Prof Dr Hans van Houtte, FCIArb, has been involved in international commercial arbitration since 1973.

He has served as chairman, sole arbitrator and party-appointed arbitrator in well over 120 commercial arbitration proceedings under, among others, the rules of ICC, LCIA, ICSID, AAA, Uncitral, the European Development Fund, Cepani, the Netherlands Arbitration Institution, the Polish Chamber of Foreign Trade, the Geneva Chamber of International Commerce, the Austrian Arbitration Institution and the Paris Chamber of Commerce. These arbitrations involved not only private companies but also states, state entities and international organizations. They cover a wide range of disputes, such as sale of goods, agency and distribution, turnkey and BOT contracts, engineering and construction, banking and financing, European competition law, transfer of receivables, securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate disputes, patent infringements and licences, telecommunications, satellite launching, insurance, and export credits. His degree of familiarity with these different aspects of international commerce can be seen from his The Law of International Trade (Sweet & Maxwell, 2nd edition, 2002), which is widely used as a handbook in different parts of the world.

Hans van Houtte conducts arbitration in English, French and Dutch, and has a working knowledge of German. He also is a certified mediator.

He also teaches arbitration, international business law and conflicts of law at the University of Louvain (KULeuven) where he directs the Institute for International Trade Law.

He was a partner at the multinational law firm Stibbe in Brussels until 2000, where his practice consisted mainly of arbitration and other settlement proceedings. Too often blocked by conflicts of interests, he withdrew from the firm in 2000 and now conducts his arbitration from his offices in Leuven.

He is the vice-president of the Belgian arbitration institution Cepani, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a trustee of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre and an advisor to the Kuala Lumpur Arbitration Centre. He figures on the Belgian list of ICSID Conciliators and Arbitrators and on the lists of various arbitration institutions (Wipo, Hong Kong, AAA and Vienna). Moreover, he is a member of the ICC commission of international arbitration, the ICC commission on international trade practice, and of the ILA arbitration and litigation committees. He is member of the International Arbitration Club (London) and the Milan Club of International Arbitration.

Since 2001 he is also the president of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, which operates under the aegis of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Hans van Houtte is on the board of several journals (International Arbitration Review, Tijdschrift voor Arbitrage, Business Law International, Revue de Droit Commercial). He is the author of three books and more than 100 articles on international commercial law and arbitration. He frequently lectures and conducts workshops on arbitration.

He has a PhD from Leuven law school with a thesis on the law applicable in transnational arbitration. He also holds a degree in European Law, an LLM from Harvard and a diploma cum laude from the Hague Academy of International Law.