Biography
Christian Vidal-León joined the ACWL as Counsel in May 2016. He previously worked as a dispute settlement lawyer in both the Legal Affairs Division and the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization, as well as a legal officer in the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission, where he was involved in a number of WTO disputes and in trade negotiations.
In addition, Mr. Vidal-León has also served as manager of the international trade and investment department for Southern Africa of a global consulting firm in Johannesburg, and as legal associate in a prominent Brussels-based law firm dealing with international and European trade- and investment-related issues. Moreover, Mr. Vidal-León has assisted arbitrators in a number of international investment tribunals under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
He is a qualified lawyer in both Mexico and Spain with law degrees from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Lleida University. Mr. Vidal-León holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University and a Masters of International Law and Economics from the University of Bern, in Switzerland.
Mr. Vidal-León is currently a visiting senior research fellow in the Mandela Institute, in the School of Law of the University of the Witwatersrand. He is fluent in Spanish, English and French.
Publications
His publications include:
- Christian Vidal-León, Corporate Social Responsibility, Human Rights and the World Trade Organization, (4) Journal of International Economic Law 2013, pp. 893-920.
- Christian Vidal-León, Inequality of the Parties before the International Court of Justice: Reflections on the Appellate Jurisdiction over ILOAT Judgments, 5(2) Journal of International Dispute Settlement 2014, pp. 406-430.
- Christian Vidal-León, A new Approach to the Law of Foreign Investments: the South African Case, Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy 2014-2015, (Oxford University Press: New York, 2016), Chapter 11 (forthcoming).
To contact Mr. Vidal-León, email to: christian.vidal@acwl.ch.