EMILIO BETTONI

Emilio specializes in commercial and investor-state arbitration, with a particular focus on disputes linked to Latin America.

In the last few years he acted as counsel in several arbitrations, including representing some leading Italian companies in construction matters, an Argentinian company in an international sale of goods dispute, an Italian company in a post M&A dispute and a Spanish company in a dispute relating to an agency agreement. Emilio’s experience includes representing investors in high-profile investment cases in the photovoltaic sector under the Energy Charter Treaty and various intra-EU BITs. For these cases Emilio worked closely with Fountain Court Chambers, working primarily from Fountain Court’s offices in London from October 2016 until June 2017.

Emilio’s areas of special expertise include the application of the CISG and the analysis of complex issues of quantum.

In addition to his counsel work, Emilio acts as secretary or assistant to arbitral tribunals in both commercial and investor-state cases (including in ICSID arbitral and annulment proceedings) and has acted as sole arbitrator.

Emilio also appears as counsel before Italian courts.

Emilio graduated summa cum laude from the University of Milan school of law (2011) and holds and LL.M. from NYU (2013), where he was graduate editor of the NYU Journal of Law & Business and research assistant to Professor Franco Ferrari. He also earned a Ph.D. from the University of Milan (2018) with a dissertation on security for costs in international commercial arbitration. During his doctoral studies, Emilio served as research assistant to Professor Jan Kleinheisterkamp at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Emilio is a member of the Steering Committee of the IBA Arb40 Subcommittee and Vice-president of the Italian Chapter of CEIA (Club Español e Iberoamericano del Arbitraje). During 2021-2022 he also served as Coordinator of CEIA-40.

Emilio is listed by Who’s Who Legal in “Arbitration – Future Leaders” since 2017 as well as in “Italy – Arbitration” since 2019.

A dual-qualified attorney (Italy and New York), Emilio speaks fluent English and Spanish.

• International Bar Association
• Club Español e Iberoamericano del Arbitraje
• ICC YAAF
• LCIA Young International Arbitration Group
• AIA-ArbIt-40

• “Deference from Foreign Enforcement Courts to Decisions of the Courts of the Seat Annulling an Arbitral Award”, in F. Ferrari and F. J. Rosenfeld (eds), Deference in International Commercial Arbitration: The Shared System of Control in International Commercial Arbitration, (Kluwer Law International), 2023, p. 265-300
• “Emergency Arbitrator vs. Dispute Board: where to seek an urgent interim measure if the arbitral tribunal is not yet constituted?”, in Newsletter AIA n. 2/2021, p. 4-7
• “La giurisprudenza svedese in materia di arbitrato e diritto antitrust: arbitrabilità, interpretazione restrittiva dell’ordine pubblico ed approccio minimalista” (translation: “Swedish case law on arbitration and antitrust: arbitrability, restrictive interpretation of public policy and minimalist approach”) in Diritto del commercio internazionale, 2014(2), p. 520-527
• “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Money Judgments Despite the Lack of Assets” 10(1) NYU Journal of Law & Business, 155-187 (2013)

• Careers in Arbitration, 1000 Paths to a career in arbitration, Webinar, Episode 1, June 16, 2023
• IBA-40, Lisbon, Aprile 13, 2023, “When Investment and commercial arbitration collide”, Moderator
• IBA-40, London, Novembre 25, 2022, A Workshop on the IBA Arb40’s Toolkit for Arbitral Award Writing, Moderator
• Milan Chamber of Arbitration, Webinar, October 11, 2022, “Domanda di arbitrato, risposta e riconvenzionale”
• Centro de Arbitragem Comercial (XV Congresso), Lisbon, June 22, 2022, “The main impacts of the pandemic on energy arbitrations”
• Milan Chamber of Arbitration, Webinar, June 10, 2020, “Third-party funding”
• Milan Chamber of Arbitration, Milan, October 2, 2019, “Third-party funding”
• ArbLit, Milan, November 10, 2017, “Security for costs in International Arbitration”

WWL says about Emilio:

“His capacity to study and engineer the case to have a better understanding is commendable”

“Emilio has a global understanding of the practice”