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Ms Norah Gallagher, BCL, Dip European Law, LLM (Dublin) MA (Padua)

Norah

Reader and Jean Monnet Chair

Email: n.gallagher@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Co-Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union logo

Norah Gallagher is the Academic Director of the Energy & Climate Change Law Institute and former ‘Jean Monnet Chair in Natural Resources Law and Policy’ (2018-2019) at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies. She is also the Director of the School of International Arbitration. Norah is a public international lawyer specialised in international dispute resolution for over twenty years. She has advised on a range of issues on international commercial and investment cases (under all of the main institutional rules; ICC, LCIA, AAA ICDR, Stockholm and ICSID). She regularly sits as arbitrator with a particular focus on natural resource disputes. Norah worked at Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith and was Director of the Investment Treaty Forum at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from December 2007 before moving to Singapore in 2010. Previously, she was a Research Fellow of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, Cambridge for several years working on international claims from deep off shore projects to investment disputes under NAFTA, bilateral investment treaties and the Energy Charter Treaty.

Norah has taught at Queen Mary since 2002 including modules on energy law & climate change, international investment and commercial arbitration on the LLM in London, Paris and Distance Learning programmes. Norah was Adjunct Research Associate Professor at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore (2010-2011) and is Adjunct Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, China.

Work Experience

  • Co arbitrator in an international arbitration related to an offshore oil and gas exploration and production project in Equatorial Guinea
  • Chairman of an international tribunal related to an energy dispute about sums due under a share purchase agreement relating to projects in Greece
  • Chairman of an LCIA tribunal in a dispute relating to a share purchase agreement transferring ownership of a mine in Macedonia
  • Chairman of an international arbitration involving a Singaporean company and an Indonesian national in relation to sums due under a commodities contract
  • Co-arbitrator in an international energy dispute involving a state owned energy company and an investment in Angola relating to the interpretation and application of a joint operating agreement
  • Sole Arbitrator in an energy trading dispute between a Spanish company and a UK based company
  • Sole arbitrator in a dispute between a Chinese energy company and an entity from the United Arab Emirates for sums due under a construction contract
  • Co-arbitrator in an LCIA arbitration involving a dispute over sums payable under a management consultancy agreement between an Australian firm and a Russian mining company
  • Co-arbitrator in an LCIA arbitration between two Singaporean energy companies over a dispute under a Standard Coal Trading Agreement
  • Chairman of an LCIA three member tribunal for a dispute between a UK  company and a Cambodian company relating to an intellectual property dispute under a licence agreement
  • Preliminary advice on the possibility of relying on the Energy Charter Treaty to a potential investor-state dispute with a CIS State. Considering the inter-state dispute resolution provisions and their implications if an investor could persuade a state to initiate such a claim
  • Advising a number of governments in relation to their land and maritime boundary disputes, dispute resolution options available to them, researching and preparing preliminary draft reports on the legal issues for their consideration
  • Advising on particular aspects of international arbitration (both ad hoc and institutional) from enforcement considerations, possibility of a successful challenge of an award to pathological clauses
  • Advising the Government of Pakistan on the jurisdictional phase of the Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India) before the International Court of Justice in March 2000

Education

  • BCL (University of Dublin)
  • Diploma In European Law (University of Dublin)
  • LLM Comparative European Law (University of Dublin)
  • MA International Law and Human Rights (University of Padua, Italy)
  • Admitted as a Solicitor in Ireland and England

Postgraduate Teaching

Paris

  • CCLP160 Energy & Climate Change Law
  • SOLM163 International Arbitration and Energy

Distance Learning LLM

  • CCDD201 Investment Treaty Arbitration
  • CCDD212 Investment Treaty Arbitration – Substantive Protection
  • CCDD200 LLM Dissertation

Research

Publications

  • Chinese Investment Treaties: Law Policy and Practice (Co-author Wenhua Shan, OUP 2nd pending)
  • International Investment Arbitration Handbook (pending)
  • Energy Charter Treaty  World Arbitration Reporter (Juris update pending)
  • Arbitration in Changing Times in International Arbitration: Whose is it Anyway? (Edited by Stavros Brekoulakis and Romesh Weeramantry) (Kluwer 2023)
  • Energy Investment Redefined: will ethics become a criterion, Research Handbook on Energy Law and Ethics (Malik R. Dahlan and Rosa Maria Lastra Eds)  (Edward Elgar, November 2022)
  • ECT and Renewable Energy Disputes in Maxi Scherer International Arbitration in the Energy Sector (OUP, 2018)
  • Role of China in investment - BITs, SOEs, private enterprises, and evolution of policy 31 (1) ICSID Review (Winter 2016), 88-103
  • China’s BIT’s and Arbitration Practice: Progress and Problems China and International Investment Law: Twenty Years of ICSID Membership (Wenhua Shan & Jinyuan Su eds) (Brill 2015)
  • Chinese Model BIT: A Commentary (Co-author Wenhua Shan) in Commentaries on Selected Model International Investment Agreements (Chester Brown Eds) (OUP, 2013)
  • National Treatment for Foreign Investment in China: A Changing Landscape ICSID Review (2012) 27(1):120-144 (Co-authors Wenhua Shan and Sheng Zhang)
  • Energy Dispute Resolution: Investment Protection, Transit and the Energy Charter Treaty (ed) G Coop (Juris, Autumn 2011)
  • Is there a Rule of Law in Investment Treaty Arbitration? 50th Anniversary of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL, November 2010)
  • Energy Charter Treaty (World Arbitration Reporter, Juris, April 2010)
  • Chinese Investment Treaties: Law Policy and Practice (Co-author Wenhua Shan, OUP, 2009)
  • Arbitration in the United Kingdom, Getting the Deal Through - Arbitration 2007, (Global Arbitration Review, May 2007) (co-author Larry Shore)
  • The Requirement for Substantive Nationality BIICL Investment Treaty Forum Series 2005 (BIICL, Summer 2007)
  • Impartiality of Arbitrators – English and Irish Law Contrasted (co-author Gearoid Carey)[2006] Int ALR
  • Interest on arbitral Awards: English and Irish Law compared (co-authors Laurence Shore Gearoid Carey) 13 (4) Commercial Law Practitioner April 2006 (Roundhall Press)
  • Parallel Proceedings: res judicata and lis pendens, Contemporary Problems in International Arbitration (Lew & Mistelis (Eds) (Kluwer,2006)
  • Bilateral Investment Treaties: Options and Drawbacks (co-author, Laurence Shore) [2004] Int ALR 49

Public Engagement

  • Panel event on international arbitration in energy: key issues and trends, GAR Live Women in Arbitration in Paris on 5 December 2024
  • Closing Comments, 39th Annual Freshfields Lecture on 18 November 2024
  • Closing Comments, 38th Annual Freshfields Arbitration Lecture on 14 November 2023
  • Panel on "Armed conflict and territory in ISDS", ITF 40th Public Conference on Territory in International Investment Law 10 November 2023
  • CIArb on Energy and Extraction: Current Trends and Likely Developments - Speaking on whether " investors or tax payers are more likely to pay for the transition from hydrocarbons to renewables?" 19 January 2023
  • SIA Co-curricular on "Application of the Substantive Law in International Commercial Arbitration - limits and challenges for the arbitrators' discretion" on 21 November 2022
  • Closing Remarks, 37th Annual SIA Freshfields Arbitration Lecture 2 November 2022 (London)
  • Sources of International law, Tanzania International Arbitration Centre & Tanzania Law Society Investment Training 3 December 2021(hybrid)
  • Adapting International Arbitration to a changing world Paris Arbitration Week 23 September 2021 (online)
  • Global Perspectives on international dispute resolution, China Arbitration Summit 2nd Belt and Road Arbitration Institutions Forum 14 September 2021 (hybrid)
  • Climate Change Public International Law and Disputes- Too Hot a Topic? London International Dispute Resolution Week 14 May 2021 
  • Investment vs Commercial Arbitration against States and State Entities SIA and ICC 35th Annual Joint Symposium of Arbitrators, London, 24 February 2020 (Herbert Smith Freehills, London)
  • How English Courts Approach international Law London International Dispute Resolution Week 7 May 2019 (London)
  • Should the shipping industry be subject to tougher administrative requirements in response to climate change? (QM/Ince & Co, London)
  • Transparency and Non-Disputing Party Participation Joint ICSID SIA BIICL Conference 13 November 2018 (London)
  • Brexit and the impact on the energy sector Norton Rose Fulbright, 2017 (London)
  • Sources of International Investment Law, AILA Investment Treaty Arbitration Training 17 September 2018 (London)
  • Developments in China's investment treaty policy ABA Conference, 21 October 2016 (Tokyo)
  • State Owned Entities and foreign investment in the energy sector OECD, Paris 19 October 2016 (Paris)
  • Falling oil prices: increase in energy disputes? Arbitral Women conference 16 April 2015 (London)
  • ICSID Annulment Procedure - Review of Practice and Experience ICSID/SIA Joint Conference 8 September 2016 (London)
  • Investment Arbitration in the EU (Arbitral Women, London)
  • China and Investment Treaty Arbitration Centenary CIArb Conference, (Dublin)
  • Lessons learned: looking back to move forward in energy investment disputes (Energy Law Research Institute, Turkey)
  • What is an 'investment' for the purposes of the ICSID Convention (London)
  • Chinese BITs and Arbitration Practice: Progress and Problems China And ICSID” International Workshop and Roundtable on International Investment Law and Arbitration marking China's 20 years as an ICSID member 25-30 June 2012 (Xi'An, China)
  • Cost Benefits of Mediation Business Dispute Resolution Forum Jointly Organised by MCCA and KLRCA in collaboration with AAA / ICDR and MIARB June 2011 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

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