Mohamed Salah Abdel Wahab, C. Arb, FCIArb
Associate Professor of Law and Chair of the Private International Law Department, Faculty of Law, Cairo University; Member, Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab is Professor of International Arbitration, Private International Law and English Contract Law at Cairo University; Founding Partner & Head of International Arbitration, Construction and Energy Groups at Zulficar & Partners Law Firm. He is the Dean of the Africa Arbitration Academy (AAA); the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Brill Arab Yearbook on International Law & Arbitration; Co-Editor of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution (IJODR); member of the Editorial Board of the ClArb’s Arbitration Journal; member of the Editorial Advisory Board of OhadaArb Journal; member of the Editorial Board of Brill Research Perspectives in International Investment Law and Arbitration; member of the Advisory Council of the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London; reviewer for the Journal of Law in the Middle East; reviewer for the Journal of International Dispute Settlement.
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab is a Member of the ICCA Governing Board; Vice-Chair of the ICC Governing Body for Dispute Resolution Services; Vice President Global of the CIArb; President Elect of the CIArb (2025); Chair of the International Expert Committee of the Permanent Forum for China Construction Law; Co- Chair, IBA Arab Regional Forum; Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the CRCICA; Member of the Advisory Board of the MIAC; Member of the LACIAC Court of Arbitration; Member of the ITA Academic Council; Member of the Advisory Board, Indonesian Arbitration Centre; Member of the Academic Council, Thailand Arbitration Centre’s Academy (THACA); Member of the Court, PCA; Member of the Board of Trustees of the CIArb; and former Vice Chair, Academic Forum for Investor-State Dispute Settlement (2018 -2020).
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab read and taught law in Egypt and in the UK, and has academic and professional affiliations in both civil and common law jurisdictions (including Egypt, France, UK, China, and the United States of America). He taught contract law and conflict of laws at Manchester University (UK); International Arbitration at the Indiana University LLM Program (Cairo); English contract law, comparative contract law, international investment and commercial arbitration, online dispute resolution and telecommunications law and private international law at Cairo and Ain Shams Universities. He is a fellow of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA; and associate fellow of the Centre for Private International Law and the Centre for Commercial Law at Aberdeen University (UK).
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab also taught international arbitration at the Paris Arbitration Academy (France), and at the AAA. He is the first African and Egyptian director of the CIArb Flagship Diploma on International Arbitration since 2019. He holds over fifty-five prizes for academic merit and achievement during his academic studies. He was selected as a Top Finalist for UK Alumni Professional Achievement Award (2017); and the only Arab/African to be nominated four times for the Global Arbitration Review Award for the Best Arbitration Lecture/Speech (2013), (2014), (2018) and (2019), and the only individual nominated, with institutions, for the 2020 Global Arbitration Review Special Award for the COVID-19 Pandemic Response for the Abdel Wahab Pandemic Pathway to Virtual Hearings.
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab served as ‘Arbitrator’, ‘Legal Expert’ and ‘Counsel’ in more than 255 cases, involving parties from the Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. He featured in cases under the auspices of the AAA, BCDR (Bahrain), ADCCAC (UAE), CRCICA (Egypt), DIAC (UAE), DIFC-LCIA (UAE), ICC (France), ICSID (USA), KIAC (Rwanda), LCIA (UK), LMAA (UK), QICCA (Qatar), RCICAL (Nigeria), SCC (Sweden), SIAC (Singapore), TIAC (Uzbekistan), as well as ad hoc UNCITRAL proceedings, involving mega multi-hundred million dollars disputes involving private parties, investors, States and State-owned entities.
He received the LAW Magazine 2022 Most Influential Legal Academic Award, the 2021 and 2020 Client Choice International Award, the 2019 AYA Hall-of-Fame African Arbitrator Award, the 2018 ASA International Arbitration Advocacy Prize, and the LAW Magazine 2017 Best Legal Practitioner Award. He is listed in Who’s Who Global Elite Thought Leaders: International Arbitration (2021 and 2022); selected among the Legal500 Africa Powerlist (2021) and the AYA’s Africa’s Top 30 Powerlist (2021). He is the coeditor (with Prof Maxi Scherer and Ms. Niuscha Bassiri) of the first ever book on COVID-19 and international arbitration under the title “International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution” (2020). He is also the coeditor (with Prof Ethan Katsh and Mr. Daniel Rainey) of “Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice” (2011 and 2021). He is the author of the Abdel Wahab Pandemic Pathway to Virtual/Remote Hearings (2020); Co-author (with Dr. Kabir Duggal) of the first book dedicated to comparing the OIC and UAIA Treaties under the title “The Resurgence of the Unified Arab Investment Agreement and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation Investment Agreement” Brill (2022).
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab is regularly recognized and ranked as a world leading thought leader in dispute resolution in all leading legal directories, and a world-leading arbitrator and arbitration practitioner on international investment and international commercial arbitration, construction law & practice, Energy law and infrastructure disputes, Egyptian, Arab and African Laws, Islamic Shari’a, private international law and online dispute resolution. He is recognized as a world-renowned authority on ODR and a visionary on the role of technology in law and dispute resolution.
Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab speaks and publishes regularly on issues of international arbitration, conflict of laws, online dispute resolution, construction law and practice, energy law and practice, Arab and African laws, Islamic Shari’a and finance. Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration (2022) says: ‘He is academically brilliant’, ‘One of the best minds on arbitration issues’ and ‘Extremely impressive’. Chambers & Partners Global (2017) ranks Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab as a STAR individual on Dispute Resolution (Arbitration) and stated: ‘He is extraordinary – a bundle of energy, and academically extremely strong’. Legal 500 (2019) says Mohamed Abdel Wahab is ‘one of the best in the world’.