International criminal & humanitarian law
Our team of international criminal law barristers provide strategic advice and representation in trials for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and/or torture before international and hybrid criminal courts/tribunals as well as in national courts.
Our practice team have appeared before major international criminal courts, including the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). They are currently advising on matters falling within the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (relating to genocide), the International Criminal Court, the Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunal, and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
Our international criminal law barristers also undertake international consultancy work, providing specialist advice to clients and drafting legal submissions/opinions on their behalf. Our members have worked on some major international cases and helped pushed the development of the law with long-lasting effect.
Please refer to our individual members’ profiles for further information. Some of our members’ recent work has included:
- Providing drafting and technical legal advice, in Chambers, by assisting the judges of the UNICTY and UNICTR to draft judgments in major cases;
- Advising victims’ groups seeking to initiate prosecutions in foreign courts applying the principle of universal jurisdiction in relation to China, Syria, Iran, among other States;
- Representing a number of NGOs and survivors’ groups on the application of the Genocide Convention engaging States’ duties to prevent and/or punish genocide;
- Providing advice on jurisdiction and assisting in preparatory investigations in relation to actions before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice;
- Drafting amicus curiae briefs to international mechanisms, for instance, assistance in relation to a brief before the Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunal relating to torture–derived evidence;
- Training and mentoring fellow practitioners on best practices and leading lectures/seminars/panels on the latest developments (both factual and legal) in international criminal law and international humanitarian law.
