Dr. Christian Tams

Biography

Christian J. Tams joined King’s College London in November 2025 as a Professor of Public International Law. He previously held professorial appointments at the University of Glasgow from 2008 to 2025 and at Sorbonne Law School in Paris from 2022 to 2025. He studied law at universities in Kiel and Lyon III during the 1990s before moving to Cambridge to complete his LLM and PhD between 2000 and 2004. Currently, he maintains a part-time affiliation with Leuphana Law School in Germany. Over recent years, he has held visiting professorships at institutions in Vienna, Kobe, Paris X, Cologne, and Minas Gerais. A qualified German lawyer, Christian is an associate member of 11 King’s Bench Walk, where he regularly advises governments, international organisations, NGOs, and the private sector on various aspects of international law. Over the past decades, he has acted in proceedings at the ICJ, ITLOS, IUSCT, investment arbitration tribunals, and domestic courts. Additionally, he is a member of the scientific advisory council of the German Federal Foreign Office and is involved in the work of the European Society of International Law, where, starting September 2025, he will serve as the Society’s tenth President. His research interests include dispute settlement, international security, sovereign immunities, and investment protection in public international law, and he currently supervises PhD students.

Research Interests

Experience