Matrix Chambers

Environment; EU; International; Human Rights.

Barrister and a CEDR accredited mediator specialising in EU/environment, banking law and public international law. EU/environment work includes: R v Secretary of State for the Environment ex p First Corporate Shipping (ECJ 07/11/00, New Law Digest 800116901); Olivieri v Commission (Court of First Instance, Jan 2000 and April 2003); advised (with Philippe Sands QC) both an international environmental organisation and a foreign government on issues arising from Directive 96/29/EURATOM on radioactive substances; advising Central and Eastern European states on the implementation of EU environmental law. Public international law includes: R v Bow Street Magistrates ex p Pinochet (No3) [1999] 2 WLR 827 HL instructed on behalf of Human Rights Watch, an intervenor; advised (with Ian Geering QC and Philippe Sands QC) by various associated South African corporations in relation to claims arising from the expropriation of diamond mines by the Government of Lesotho; advised on the implications of the dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Succession Agreement for the distribution of trust assets; and banking work includes: Scottish Equitable v Virdee [1999] 1 FLR 863 CA; Barclays Bank v Coleman [2000] 1 All ER 385 CA; instructed by one of the few remaining mutual building societies in a dispute about its entitlement to close the accounts of customers who nominate or vote for election to the board a carpet-bagger (who wished to demutualise the society); instructed to consider the implications of the Human Rights Act 1998 for financial regulation. Recent public law cases include R (on the application of Robertson) ex p Wakefield DC 2001 regarding the disclosure of information by the electoral registrar and the scope of the EU Data Protection Directive and of ECHR Art 8; retained in the USA as international law expert on the implications of the war in Iraq.

Called 1992, Inner Temple; visiting tutor in law at Worcester College, Oxford 1991; visiting lecturer in Law at King’s College, London 1992; visiting fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney 1993; visiting lecturer on European law, University of North Carolina, 2000; visiting lecturer, Princeton University 2001-02; director of the policy task force on lawful responses to terrorism after September 11, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 2002; visiting professor, University of North Carolina 2003-04; visiting fellow 2009-11 Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard Law School. Publications: ‘Loss of Profits in Damages for Deceit’ (1992); ‘Never the Cost of Cure’ (1992); ‘Third Party Surety: Midland Bank v Massey, (1994); ‘The Assignment of Disputed Debts’ 1996; contributor of chapter on environmental liability in ‘Banks, Liability and Risk’ (3rd ed, 2001) edited by W Blair QC; contributing editor of supplement to ‘Clayton & Tomlinson’s Law of Human Rights’ (2000); co-editor and contributor to ‘Handbook on the Implementation of EU Environmental Legislation’ (2003); ‘The Price of Seduction: The Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs’ (2003); ‘Mending the Web: Universal Jurisdiction, Humanitarian Intervention and the Abrogation of Immunity by the Security Council’ (2004); ‘When Doctors Go to War’ (2005); ‘9/11 + 7/7 + 11/3 = ? What Counts in Counterterrorism’ (2006); ‘Doctors as Pawns?’ Law and Medical Ethics at Guantanamo Bay’ (2007); ‘Toward a Unified Theory of Professional Ethics and Human Rights’ (forthcoming).

French (working knowledge); Italian (basic knowledge).

CEDR (Centre for Dispute Resolution); Bar European Group; American Society of International Law.

The Glasgow Academy; Worcester College, Oxford (1990 BA, 1991 BCL, 1995 MA).