About Peter Kamminga

Peter Kamminga, Ph.D., LL.M. is mediator & arbitrator of complex business disputes. Next to his work in practice he is a scholar, speaker and professor and international expert in contractual relations. As a trained lawyer and behavioral scientist for the past twenty years he developed a unique expertise in the fields of dispute resolution and contracts.

Dispute resolution professional

As JAMS neutral Dr. Kamminga specializes in complex civil matters. The past decade he has successfully (co)mediated and arbitrated many complex, multi-party civil disputes ranging from sophisticated financial disputes, large (cross-border) bankruptcies, to complex insurance coverage cases, and high-stakes contractual matters related to construction, major development, and oil & gas projects. Each of these matters with aggregate values of millions and sometimes billions of dollars or euro’s. Dr. Kamminga was trained by and at times still teams up with one of the US preeminent mediators, Judge Weinstein (Ret.). (visit kammingamediation.com or jamsadr.com for more information).

Academic work

Next to his dispute resolution practice he is a scholar and professor. Currently, he holds a position as an Associate Professor at  VU Amsterdam University and as an affiliated scholar at Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.

He speaks and writes on ADR and contractual matters. Over the years he has addressed thousands of professionals in many countries on themes of collaboration and negotiation. Dr. Kamminga continues to lead discussions on topics of collaboration, complex contracts, contract law and theory, contract design, and negotiation and mediation. His collection of published works include over fifty peer reviewed articles in scholarly and practice journals, and five books on subjects ranging from dispute resolution, to collaboration and contracts. All of this work has earned him a variety of recognitions. He conducted in-depth studies on numerous global firms and performed empirical research on organizational collaboration.

Trusted advisor

Dr. Kamminga is regularly asked to consult with large public and private organizations to advice them on optimally designing their procurement process, contracts and contractual relations. Oftentimes involving some of the most complex infrastructure or IT projects and contractual matters around.

Career and Education

Dr. Kamminga started his legal career as in-house counsel and as legal advisor at de Brauw Blackstone Westbroek (one of the Netherlands’ leading law firms) advising on arbitration cases and large complex disputes. He then embarked upon an academic career but always kept a strong foot in practice advising on various matters for clients such as the European Commission, The Dutch Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Infrastructure, various Dutch and US insurance companies, international financial institutions, and various clients and contractors in the European and US construction industry.

Dr. Kamminga graduated from Columbia University, Groningen university and Maastricht University and studied at Georg August University.  He wrote his Ph.D. while in residence at Stanford University, which was successfully defended at both Tilburg University and Brussels University. Next to his current work carried out at Harvard University and VU Amsterdam, he has held academic affiliations at UC Hastings College of the Law and Stanford University (Gould Center).

• As a professor, Dr. Kamminga teaches at the graduate and executive level. He developed courses on Contract law, Negotiation, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, and Construction law.

• His Ph.D. Effective structures for contractual relations received wide acclaim and received special mention as exemplary multidisciplinary research. Dr. Kamminga wrote his Ph.D. while a visiting scholar in residence at Stanford University’ Gould Center of Dispute resolution. It was nominated for cum laude and successfully defended at two universities, both Tilburg University in the Netherlands and Brussels University in Belgium.

• Fellow at Harvard PON. - After completing his dissertation, he received an invitation to join the re-known Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard law school. Initially, as post-doc and later as affiliated faculty at PON, he has carried out various research projects in the field of contractual relations and ADR and was involved in executive education at both Harvard University and VU University Amsterdam.

• Affiliations - Over the past years, Dr. Kamminga has held academic affiliations at various institutions in the U.S. including UC Hastings College of Law and Stanford University (Gould Center) and taught negotiation and dispute resolution at multiple universities around the world.

• Research grants - Dr. Kamminga over the years has been awarded several grants among which the prestigious Veni-Grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to carry out studies into optimal contract regimes and procurement methods.

• JAMS Weinstein Fellowship - Dr. Kamminga received a Weinstein Fellowship award from the JAMS Foundation for his accomplishments in the field of alternative dispute resolution.