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”)

Professional 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 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)

Arbitration experience

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

Trade (Sale of Goods)

• Sale of medical equipment supplies
• Sale of sports equipment
• Sale of dedicated machinery to a steel mill
• Sale of food products
• International sale of printing devices to a purchaser based in a state subject to international sanctions
• International sale of crop
• International sale of crude oil

Energy/Natural Resources

• An international dispute concerning an investment agreement in renewable energy power plants
• A dispute concerning a PV power plant
• A dispute concerning wind energy power plant
• A dispute concerning termination of a long-term gas supply contract

Real Estate

• 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)
• The non-performance of various obligations under lease agreements

Construction

• A guarantee for shopping mall construction works
• A steel production-facility construction
• The construction of a residential building
• The quality of construction works of military infrastructure
• A guarantee for warehouse construction works
• The performance of a real estate construction contract
• The construction of a power plant
• 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

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

Long-Term Investments

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

Membership in organizations

• Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• Club Español e Iberoamericano del Arbitraje
• Society of International Economic Law;
• Polish Group of the International Law Association

Publications

1. 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: https://brill.com/display/title/61784)
2. Author of a monograph “Investor – State Arbitration and Human Rights” (2017, Brill/Martinus Nijhoff), ISBN: 9789004338999 (hardback), ISBN: 9789004339002 (e-book, https://brill.com/view/title/34356)
3. 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 (https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/diversity-in-international-arbitration-9781803920030.html)
4. 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: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255462.016)
5. 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 (https://doi.org/10.1093/icsidreview/siac024)
6. 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)

Full list of publications is available at: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8579-9162