3PB

Construction and Engineering

Peter Aeberli is a Canadian citizen, resident in the United Kingdom. He is dually qualified as Architect and Barrister and is an experienced arbitrator, mediator and adjudicator. Apart from his work as counsel, the focus of his work is dispute resolution principally, but not solely, in the construction industry. He has handled two party and multi-party disputes with values up to £8 million.

He is available for and has received appointments as arbitrator, adjudicator and/or mediator by party agreement and from bodies such as the CIArb, the Construction Confederation, LICA, the RIBA, the ICE, the ICC and the Law Society. He has been listed as an adjudicator on high value and prestigious projects such as the London 2012 Adjudication Panel and BAA Terminal 5, power stations and football stadia. He is listed on numerous panels including the FIDIC President’s list of dispute adjudicators, the ICC Canadian National Committee Panel of International Commercial Arbitrators, the ICDR (American Arbitration Association) panel of international arbitrators, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (USA) Roster of arbitrators and mediators and Engineers’ Ireland panel of arbitrators (resigned mid 2025).

Prior to reading law as a scholar at Hertford College, Oxford in the late 1980s, Peter worked with a multi-disciplinary consultancy as a project architect on medium and large developments including hospitals, schools, housing, offices and structures for the Ministry of Defence.

He converted to reading Architecture at Edinburgh University after starting a degree in Science (Chemistry) at St Andrew’s University.

1978-1987:      Architect, principally with Building Design Partnership, but for a period as a Lecturer in Architecture at Edinburgh University in design and building construction.

1987-1989:      Hertford College, Oxford, Scholar, Gibbs Prize, proxime assessit.  Also during this time and for a year or so after, a part time lecturer in building construction at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brooks University.

1989-1991:      Bar school and pupillage, including at Atkin Chambers, London.

Since 1991:      In private practice as a barrister, arbitrator, mediator and adjudicator.

1995-2018:      Visiting senior lecturer for the Kings College Centre of Construction Law MSc in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution, and sometime Course Coordinator for Part D: Arbitration and Dispute Resolution.

General Availability
Principally UK, Ireland and Europe.

Construction and Engineering

Work as counsel includes advising on and appearing principally on construction and arbitration related matters in the Technology and Court Court (TCC) and the County Courts, has also appeared in the Court of Appeal (TWF Printers Ltd v. Interserve Project Services [2006] BLR 299).  Receives instructions to draft contractual documentation including amendments to JCT contracts.  Advises and represents parties in arbitration, adjudication and mediation proceedings.

Overseas work has included advising parties in Latvia, Vietnam and in South Africa on contractual (FIDIC) and arbitration matters.

An experienced arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator, Peter receives appointments by party agreement and from bodies such as the ICC (sole arbitrator and president), LCIA (sole, presiding and wing arbitrator), FIDIC, Engineer’s Ireland, the CIArb, RICS and RIBA. Peter was invited by ICDR (American Arbitration Association) to chair a tribunal, but had to decline, for personal reasons.

Projects on which Peter Aeberli has been appointed as tribunal or instructed as counsel have included port facilities in Ghana and in England; power stations, including nuclear, roads, including in Moldova, sewers, including in Bulgaria; remediation of nuclear contamination; hotels and office complexes, railway rolling stock, housing; the value of projects ranging in value up to about £100 million and disputes up to about £10 million. Peter Aeberli also devised and ran, on behalf of various professional bodes in Ireland including the RIAI, Engineers’ Ireland and the Bar Council, the Adjudication Conversion Course in preparation for the introduction of statutory adjudication of construction disputes in Ireland and, for the Irish Law Society, a training course for representatives in Construction Adjudication. In 2018 he devised and ran for the BPP law school a five day course on international arbitration for a group of visiting Chinese lawyers.

Articles
Peter’s web site, www.aeberli.com, includes a number of papers on construction law, arbitration and adjudication. Published articles, many of which can be found re-printed on the site, include:

• 2007: What material can an adjudicator consider; Construction Law Journal
• 2005: Jurisdictional Disputes under the Arbitration Act 1996: A Procedural Route Map; Arbitration International
• 1993: Wharf Properties and Rolled-Up Claims; Construction Law Journal
• 1993: Abatements, Set-Offs and Counterclaims in Arbitration Proceedings; ADR Law Journal

Year of Call: 1990

RIBA and RIAS (1979 to mid-2025), ACE, FCIArb, Barrister Visiting senior lecturer at Kings College Centre of Construction Law and Management, teaching construction law, arbitration and dispute resolution and Course director for Module D of the MSc Course – Arbitration and dispute resolution module: 2002-2013. Joint Secretary of the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT): 1995 to 1998. Cases editor on the Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Law Journal: 1994 to 2000 Member of the drafting committee for the Construction Industry Model Arbitration Rules (CIMAR). Member of ICC Commission on Arbitration and ICC Task Forces on Reducing Costs in Complex Arbitrations and on Maximizing the Probative Value of Witness Evidence. Worshipful Company of Arbitrators (liveryman).

MA (Edin) BA (Oxon) Dip Arch RIBA and ARIAS (1979 to mid-2025) FCIArb Barrister (Middle Temple) Chartered Arbitrator Architect Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Accredited CEDR Mediator Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration

Hurlingham Club.