Public International Law
Public International Law is a significant growth area in Chambers work. Issues of PIL are increasingly arising in commercial cases and judicial review, as well as in the EU and Human Rights contexts.
Members of Chambers have been involved in many of the leading PIL cases in the English courts, including the International Tin Council, Kuwait Airways and Pinochet cases. More recently, they have acted in the state immunity case Jones, in the CND challenge concerning UN Resolutions on Iraq, and in the Chicago Convention challenges to aviation measures in Federation of Tour Operators and Kibris Turk Hava Yollari.
The relationship between the European Communities/ EU and international legal norms has been considered in a number of ECJ cases in which Chambers was instructed including Opinion 1/94 (EC participation in GATT/WTO) and the recent case of Kadi, which defined the interrelationship between UN Security Council Resolutions and EU fundamental rights principles in the context of international sanctions. A number of other sanctions cases in which members of Chambers are acting are pending before the Community's courts.
Chambers has also been instructed in a number of bilateral investment treaty arbitrations, in the Eurotunnel arbitration in the Hague and in PIL cases before the European Court of Human Rights including the state immunity cases Al-Adsani and McElhinney.
Recent cases include:
- Al-Adsani v UK (ECtHR)
- Jones v Saudi Arabia and ors. (House of Lords)
- R (CND) v Prime Minister and ors (Divisional Court)
- Eurotunnel v UK and France (PCIA)
- Kadi v Council of the European Union (ECJ)