In mid-2000s, Prof. Chang took the lead in founding the Korean international arbitration community. He was the founding Chairman of the Korean Council for International Arbitration (KOCIA) and chaired the drafting committee for the original KCAB International Arbitration Rules and the KCAB Code of Ethics for Arbitrators. Prof. Chang played an active role to promote international arbitration in Asia, while serving as the 3rd President of the Asia-Pacific Regional Arbitration Group (APRAG).
Since late 1990s, Prof. Chang has sat as an adjudicator/arbitrator for international dispute settlement tribunals nearly one hundred times. He has served as an arbitrator (chairman or co-arbitrator) for various arbitral institutions, including the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC, VIAC, JCAA and KCAB. He also served as a Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
After serving as one of the most frequently appointed panelists/arbitrators for the WTO dispute settlement, in 2012, he was appointed as a Member (Judge) of the WTO Appellate Body. After returning from Geneva, Prof. Chang also served for the Korean government as the Chairman of the Korea Trade Commission. In 2022, he was appointed, for the first time in history, as an appellate review arbitrator for WTO dispute settlement.
Prof. Chang practiced at Covington & Burling in Washington D.C., and served as a judge for Seoul District Court in his early legal career.
Prof. Chang holds law degrees from SNU (LL.B.) and Harvard Law School (LL.M. & S.J.D.). He has taught international arbitration, investment and trade law courses as a tenured professor at SNU and, as a Visiting Professor, at various renowned law schools including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, NYU, Duke, Georgetown, UCLA, National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University, and Geneva University. In 2007, Harvard Law School granted him an endowed visiting professorial chair title, Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems.
Prof. Chang is also Editor-in-Chief for Korean Arbitration Review, and an Advisory Board Member for the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Oxford) and formerly the Journal of International Economic Law (Oxford).