Professor Benjamin Hughes is an independent arbitrator and adjunct professor of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law.
Prof Hughes has been appointed as arbitrator in over 150 arbitrations with several USD billion in dispute, including ad-hoc arbitrations and arbitrations under the rules of most major arbitral institutions. He has served as arbitrator in cases seated in Bangalore, Beijing, Delhi, Dubai, Geneva, Guam, Hamburg, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, Maui, New York, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo. He has heard cases governed by the laws of Australia, Austria, BVI, Cayman Islands, China, Egypt, England and Wales, Fiji, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia (including Sharia), Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UAE and the USA (including New York, California and US territories) and Vietnam, as well as lex mercatoria and the CISG. He has also handled complex conflict of law and jurisdictional issues, joinder applications, summary dismissal applications and disputes involving multiple contracts and applicable laws. He has also acted as emergency arbitrator and as sole arbitrator in expedited and fast-track proceedings, and is a panel arbitrator of numerous arbitral institutions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prof Hughes’ experience as arbitrator spans a broad range of commercial disputes, including joint venture and shareholder disputes, intellectual property and licensing, media and telecommunications, construction and infrastructure projects, energy and resources, shipping and shipbuilding, automobile and heavy machinery manufacturing, agency and distributorship agreements, military acquisition and procurement, sale of goods and general commercial disputes.
Prof Hughes has taught extensively in the field of international dispute resolution, including as associate professor of law at Seoul National University in Korea (2015–2019) and as visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore. Educated in both the civil law and the common law traditions, Prof. Hughes studied first at Seoul National University College of Law (all coursework in Korean), and then at NYU School of Law. While at NYU, he spent one semester at the University of Palermo Law School in Buenos Aires, Argentina (all coursework in Spanish). He also studied Mandarin in Beijing and East Asian history at Harvard University.