The Austrian Branch of the International Law Association (ILA) was first established in 1924/1925, dissolved in 1939, and re-established in 1947. It operates as a “Verein” (association) under Austrian law, based in Vienna, and is affiliated as a national branch with the ILA headquartered in London. The Branch is hosted and supported by Pitkowitz & Partners, which acts as its institutional seat and provides a key platform for its activities and outreach. Dr. Nikolaus Pitkowitz, founding partner of Pitkowitz & Partners, serves as Secretary and Treasurer of the Austrian Branch and plays a central role in its organizational and strategic development.
Membership has traditionally been drawn primarily from professors of public and, to a lesser extent, private international law, as well as from practicing lawyers. Their shared commitment to contributing to an association founded in 1873 for the purpose of “the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations” continues to be the main motivation for joining and engaging with the Branch.
ILA Austria Committee
President – Prof. Dr. August Reinisch, LL.M.
Professor Reinisch holds law and philosophy degrees from the University of Vienna and an LL.M. from New York University, completing his habilitation in public international and European law in 1998. Since 2010, he has been Professor of Public International Law at the University of Vienna, specializing in international economic law and the law of international organizations. He has served as a member of the UN International Law Commission since 2017 and as Special Rapporteur on disputes involving international organizations since 2022. His research focuses on investment law, international economic law, state responsibility, and international arbitration. He regularly acts as arbitrator and expert, including in ICSID and UNCITRAL proceedings, and is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In 2021, he was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.
Vice President President – Prof. Dr. Kirsten Schmalenbach
Professor Schmalenbach studied law at the University of Cologne, earning her doctorate in 1994 and completing her habilitation in 2002. After a visiting professorship in Bayreuth, she became Professor of Public International and European Law at the University of Graz in 2003 and has held the same chair at the University of Salzburg since 2010. She leads the Austrian Science Fund project “United Nations Tort Law” and received the Salzburg Cultural Fund Prize in 2015. Her research focuses on public international law and EU law, particularly the law of international organizations, international environmental and climate law, sanctions, and the EU’s external relations, including development cooperation and neighborhood policy.
Secretary and Treasurer – Dr. Nikolaus Pitkowitz
Dr. Nikolaus Pitkowitz is founding partner of Pitkowitz & Partners and head of its Dispute Resolution practice. He is internationally recognized in arbitration and litigation, having acted as counsel or arbitrator in more than 140 international arbitrations across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including some of Vienna’s most significant cases. He regularly represents parties in complex court proceedings, including before the Court of Justice of the EU, and has broad sector experience in energy, automotive, telecoms, art, post-M&A, real estate, and construction. A former President of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre, he is Co-Chair of the ILA Committee on Conflict-of-Laws Issues in International Arbitration and a member of the CIMAC Court of Arbitration. He holds degrees from Vienna and St. Gallen, is an FCIArb and certified mediator, and has authored over 70 publications, including leading works on setting aside awards and third-party funding.
Board Member – Prof. Dr. Gerd Oberleitner
Professor Oberleitner is Associate Professor of Public International Law and the Law of International Organizations at the University of Graz, where he directs the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy and holds the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Human Security. He previously worked in the Austrian Foreign Ministry, served as Lecturer at the London School of Economics, and has been visiting professor at universities in Canada, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Slovenia, and the United States. He is co-editor of the European Yearbook of Human Rights and author/editor of leading works on human rights, human security, and international humanitarian law.
Board Member – Prof. Dr. Ursula Kriebaum
Professor Kriebaum is Professor of International Law at the Section of International Law and International Relations of the University of Vienna, where she teaches in the LL.M. in International Law and the EU and International Business Law program, and regularly lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Vienna Summer School in Strobl. She earned her doctorate in 1999 and her habilitation in public international law in 2008. Her research focuses on international human rights protection, international investment law and arbitration, expropriation, domestic implementation of human rights obligations, and restitution of assets confiscated during the Nazi era.
She is a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (since 2014), Member of the ICSID Panel of Conciliators (since 2020), Member of the Arbitration Panel under the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement (since 2021), Alternate Member of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (since 2013), and Member of the Arbitration Panel under the EU–Korea Free Trade Agreement Protocol on Cultural Cooperation. In 2001, she received the Golden Decoration of Merit of the Republic of Austria.