Chief Justice
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Burnett of Maldon
Chief Justice, AIFC Court
The Rt. Hon. Lord Burnett of Maldon was the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2017 until 30 September 2023. He studied law at Pembroke College, Oxford University, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1980. He practiced as a barrister and was head of a barrister chambers in London, UK, from 2003. He was Junior Counsel to the UK Crown from 1992 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 1998. He had a wide common law practice at the Bar of England and Wales with a particular focus on public and administrative law including public inquiries and high profile inquests. His final case at the Bar was as counsel to the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed.
He was appointed a Judge of the High Court of England and Wales in 2008, and was presiding Judge of the Western Circuit from 2011 until 2014. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 2014. He was Vice Chairman of the independent UK Judicial Appointments Commission from 2015 until 2017. In July 2017, at the age of 59, he was the youngest Lord Chief Justice to be appointed since 1958. As Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett was President of all the Courts of England and Wales. He presided over civil and criminal appeals in the Court of Appeal, sat in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and continues to sit from time to time in the Supreme Court.
Justices
Justice Sir Rupert Jackson was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple) in 1972 and appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1987. He was appointed as a High Court Judge in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales in 1999. He was the Judge in Charge of the Technology and Construction Court between 2004 and 2007. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal in 2008.
He conducted a civil litigation costs review in England and Wales from 2009 to promote access to justice at proportionate cost. His Final Report was published in 2010 and most of his recommendations were implemented in 2013. He was co-author and general editor of Jackson and Powell on Professional Negligence from 1982 to 1999. Since then he has been consultant editor. He was an editor of the White Book (on civil procedure in England and Wales) from 2000 and he was Editor-in-Chief from 2011 until 2017.
He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge University, where he read Classics and Law and graduated in 1971.
Justice Sir Jack Beatson FBA was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Inner Temple) in 1973 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1998. He was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of England and Wales in 2003 and was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 2013.
He was the Law Commissioner for England and Wales from 1989 until 1994 and worked on law reform in specialist areas including contract and commercial law, civil evidence, damages and financial services. He taught Law at Oxford University from 1973 until 1994 and he was the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at Cambridge University from 1994 until 2003.
He is an Honorary Fellow at Oxford and Cambridge universities and authored leading commercial law texts including Anson's Law of Contract (27th - 30th eds.) and Good Faith and Fault in Contract Law (1995).
He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford University, where he read Jurisprudence and graduated with a BA in 1970, a BCL in 1972, an MA in 1973, and he received a DCL in 2000.
Justice Sir Stephen Richards was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Gray’s Inn) in 1975. He was appointed as a High Court Judge of the High Court of England and Wales in 1997. He was the Presiding Judge for Wales between 2000 and 2003. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 2005. He was Deputy Head of Civil Justice between 2013 and 2015.
Before he became a Judge, he was the First Junior Treasury Counsel between 1992 and 1997, a distinguished legal appointment known as the ‘Treasury Devil’. He was the Standing Counsel to the Director General of Fair Trading (the UK competition authority at that time) between 1987 and 1991. He has specialist expertise in competition law and regulatory law. He is an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College at Oxford University.
He was educated at St. John’s College, Oxford University, where he read Literae Humaniores (Classics) and graduated in 1972, and he read Jurisprudence and graduated with a BA in 1974 and an MA in 1977.
Justice Lord Faulks KC was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1973 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1996. He was created a life peer member of the UK House of Lords in 2000 and was appointed Minister of State at the UK Ministry of Justice between 2013 and 2016. He was appointed a Recorder in 2000 and a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2002.
His specialist expertise includes commercial law, arbitration, and professional negligence law. He was Chairman of the Professional Negligence Bar Association between 2002 and 2004 and was appointed Special Advisor to the UK Government Department for Constitutional Affairs on compensation culture between 2005 and 2006. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is an Honorary Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University.
He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford University, where he graduated with an MA.
Justice Spink KC was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple) in 1985 and appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2003. He is joint Head of Chambers and leads the Commercial team at Outer Temple Chambers, a barristers’ chambers in London. He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in the High Court of England and Wales in 2008 and sits regularly in this capacity in the Queen’s Bench Division and Chancery Division of that Court. He has also sat for many years as a Civil Recorder in the courts of the Western Circuit.
His specialist expertise includes complex commercial civil disputes, commercial trusts, banking, financial services and pensions law, regulatory law, and non-contentious strategic advisory work in all of these fields. He has extensive experience of mediation and arbitration.
He was educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge University, where he graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences and Law in 1984 and received his MA in 1985.
Justice Montagu-Smith KC was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn) in 2001 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2017.
He practices as a barrister from 3 Verulam Buildings, a barristers’ chambers in London, and practices in London and internationally including in the British Virgin Islands and Dubai, having appeared in many of the leading cases at the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts. He has specialist expertise in international commercial law, arbitration, commercial fraud, insurance and reinsurance, construction, and professional negligence. He was the principle draftsman of the Rules of the AIFC Court.
He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he read Politics, Philosophy, and Economics and graduated in 1999. He read for the Postgraduate Diploma in Law at the College of Law in 2000 and read for the Bar Vocational Course at the College of Law in 2001.
Justice Banner KC is a barrister based at Keating Chambers in London. He practises in England & Wales (where he was called to the Bar in 2004) and Northern Ireland (where he was called to the Bar in 2010), as well as internationally. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2019. He has a broad practice, principally focused on public and private law issues relating to development and infrastructure (particularly in the energy, transport, housing and tourism sectors), but also covering government & regulation and commercial dispute resolution more generally. He is recommended in a total of 8 practice areas by Chambers & Partners UK Bar and Legal 500 UK Bar, and has been the recipient of multiple legal industry awards.
He has acted as counsel in over 100 reported cases, including 16 appeals in the UK Supreme Court, 13 cases before the EU Courts (CJEU and General Court) and 9 cases before the UNECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. He was a Judicial Assistant to the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (the predecessor to the UK Supreme Court) for 12 months in 2005-2006. He is a non-executive member of the Global Standards and Regulation Board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (the global professional self-regulatory body for over 125,000 chartered surveyors and 25,000 firms worldwide) and an Independent Member of the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (the statutory UK nature conservation advisory body). From 2017 until 2020 he was the UK Member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency's Management Board. He speaks intermediate French and Russian. He was educated at the University of Oxford (Lincoln College).
Justice Edwards was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006.
She practices as a barrister from 20 Essex Street, a barristers’ chambers in London, and has broad commercial litigation and arbitration experience with emphasis on advising and acting on complex cases with an international dimension. She has specialist expertise on urgent interim relief measures, insurance law, aviation, banking, international trade, private international law, intellectual property, sports and competition law. She has considerable experience of complex scientific and financial evidence and foreign laws. She was appointed to Tiers 1 and 2 of the Lloyd’s Arbitration Scheme Arbitrators Panel.
She was educated at University College London, where she read for an LLB in Law and graduated in 2005, and at Brasenose College, Oxford University, where she read for a BCL and graduated in 2007.
Registrar & Chief Executive
Mr. Christopher Campbell-Holt
Registrar and Chief Executive, AIFC Court
Mr. Campbell-Holt is the Registrar and Chief Executive of the AIFC Court. He is also Enforcement Judge of the AIFC Court. He is responsible for the day to day management and administration of the Court and case management of litigation before the Court. As Enforcement Judge he is responsible for issuing execution orders of Court judgments and orders. He is also the Registrar and Chief Executive of the International Arbitration Centre (“IAC”).
He managed the establishment of the AIFC Court and IAC from initial concept to recognised stand-alone premier international dispute resolution institutions in Eurasia, and has advised many Governments and organisations on common law and dispute resolution institutions development including in the Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.
He is a member of the AIFC Legal Advisory Council, which reviews and approves AIFC law modelled on the common law. He was a member of the Working Group on Judicial and Legal Reforms of the Supreme Council of Reforms of the Office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is a member of the International Council of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which advises on reform of the Kazakh courts and dispute resolution. He is a member of the AIFC Legal Services Board, which regulates legal services provided by lawyers in the AIFC. He is an Honorary Professor and Member of the Board of Trustees at M. Narikbayev (KAZGUU) University in Astana, and Adjunct Professor and Member of the Advisory Board at Narxoz University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
He has 20 years of international legal experience gained while living and working in the UK, US, Middle East and Central Asia. He was the Registrar at an international financial centre commercial court and alternative dispute resolution centre in Qatar under the Presidency of Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He also worked at the international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, in London, UK, and at a Middle East law firm partnered with the international law firm Covington and Burling LLP, in Doha, Qatar.
He studied Law at University College London, and is admitted to the Bar of New York State. He is a CEDR accredited mediator and has many years of mediator experience. He has Member status at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is a life time member of the Chartered Institute of Directors and he is a board member of various institutions including the Board of Governors of De Montfort University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
He has received numerous honours in Kazakhstan including in 2022, The Order of Friendship (Dostyq ordeni) by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This is the highest level state award of the Republic of Kazakhstan that can be awarded to non-Kazakh citizens. It is awarded to individuals for the "promotion of international and civil consensus in society and the promotion of peace, friendship and cooperation between peoples". In 2020 he was awarded “The Jubilee Medal” by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for his “significant contribution to the formation of statehood, strengthening of sovereignty and socio-economic development of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.
Registry
Ms. Tukhtamova as a Chief Operating Officer provides financial and operational management, including project management support and leadership on business development initiatives of the AIFC Court and IAC. She leads the development of the AIFC Court and IAC bespoke client services programme. She has a degree in Business Administration from the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Before joining the AIFC Court and IAC, she worked at the Expat Centre of the AIFC Authority, the Treasury and External relationship departments of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and at the external relations and financial restructuring department of the “Astana-Finance” JSC.
Contacts: [email protected]
Mr. Igenbayev supports the Registrar with all aspects of case administration and case management. He is a law graduate from Al Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, and has an LLM from the University College London, UK. Before joining the AIFC Court and IAC, he worked at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan and at the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is a CEDR Accredited Mediator.
Contacts: [email protected]
