Dr Christopher Ward SC
Call: 1999 | Silk: 2015
Practice Overview
Dr Christopher Ward SC is a highly experienced and successful advocate before trial courts, appellate courts and arbitral tribunals. He is a specialist in public international law.
He has a multidisciplinary international practice as Senior Counsel (the equivalent of Kings Counsel), admitted in New South Wales, Australia, where he is the Head of Chambers at 6 St James Hall Chambers. He works globally in all aspects of public and private international law and governmental disputes.
He is an internationally recognised expert in the fields of public and private international law where he has particular expertise in boundary disputes, investor-State arbitral disputes, foreign judgments, the law of the sea, aviation, and resources disputes. He regularly advises and represents States, recently including the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America and he advises and represents listed public companies and members of the diplomatic corps on questions of international law.
He appears regularly in Australia and internationally as an advocate in cases which involve international law and accepts instructions in areas as diverse as investor-State arbitration, human rights, maritime boundaries and diplomatic immunity. He is known globally for his extensive pro bono work in human rights and capital punishment cases. He is the global Vice-Chair of the International Law Association, was the global President of the International Law Association from 2018-2020 and is an Honorary Professor of International Law at the Australian National University where he teaches public international law.
Christopher is recognised as a leading silk in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific guide in their coverage of the Australia Bar, saying he: ‘is a superb advocate, always attuned to what the bench is thinking. Eloquent and agile. That is the same at first instance, on appeal, or before a bench of seven judges in the High Court of Australia. He has an extraordinary ability to get across a broad range of areas of law'
