
Can we meet you sir?
My name is Ilias Kazeem. I am a PhD student in the University of Aberdeen, in the United Kingdom and I am a partner at the law firm of Sholias LP in Lagos, Nigeria. I started my law career as a litigation clerk in the law office of Gbola Adeosun & Co (Niyass Chambers) for 2 years between 2006 and 2008. I graduated from University of Ilorin in 2013 and I had the privilege of having a First Class in my LLB. I was the first person to have a first class in LLB at the University of Ilorin. I went to law school and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2014. Then, I worked in the law firm of Banwo & Ighodalo as an Associate for about 5 years. In year 2020, I obtained an LLM with Distinction at the University of Aberdeen in Energy and Environmental Law.
How has the journey been and what has been your achievement?
The Journey has not been particularly easy, but I see life generally as a combination of ups and downs. My perspective about life reflects in my career as well. With the ups and downs, one can as well focus on what leads one to the greater heights rather than what drags one down. I am also of the view that my biggest achievement is the level of impacts I am able to achieve. During my undergraduate program for example, we had arrangements for tutorials which helped people but also assisted the tutors in self-development. If you were to teach on anything, you would read up ahead on it. I also actively participated in debating, moot court and mock trials. So, if you bring any problem to me, I will focus on where the solution lies rather than the magnitude of the problem. At first blush, it always appears that everything is collapsing, but I usually would advise that one should not focus on the problem but look at the strategy for solution. If a problem is complex, it is like that so that the solution should also be. I continue to apply myself this way even in representing my clients to find legal solutions.
Recently, you were conferred with a membership of the Young Arbitration Group of the Energy Disputes Arbitration Centre, what is your advice to law students and young lawyers who intend to explore this area of law?
My advice to law students and young lawyers interested in Arbitration, Energy law, energy arbitration or any other specialist area of law is to start studying and preparing for it, through internship, training and other mechanisms. It might not be enough to have qualifications in arbitration, as having expertise, qualification and/or experience in energy law will be required. Take for example, we have people specializing in Energy Arbitration, Construction Arbitration or Maritime Arbitration. What people do is to get qualifications and experience in both arbitration and specialized areas of interest. If you want to do energy Arbitration, you could consider a professional or academic qualification in energy law in addition to arbitration. I did Energy and Environmental law at LLM level and that has been very helpful. Some people started off practicing energy law in law firms or with internships in law firms before specializing in energy arbitration. As a student, you could also intern in an institution may be like an Arbitration institution or a law firm, to have a chance to gain experience in arbitration. Things like that put you on track. Also, joining a professional body that focuses on the particular area that you are interested in can increase your exposure and visibility.

Sir, what effect does the economic issues in Nigeria have on Investment Arbitration particularly in Nigeria?
Investment arbitration is an offshoot of treaty provisions regarding investments. It is when you have a lot of foreign investments and foreign investors that you can expect the investment law in a country to be active, including investment arbitration. There must be something that attracts foreign investors to invest in a place for investments to thrive in that place. So, the economic situation has a huge impact on foreign investments, and by extension, investment law and investment arbitration.
Sir, in practice, are there some similarities and differences between Investment Arbitration and Commercial Arbitration?
Commercial arbitration focuses on contractual claims usually between commercial parties, government agencies or government-owned corporation. Investment Arbitration is a dispute between a foreign investor and the government of the host state of the investment, based on investment treaty provisions and investment provisions in domestic legislations (see for example the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission Act, where the government has promised that foreign investors in Nigeria are guaranteed repatriation of profits or dividends – Section 24). Where there is an unfair measure taken by the government against the foreign investor, the foreign investor can seek remedy in investment arbitration. One major difference is that investment arbitration is a hybrid of private law and public law – private law in the sense that private investors are involved, where the private investors may have also signed an investment contract which the investment arbitration tribunal will consider. The public law aspect is in the treaties that are applied in resolving the investment disputes. The Arbitrators then have to follow laid guidelines on the interpretation of treaties such as can be found in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. There are also some guide in the precedents from the international courts and tribunals including the International Court of Justice, the tribunal on the law of the sea, among others.
So, an investment arbitration tribunal must reconcile the private law elements with the public law aspects of the proceedings. In commercial arbitration, the proceedings can be entirely private and confidential until it gets to the stage of enforcement or annulment of awards in courts where processes filed by the parties before the courts become public record. This is not the case with investment arbitration, because of the public law aspect. Looking at the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rule of 2013, certain rules of procedures particularly meant for investment arbitration require transparency and the proceedings cannot be entirely private and confidential. The practice is that tribunals often allow limited access to information regarding the proceedings. My PhD research is focusing on investment arbitration particularly with respect to energy and natural resources disputes and there are platforms that already report proceedings or part of the documents used in investment arbitration cases. If you need notice of arbitration in an investment arbitration case, or the award that has been rendered by the tribunal, the documents are made available to the public (at least in redacted format) because the tribunals understand that they have to balance privacy and confidentiality with transparency in investment arbitration. So, anyone that has something to do with investment arbitration will need to get acquainted with some aspects of public international law.
International Arbitration is one of your core areas of practice, what is the impact of this area of law in Nigeria?
When it comes to issues like investments and commercial transactions, parties often seek quick resolution of the dispute in a way they can carry on their investments and commercial activities unhindered. They are also often interested in efficiency of the proceedings and quality of decisions including expertise and independence of the adjudicators. International Arbitration offers these and many more to the commercial parties and foreign investors compared to courtrooms. Party autonomy of the international arbitration also give the commercial parties and foreign investors certainty because they can choose who their arbitrators will be, where dispute resolution will take place, the kind of procedure that will be applied and the governing law. International arbitration is ‘de-localized’ – it is not necessarily attached to the domestic law of a country. I think international arbitration should be encouraged more in Nigeria.