Speaker details

Biography

Georges Affaki is a Professor of law at the University of Paris and an Avocat admitted to practice before the Court of Appeal of Paris, France. He is a Chartered Arbitrator, a member of the ICSID Panels of Arbitrators and Mediators, and has served two terms as a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration. Professor Affaki is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA). He is consistently ranked by Euromoney in the Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration and is listed by Chambers amongst France’s Most in Demand Arbitrators. He is the Chairman of the Banking Commission of ICC France, and chairs the Legal Committee of the ICC Banking Commission that he founded. Georges Affaki is a Governor of the UNIDROIT Foundation and a Council member of the ICC Institute. He led or participated in several law reforms in transition economies. In 2019, Prof. Affaki was nominated Foreign Trade Counselor of France by a Decree of the Prime Minister and was awarded the European Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. Professor Affaki has chaired the revision of the P.R.I.M.E. Finance Arbitration Rules and has co-chaired (with Claudia Salomon) the ICC Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration. He also chaired the French Arbitration Committee working group on Arbitration in Banking and Financial Matters. He acted as Rapporteur for the International Law Association Resolution on international jurisdiction over foreign bank branches, and chaired a Paris Europlace working group on Islamic Finance that issued a report titled Applicable Law and Dispute Resolution in Islamic Finance. He is the author or editor of several books, including “Trade Finance”, ITC Publishing; “Cross-border insolvency and conflicts of jurisdictions”, Bruylant; “Increasing Access to Credit – Reforming Secured Transaction Law”, ITC Publ.; “The Guide to ICC Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees” (with Sir Roy Goode), ICC Publ. No. 702; “Jurisdictional Choices” (with Horacio Grigera Naon), ICC Publ. No. 755, and over 80 articles and case notes on international arbitration and litigation, international banking, economic sanctions, cross-border insolvency, and Islamic finance. The book he edited with Vladimir Khvalei “Overriding mandatory rules, compliance and international arbitration” was published by ICC in 2021. Professor Affaki is fluent in Arabic, English and French. He holds trustee positions in a number of non-profit organisations and is actively engaged in community projects. A list of Professor Affaki’s representative arbitrator, counsel and expert appointments are available at www.affaki.fr.