Francis Botchway is the Head of the Department of Law at Lancaster University, Ghana. He is also the Of Counsel at the prestigious McNair International law firm headquartered in London. A globally recognized legal scholar and practitioner, he brings a wealth of expertise across academia, international arbitration, and public policy.
Professor Botchway earned his law degrees from leading universities in Ghana, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. He also previously held the Sir William Blair Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution at Qatar University, where he served as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies for five years and headed the University’s Legal Unit within the Research Division.
He specializes in teaching and researching International Investment Law, International Law, Natural Resources, Comparative Law, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Prior to his tenure at Lancaster University Ghana, he held the position of Lecturer and Reader at the University of Warwick Law School and Hull University in the UK. During this period, he was also appointed as Adjunct Professor at Leuven University in Belgium and served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
Alongside his academic career, Professor Botchway has maintained an active legal practice. He has advised governments, multinational corporations, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations on matters relating to international investment, arbitration, trade, and commercial disputes. Through TradeLab, he provided pro bono legal services to governments and international institutions, and he continues to advise leading law firms in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other jurisdictions on complex litigation and international arbitration matters.
A recognized authority in international investment law and dispute resolution, Professor Botchway has served as Expert Counsel in numerous international arbitration proceedings and has participated extensively in high-value commercial negotiations and transactional matters. His scholarship has made a significant contribution to the development of international arbitration, investment law, and natural resource governance.
Professor Botchway has published extensively, authoring books, book chapters, and numerous articles in leading international law journals across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Global Journal of Comparative Law and is the author of the forthcoming book Defences in International Investment Law, to be published by Routledge, UK. He has also edited International Commercial Courts, to be published by Springer.
His research interests include international investment law, international commercial arbitration, natural resource governance, comparative law, and dispute resolution. His work has influenced academic scholarship, legal practice, and policy development internationally, establishing him as one of the leading scholars in his field.
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