Biography: Arbitration

Dr Todd Weiler is a barrister, called to the bar of Ontario, whose practice is devoted to investor-state arbitration.

Over his 13 year career, Dr Weiler has served as counsel, arbitrator, expert witness and consultant in a wide array of international economic and commercial disputes. As a sole practitioner, he operates what the Global Arbitration Review has described as a thriving 'bolt-on practice,' which involves organising and participating in professional litigation teams, thereby assisting both novices and experts with their investor-state disputes.

Dr Weiler has successfully represented clients in a variety of disputes involving investment treaties, investment legislation, investment agreements, as well as disputes arising from infrastructure projects sponsored by international development banks. His case load has run the gamut of industries such as: cattle and beef production, forestry, casino gaming, property development, aircraft manufacturing, Internet domain management, cotton production, commodities trading, hotel and hospitality services and water distribution.

Starting in 1999, Dr Weiler was part of the team that represented the first two successful claimants in NAFTA disputes filed under the UNCITRAL Rules of Arbitration. In 2004, he became the youngest arbitrator to hear an investment treaty claim filed with the Stockholm Chamber's Arbitration Institute and was appointed to the Roster of Canadian Arbitrators for the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 2006.

Starting in 2004, Dr Weiler was the first lawyer to represent indigenous peoples both as claimants, in one investment treaty arbitration, and as amicus curiae in another. He also acted as co-counsel in the first 'class action' style claim pursued under the NAFTA. In 2010, he authored a report for "Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada", which contributed directly to the Government of Uruguay's decision to contest an investment treaty claim filed against it by the world's largest tobacco company in 2010.

Todd Weiler holds both a SJD and an LLM in international law from the University of Michigan; an LLM in international law from the University of Ottawa; an LLB and an MA in public policy from the University of Western Ontario; and an Honours BA (politics/history) from the University of Waterloo.

Frequently consulted by media outlets, Dr Weiler is a popular public speaker on investor-state law and dispute settlement. In 1999, he founded the prominent web site, Naftaclaims.com, and in 2006 he co-founded Investmentclaims.com, which was acquired by Oxford University Press in 2008. He has served on a wide array of editorial boards and is responsible for founding and co-chairing the popular Juris Conferences seminar on investment law and practice, held annually in Washington DC since 2006. He is also a founding executive member of the Society of International Economic Law.

Dr Weiler has authored a large number of articles and book-chapters on a range of regulatory and international economic law issues. In addition, he has served as the editor or co-editor of seven books on international investment law and arbitration, including: New Directions in International Economic Law: in Memoriam Thomas Wälde (Martinus Nijhoff: 2011). His next book, to be published in 2012, is on the history of international investment law obligations safeguarding equality and non-discrimination for foreign investors and their investments abroad.