Christina Hioureas

Christina Hioureas is a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches “Litigation on Behalf of States and State-Owned Entities Before International Courts and Arbitral Tribunals.” Hioureas is a partner and Chair of Foley Hoag LLP’s United Nations Practice Group, and co-leads the firm’s International Litigation & Arbitration practice in New York. She represents and advises States, private entities, and State-owned entities in international arbitrations and public international law matters before international courts and tribunals, as well as at the United Nations. These matters range from climate change, human rights, decolonization, and anti-corruption disputes, to technology, energy, construction, life sciences, fashion/textiles, and cybersecurity claims. She has argued cases before all major arbitral bodies and arbitral rules (ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC, LCIA, ICDR, AAA, SIAC, Swiss Rules), as well as before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). Hioureas also frequently serves as presiding, sole, emergency, and co-arbitrator in high-stakes complex international and domestic arbitration disputes.

Hioureas was recognized as one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Lawyers” (2024) by the Financial Times. She has also three times been awarded the Center for Justice and Accountability’s “Partners in Justice” award for her work on transitional justice following the collapse of authoritarian rules in Somalia, Cambodia, and Chile. She has received repeated recognition from Chambers & Partners – Global and USA in the areas of Public International, International Arbitration, and as an Arbitrator; as a “Thought Leader” and “Most Highly Regarded Partner- the Americas” by Legal 500, and as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Hioureas received her BA (highest honors) from the University of California Berkeley in Political Science and Peace & Conflict Studies, and her JD at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, where she received the American Jurisprudence Award in International Law and served as the Managing Editor of the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Her publications include "Small Nations and the Role of International Law: A Toolkit" in the Harvard Journal of International Law (2026); "Victor Jara’s Legacy And How Music in Response to Authoritarianism Resonates Today" in Rolling Stone magazine (2026); “Thawing the ‘Regulatory Chill’ Effects of Investor State Claims,” in the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution International Arbitration Review (2025); “Climate, State, and Sovereignty: Self-Determination and Sea Level Rise,” Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University (2021); “Legal and Political Considerations with Respect to the Disappearance of States,” in New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea (Brill, 2020); and “The Singapore Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation: A New Way Forward?” in the Berkeley Journal of International Law (2019), “Transatlantic Environmental Regulation-Making,” in Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: The Shifting Roles of the EU, the US and California, (Edward Elgar Publications, 2011), among others.