Brian Hutchinson is Associate Professor in the UCD Sutherland School of Law at University College Dublin, Ireland, where he specialises in the fields of Commercial Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has researched and written on Arbitration and ADR, Online Dispute Resolution, Company Law, Commercial Law, Contract Law and Agency, and Information Technology. He is Editor of the Commercial Law Practitioner Law Journal (ISSN 0791-895X), former Editor of Irish Business Law Journal (ISSN 1393-6220), and he is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Irish Jurist. (ISSN 0021-1273) and the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution (Eleven International Publishing, The Hague, Netherlands).

In 2000 he was appointed to the advisory board of e-Resolution, one of the first bodies accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to provide online arbitration for the resolution of internet Domain Name Disputes. In 2001 he became Project Leader of the pilot phase of the ECODIR (Electronic Consumer Dispute Resolution) project ((www.ecodir.org) (DG Sanco n° B5-1000/00/000112) supported by the EU Commission and the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which, begun in the University of Namur, Belgium and the University of Montreal, Canada, pioneered the development of online dispute resolution in Europe. He was one of the original participants in the UN ECE ODR forums held in Geneva in 2002 and 2003. He later chaired the EU Commission supported “CCForm” EU IST Thematic Network (IST-2001-34908) Topic Panel 5 – «CCForm and ADR», and has acted as consultant to Irish Government Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, e-business unit; and the Law Reform Commission of Ireland. In 2007-2009 he was Legal Expert and Editor for the European Committee for Standardization’s Workshop Agreement on the Standardization of Online Dispute Resolution Tools (CEN/ISS – WS/Stand-ODR) supported by the EU Commission. In 2008 he advised the Irish Attorney General on aspects of the Irish Arbitration Bill, 2008 which now, as the Arbitration Act 2010, governs domestic and international arbitration in the Republic of Ireland. He has also been consulted by the Law Reform Commission of Ireland and the Irish National Consumer Agency with regard to the development and use of ADR in Ireland. In 2012 Brian was appointed by the Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation to the statutory Company Law Review Group which is charged with reviewing and amending the Irish companies acts, and he chaired the group’s sub-committee on the Review of the Rules governing Legal Representation of Companies before the Courts.

In addition, as a practising arbitrator and mediator, he has served as Arbitrator, as arbitrator’s Legal Advisor, as party Legal Consultant in a number of domestic and international arbitrations and conciliations with total amounts in dispute in excess of Eur50,000,000; and he has served as expert witness in multi-million pound UK litigation. His consultancy projects have included a programme of training for Inquiry Members from the Office of the Irish Financial Regulator, and a review of award writing standards for appointment to the President’s panel of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in 2010. In 2013 was made a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) panel of arbitrators for domain name disputes and he has arbitrated on disputes in the .IE registry. In February 2014 Brian was made a Chartered Arbitrator by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, one of a small number of arbitrators in the Republic of Ireland ever to achieve that status.

Brian is former acting Director of the UCD Commercial Law Centre at University College Dublin and he served continuously as Assistant Dean, Associate Dean, and Vice Dean of the Faculty/School of Law at University College Dublin from 1997 to 2007.