFTA; the Energy Charter Treaty; trans-boundary resources and pipelines; joint-development zones and straddling resource regimes; the laws of war; and sanctions. He has acted as counsel and advocate before the International Court of Justice and ad hoc 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 on international arbitral tribunals.

Mr. Volterra is a Visiting Professor of International Law at University College, University of London (UCL).  He is on the Public International Law Advisory Board of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; is a member of the ICC Latin American Arbitration Committee and is on the Management Board of the BIICL's Investment Treaty Forum. He is also on the Expert Panel for States of UNCTAD's Programme on Dispute Settlement in International Trade, Investment and Intellectual Property and is a Legal Expert on the Energy Charter Secretariat's Legal Advisory Task Force.

The Financial Times ranked Mr. Volterra's practice in first place in the Legal Expertise category of its 2007 Innovative Lawyer Awards.

The Legal 500 directory has ranked Mr. Volterra's practice in the top tier for the past 14 years, noting “Latham & Watkins' practice has great breadth and depth, with strength in international arbitration, border, treaty and investor/state disputes.” It ranks Mr. Volterra personally as a “Leading Individual” in both the international arbitration and public international law categories. It describes him as “a pre-eminent PIL specialist”, “widely acknowledged as a leader”, “highly recommended”, “a star player on the arbitration side” and “a key figure” with “a leading reputation”, noting that clients highlight his “grasp of legal, political, economic and financial matters”.

Chambers Europe directory refers to Mr. Volterra as “a venerated figure” in international dispute resolution, international arbitration and public international law.

Legal Business' “Legal Experts” has ranked Mr. Volterra as “highly recommended” and one of the “leading lights” in the field of international arbitration and litigation for the past 10 years.

Chambers UK directory has ranked Mr. Volterra's practice in the top tier for the past 12 years. It ranks him personally as a “Leading Individual” in both the international arbitration and public international law categories. It describes him as “formidable”, a “market leader” and a “top-class practitioner”, with “all the right ticks in all the right boxes when it comes to international arbitration.” It notes that clients “greatly valued his ability to handle ‘the most sensitive of cases with the utmost skill'” and view him as “a global player”. It continues: “he is more dynamic and more energetic than most lawyers in this field; and enjoys an outstanding reputation both in terms of his legal expertise and as a rainmaker.”

Mr. Volterra is consistently listed in the International Who's Who of International Commercial Arbitration.

Highlights of his public international law experience include:

Mr. Volterra's recent publications and presentations include:

• "A practitioner's perspective on managing maritime boundary disputes," 2009 Africa-Asia Legal Consultative Organisation 49th Annual Session, Kuala Lumpur
• "Investment Treaties and the EC Treaty - the legal situation of third States," 2009 ECT Secretariat Bi-Annual Conference, Bruxelles
• "Performance as a Remedy: State Contracts and Investment Disputes," 2008 Association Suisse Arbitrage Annual Conference, Basel
• "Provisional Measures (Interim Measures) and Investment Treaty Arbitration under ICSID and UNCITRAL: developments and trends", Investment Treaty Law: Current Issues III, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
• "The ABCs of Boundary Disputes, E&P Boundary Disputes and Unitisation for the Asia Region," 2008 IQCP Singapore
• "The Energy Charter Treaty", Gas Power Journal
• "Bolivia's Exit from ICSID: Legal and Practical Consequences of Denouncing the ICSID Convention," 2007 BIICL ITF conference, London
• "BIT Arbitration in Latin America", Arbitration and ADR, IBA
• "Arbitration in the Energy and Natural Resources Industries," 2007 IBA Annual Conference, Singapore
• "Recent Developments in Maritime Boundary Delimitations: reflections on certain aspects of recent UNCLOS cases," Collected Papers, UN Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea
• "The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules and Cross-Claims," 2006 UNCITRAL - KLRCA Conference on the Occasion of 30 Years of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, Kuala Lumpur
• "Maritime Boundaries and Limits: Some Basic Legal Principles", presentation and published paper in proceedings of ABLOS Conference, Monaco
• "Nationality and Investment Treaty Claims," 2006 BIICL ITF Conference, London
• "Bilateral Investment Treaties and Investment Protection: the legal issues in Asia", Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
• "Investment Treaty Arbitration and Environmental Regulation in Latin America," ABA Section of International Law conference, Miami
• "A Brief Practitioner's View of Foreign Investment and International Environmental Standards: the Developing Custom of Non-State Practice" International Investments and Protection of the Environment: the role of dispute resolution mechanisms, The International Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration
• "Mechanics of Transboundary Disputes, International Boundary Disputes in Oil and Gas," IQPC, London
• "Bilateral Investment Treaty Arbitration and Overseas Investment," 2006 IBA Annual Conference, Chicago

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