Benoît KOHL

Attorney and Arbitrator

Benoît Kohl is an attorney at the Brussel’s Bar. Specialised in contract law, construction law, real estate and arbitration, he handles cases in different sectors of the industry before judicial courts and in arbitrational procedures. He also prepares legal opinions and structures operations in connections with these matters. He regularly acts as arbitrator or mediator in domestic or international cases (ICC, CEPANI, VIAC, ad hoc, …). Most of the cases he handles are cross-border disputes. He has experience as chair, sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator.

Professor

Benoît Kohl is a professor at the law faculty of the Université de Liège, where he heads the department for contract law and construction law (https://www.droit.uliege.be). He teaches contract law and construction law to law students as well as architecture and engineering students. Since 2010, he is appointed guest lecturer at the Université de Paris II (Panthéon Assas), where he teaches european and international construction law. Moreover, at the University of Liège, he is in charge of the programme of evening classes intended for construction professionals who wish to become accredited technical experts.

President of CEPANI

Since June 2020, Benoît Kohl is the President of the CEPANI, the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (www.cepani.be). CEPANI is the main centre for dispute resolution in Belgium. Between 2012 and 2017, he was also the Co-President of Cepani40, an association of young arbitration practitioners, operating under the CEPANI.

Additional information

Benoît Kohl is also appointed by the Belgian Minister of Justice to represent Belgium at the United Nations, for the negotiation of the UNCITRAL instruments on arbitration and alternative dispute resolution ( https://uncitral.un.org/en/working_groups/2/arbitration).

He is a member of the Board of Directors of ICC Belgium since 2020 (https://iccwbo.be).
Benoît Kohl is a founding member of the Belgian Association for Construction Law (www.abdc.be). He was president of the association between 2010 and 2019. In 2011, he was appointed President of the European Society of Construction Law (www.escl.org). He is also a member of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers (http://int-acl.org).

Benoît Kohl has been appointed by the Belgian Minister of Justice to seat from 2016 to 2020 as a member of the federal commission in charge of the reform the Civil code (contract law). Since 2021, he has been appointed as an expert to draft the new federal law on specific contrat law (a.o. construction contracts).

Formerly, Benoît Kohl was a member of the Commission de nomination pour le Notariat, and was the Belgian government’s commissioner at the Institut de Formation Judiciaire (form 2007 to 2012).

He is regularly invited as a guest speaker at conferences in Belgium or abroad.

In 2008, he won the UPSI award for his doctor’s thesis relating to the European harmonization of construction law and real estate promotion. In 2010, thanks to this thesis, he was awarded the triennial Jean Rey Award at the European Parliament.