Prof. Barry Appleton is one of North America’s leading legal architects of sovereign economic policy, trade law, and investment treaty arbitration. As Managing Partner of Appleton & Associates International Lawyers LP in Toronto and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for International Law at New York Law School, he advises governments and strategic sectors on how to navigate and shape the evolving legal terrain of international commerce, digital sovereignty, and geopolitical risk.
A pioneer in cross-border NAFTA dispute resolution, Prof. Appleton has served as lead counsel in groundbreaking investor-state arbitrations, setting legal precedents that help define the field. His counsel has guided Canadian and international decision-makers and clients through high-stakes NAFTA, bilateral investment treaty and WTO cases—establishing him as a trusted voice in the corridors of international law and diplomacy.
Prof. Appleton played a foundational role as advisor to Ontario’s Cabinet Committee on North American Free Trade during NAFTA negotiations and has since been repeatedly called upon by senior governmental leaders to advise on trade, investment, and urgent national interest strategy in the face of escalating global trade weaponization.
A frequent media commentator, he has testified before the U.S. Trade Representative, World Trade Organization, Canadian Parliamentary Committees, and state legislatures—advocating for a rules-based, sovereignty-conscious approach to economic law. His deep expertise spans critical policy domains, including digital innovation, supply chain resilience, energy, critical minerals, intellectual property sovereignty, fresh water policy and the strategic deployment of Canada’s defense-aligned economic assets.
As Faculty Director of the American Bar Association’s TechCred program on international technology dispute resolution, Prof. Appleton is advancing a next-generation legal curriculum for the digital economy. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Investor-State Reports (Thomson Reuters), and author of seminal works including Navigating NAFTA.
Prof. Appleton holds degrees from Cambridge University, Queen’s University, and the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the New York Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and is admitted before the U.S. Court of International Trade.
In an era of deglobalization and strategic decoupling, Prof. Appleton is a foremost authority on how countries like Canada can reclaim and reassert sovereign legal and economic agency through bold, informed legal strategy.