Rafael Leal-Arcas

Rafael has delivered keynote speeches and invited lectures at major conferences and policy-making events in the field of energy, such as: the International Energy Forum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; on climate change, such as Yale Workshop on Trade and Climate Change, Yale University, 2017; 35th Round Table on Sustainable Development, OECD, Paris, 2017; Annual high-level conference of the Institut Francais des Rel. Int’les, Paris, 2013; and economic law, such as 3rd Bi-annual conference of the Society of International Economic Law, National University of Singapore, 2012; 4th European Society of International Law International Economic Law, Estonia, 2011; 10th Euro-Latin Network on Integration and Trade conference, Inter-American Development Bank, Milan, 2012; 10th Annual WTO Conference, Georgetown Law Center and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London, UK, 2010. Rafael has also delivered lectures at very well-known institutions such as Oxford University, 2018; the American Society of International Law, U.S., 2008; Harvard University, U.S., 2006; and the US Court of International Trade, New York, 2005. As of December 2021, Rafael had given over 233 keynote speeches or talks in 52 countries.   

Rafael has previously taught at the Academy of WTO Law and Policy of Georgetown University Law Center (Washington, D.C.), the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (Korea), the University of Vienna School of Law Summer School (Austria), the National Law School of India University (Bangalore, India)—where he was POROS Chair in European Union law, and the Universidade Federal Minas Gerais School of Law (Brazil).

Rafael has taught law courses on six continents, including a visiting professor at New York University Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Georgetown University Law Center (US), Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Singapore Management University School of Law (Singapore), Nankai University (China), Northwestern Polytechnical University (Xi’an, China), University of Eastern Finland, University of Leuven (Belgium), Bocconi University (Italy), Gujarat National Law University (India), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco School of Law (Brazil), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), Galatasaray University School of Law (Turkey), Kültür University (Turkey), University of Bahçesehir (Turkey), the Energy Charter Secretariat (Belgium), has trained senior energy professionals in Kazakhstan, and has been invited to train African policy-makers on trade and climate change. Rafael is also a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar and has been the recipient of the Fulbright, the British Council and La Caixa scholarships. He has also been awarded major research grants funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program on research and innovation and a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Rafael completed his graduate legal education with a PhD and four Master’s degrees: a JSM from Stanford Law School, an LLM from Columbia Law School (where he obtained the Parker School Certificate for Achievement in International and Comparative Law), an MPhil from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD as well as an MA in legal research from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). He complemented his education further with executive programs at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Yale University, and the University of Oxford.

He completed his BA as well as his first law degree (LLB) at the universities of Granada (Spain), Regensburg (Germany), Bologna (Italy) and Angers (France).

He is a qualified attorney in Madrid and speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Ladino and conversational Portuguese. Rafael swam in the Junior Olympics and ran the Brussels marathon.