Thomas John
Thomas John, Independent accredited Mediator and Arbitrator
Thomas John has 20+ years of experience in international dispute resolution. He is common and civil law trained, fully bilingual (English and German), and practices now as an independent mediator, arbitrator, and negotiator. He also acts as a dispute resolution consultant through his consultancy resolution2resolve. Thomas is based in The Hague, Netherlands, the seat of CAfA.
Thomas’ dispute resolution practice includes (international) commercial disputes, such as contractual; intellectual property (IP), art, indigenous / first nation art, and cultural objects; travel and tourism; sports; employment; business-human rights; investor-State; and State-State disagreements. He can also assist in complex family disputes, including inheritance, company succession and matrimonial asset disputes. His strong expertise has been recognised by many peers who invited him to join several high-profile European and global arbitrator and mediator panels.
Thomas has advised governments and museums in international art disputes and on the return of cultural objects, including in relation to stolen / looted artefacts, and on the application of applicable international instruments. He also advised governments, and acted as (co-) advocate, in international and domestic arbitrations and mediations since 2002. He trained extensively in online dispute resolution and is a member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution. He was appointed to the CAfA Arbitration Pool in April 2021. Thomas regularly cooperates with leading European and global art law experts.
Thomas remains active in academia and generously shares his knowledge and insights. He lectures mediation at Sigmund Freud University, Vienna (LLB and LLM) and regularly participates as assessor, trainer and coach at international arbitration and mediation competitions. Thomas is also a widely published author and frequent speaker on issues related to international private and procedural law as well as (online-) dispute resolution. He is an associate editor of The Netherlands International Law Review (NILR). Thomas is a (co-)chair of several groups, including the Commercial Law, Arbitration and Litigation Practice Group of the German-Australian-Pacific Lawyers Association (GAPLA), and of boards, such as supervisory boards for research grant recipients.
Thomas’ educational background includes: Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb); University of Queensland; University of Konstanz (LLB).
Jurisdiction: Australia, Germany, Europe