Christopher Vajda QC

Christopher Vajda was the judge of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland at the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) from 2012 until the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in 2020. During that time he was party to judgments in a broad spectrum of fields, including aviation, banking, competition and state aid, constitutional law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, data protection and privacy, environmental protection, public international law, international trade and investment agreements, public procurement, sanctions, and tax. He has a particular expertise in investor-state dispute resolution as a judge who sat in Opinion 2/15 on the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore and in Opinion 1/17 on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1979 and of Northern Ireland in 1996. He was appointed a QC in 1997. He practised at Monckton Chambers until 2012. He is a member of the Luxembourg Bar. He is a visiting professor at King’s College, London, a lecturer on private international law at Luxembourg University and a member of the LCIA. He has written and spoken extensively, particularly in the area of competition and state aid (he was a contributor to Bellamy & Child, European Union Law of Competition for over 20 years), and on investment protection treaties. He is fluent in French (the working language of the CJEU) and speaks German.