04/03/10
Michael Swainston QC, Paul Wright and Stephen Midwinter appeared for the Russian Federation (as part of a team of English and Russian lawyers) at an oral hearing in Strasbourg on 4 March 2010 in OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya YUKOS v Russia. The applicant's claim on behalf of Yukos is for over US$98 billion, the biggest ever to be brought in the European Court of Human Rights. Yukos argues that its tax enforcement proceedings and liquidation constituted an unlawful disguised expropriation of its assets and an unfair retrospective criminal penalty.