OUR TEAM

JUDr. Petr Bříza, LL.M., Ph.D.

Petr Bříza is a partner and co-founder of Bříza & Trubač and a leading expert in international arbitration, dispute resolution, European Union law and international commercial law. In his practice, he represents Czech and international clients in complex commercial and investment disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals and provides legal advice on international trade, contract law, energy and public sector matters.

Alongside his legal practice, he has long been active in academia as an assistant professor at the Department of Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law, Charles University. He regularly publishes and lectures in the Czech Republic and abroad. He serves as an arbitrator with leading Czech and international arbitral institutions, is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and Chairman of the Czech Institute for the Promotion and Revitalisation of Arbitration. Before founding Bříza & Trubač, he spent almost four years at Havel, Holásek & Partners and, prior to that, nearly five years at the Ministry of Justice, including as an adviser to the Minister on European and international law during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Specialization

Education

• Charles University Faculty of Law [Masters (summa cum laude) in 2003, Juris Doctor in 2004, Ph.D. in 2012]
• New York University School of Law (LL.M., 2008)
• Diploma in English and European Union Law (University of Cambridge, Institute of Continuing Education, 2007)
• Fulbright Scholarship, Hauser Global Scholarship, Starr Foundation Global Law School Scholarship

Other study visits

• Academy of European Law, European University Institute, Florence (July 2006)
• Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (July – August 2007)

Main fields of expertise

Domestic and international litigation and arbitration, international trade and investment protection, EU law, contractual matters, energy, and the public sector.

Language of provided services

• Czech
• English

Vocational exams

• Bar Exam (with honors)
• Registered mediator's examination (in accordance with the Act on Mediation)

Membership in arbitral, vocational, professional and advisory institutions and boards

• Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, nominated by the Czech Republic for a six-year term of office from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2031

• Member of the Department of Business Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University

• President of the Czech Institute for the Promotion and Revitalisation of Arbitration

• Arbitrator included on the European Commission’s list of arbitrators for bilateral disputes under trade agreements between the EU and third countries

• Arbitrator and, from 2020 to 2026, also member of the Board of the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic

• Arbitrator of the National Court of Arbitration for Sport

  Arbitrator at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA)

• Arbitrator deciding disputes under the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC)

• Member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR

• Member of the Czech Bar Association’s Section for EU Law, International Law and International Relations

• Member of the Czech Bar Association’s Section for Arbitration

• Czech Society for European and Comparative Law, co-founder

Awards

• The Legal 500 EMEA 2026 – Leading Partner

• Chambers Europe 2026 – Dispute Resolution, Band 4

• Chambers Global 2026 – Dispute Resolution, Band 4

• The Legal 500 EMEA 2025 – Leading Partner

• The Legal 500 2024 – Leading Individual

• Author’s Award for the Best Legal Publication in the Czech Republic in 2011 for the book Domestic Application of EU Law, co-authored with M. Bobek and J. Komárek

• Rand Foundation Award for the best master’s thesis in commercial law and related fields, 2003

• Innovative Lawyer 2016

• Recognitions in various rankings of recommended lawyers, including Who’s Who Legal and others

References

Petr has experience representing clients in disputes worth millions or billions, including in international investment and commercial arbitration, mediation, and domestic litigation and arbitration proceedings. He has been involved in representing, or has directly represented, clients in ICC, VIAC, LCIA and DIS arbitrations, ICSID and PCA arbitrations, before the Court of Justice of the EU and the General Court, and in matters involving the European Commission. He also negotiated a settlement in a multi-jurisdictional dispute with the Government of the United Kingdom.

In his areas of specialisation, he has advised EU institutions, banks, financial groups, automotive manufacturers, engineering companies, construction companies, public authorities and other entities across economic sectors. As an arbitrator, he has experience deciding many dozens of disputes before arbitral institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Selected Publications

• Selected Challenges and Particularities of Arbitration in Czechia. Strani Pravni Život / Foreign Legal Life, 4/2024, pp. 657–671 [co-author René Cienciala]

• Domestic Application of European Union Law. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2nd ed., 2022 [co-authors Michal Bobek and Pavlína Hubková]

  Transfers of Business Shares and Shares. Prague: Wolters Kluwer, 2022 [member of the authorial team]

• Determination of the Law Applicable to a Share Transfer Agreement: Are All Doubts Dispelled after the TVP Case? In: Pfeiffer, M., Brodec, J., Bříza, P., Zavadilová, M. (eds.) Liber Amicorum Monika Pauknerová. Prague: Wolters Kluwer, 2021

• Czech perspective on validity of international arbitration clauses contained in an exchange of emails under the New York Convention, (2020) 4 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS CAROLINAE – IURIDICA 143 (available here)

• The CISG and the Law Applicable to International Factoring, Assignment, Set-off and Late Payment Interests, (2020) 1 The European Legal Forum 13

• Rome I and Rome II Regulations in Practice. London: Intersentia, 2020 [member of the authorial team]

• Civil Code. Commentary. 2nd ed. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2019 [member of the authorial team]

• International Trade Law. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2019 [member of the authorial team]

• Czech Codification of Private International Law of 2012, Kwartalnik Prawa Prywatnego, 2/2019, pp. 467–496 [co-author M. Zavadilová]

• Shareholders’ Agreements. Prague: Wolters Kluwer, 2017 [member of the authorial team]

• Civil Code. Commentary. 1st ed. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2017 [member of the authorial team]

• International Arbitration – 2nd Edition (Czech Republic chapter). London: GLI, 2016 [co-author T. Hokr]

• Act on Private International Law. Commentary. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2014 [co-authors Břicháček, Fišerová, Horák, Ptáček and Svoboda]

• Civil Code – Large Commentary. Volume III. Sections 419–654. Prague: Leges, 2014 [member of the authorial team]

• Choice of Law and Choice of Court in International Trade. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2012

• Domestic Application of European Union Law. Prague: C.H. Beck, 2011 [co-authors M. Bobek and J. Komárek]

• Choice of Court Agreements: Could the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention and the Reform of the Brussels I Regulation Be the Way Out of the Gasser-Owusu Disillusion?, (2009) 5 Journal of Private International Law 537

• The Czech Constitutional Court on the Lisbon Treaty, 5 (2009) European Constitutional Law Review 143

• ECJ case Lucchini SpA – is there anything left of res judicata principle?, 27 Civil Justice Quarterly 40 (2008)

Complete list of Petr Briza’s publications here.

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