Jamal Seifi (b. 1954) is a national of Iran and has been a Member of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal since September 2009. He was a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) between 2006 and 2016 and a member of the Drafting Committee of eminent international jurists who drafted the PCA Optional Rules of Arbitration of 2012 and PCA Optional Protocol on Emergency Interim Measures, 2022.
Judge Seifi graduated with an LLB from the National University of Iran in 1978, an LLM and PhD in international law and arbitration from the University of Hull (UK), in 1986 and 1990, respectively. Between 1979 and 1985 he served as a judge with the Iranian judiciary. In 1992, he became a member of the Iranian Central Bar Association and founded the law firm of Jamal SEIFI & Associates, focusing mainly on international arbitration, from which he took leave upon appointment to the Tribunal. During that time, he acted as lead counsel and expert in several international and domestic arbitration and litigation cases and provided legal advice on international and commercial law matters. In parallel, he has continuously acted as co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or chairman in several international and domestic arbitration cases since early 1990s.
Alongside his private practice, Judge Seifi began his academic career as a “lecturer in international law” with the University of Hull (1989-1991), where he returned as “Visiting Professor” for two academic years in 1999 and 2000, teaching a full course on international commercial arbitration. He has held a tenured academic career with Shahid Beheshti (formerly National) University of Iran since late 1991 and was an Associate Professor with this institution until September 2009 when he took leave to join the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, while he continued academic association with Shahid Beheshti University until fairly recently. Between 2014 and 2021 Judge Seifi collaborated with Tilburg University in the Netherlands where he taught a full course on International Arbitration Law for every first Semester. He was awarded the “Professorial Chair of Global Law” for the year 2015 and subsequently the position of “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Tilburg University for the years 2016-2021. He has also held the position of “Adjunct Professor” at the University of Victoria, Canada, between the years 2017-2020 and 2021-2024, where he collaborated with the Graduate Faculty of Law on supervision of PhD candidates.
Judge Seifi has been a member of several academic associations, arbitration institutions and editorial boards, locally and internationally, including the editorial boards of the Asian Yearbook of International Law (1998-2010), Iranian Journal of Legal Research (2000- present), Journal of International Law (2006-present), Iranian Review of UN Studies (2017- present). During the years 2004-2006 he led the project for the preparation and drafting of the first ever Rules of Arbitration of the Arbitration Centre of the Iran Chamber (ACIC). Judge Seifi has delivered lectures and speeches in various domestic and international conferences, including at those of the ACIC, TRAC, DILA, IBA, ICC, LCIA and PCA, as well as at several Iranian, Asian and European universities. He was the lead author of the ‘Iran Arbitration Report’ in the Encyclopedia of International Arbitration (Lucas Mistelis, et. al (eds.), Juris Publishers, 2nd Edition, December 2011), the Iran Volume Editor – and author of the introductory chapter and many of its entries – in the Encyclopedia of Public International Law in Asia (Seokwoo Lee, et al., Brill Nijhoff Publishers, October 2021), produced in collaboration with twenty Iranian international law scholars. Judge Seifi has authored and published several books, including, the Law of State Responsibility (1st and 2nd Editions, 2021 and 2022, in Persian), the Law of State Succession, 2022, in Persian) and Selected Writings on International Law, Adjudication and Arbitration (2023, Vol. I, in Persian), and has co-published a book on ‘Free and Fair Elections in International Law’ (translation into Persian, 1st and 2nd Editions, 2001 and 2007). He has written and published, over 70 articles, book chapters, papers, reports and opinions, locally and internationally, in Persian and in English, on such areas as international arbitration; State responsibility; the International Court of Justice; the law of treaties; civil liability of the State under the human rights treaties; Iran’s arbitration laws, and its oil and gas regulations.
