Chambers’ public law team act for a wide variety of clients in many different aspects of public law. The team has very extensive experience in cases involving:

• the police (including challenges to disclosure decisions, the policing of demonstrations, and operational policy)
• government departments (particularly in the contexts of prisons, the administration of justice, and asylum and immigration)
• regulatory bodies (such as the Independent Police Complaints Commission)
• judicial bodies (including coroners)
• other public bodies (such as the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority).

Members of chambers also provide extensive advice to public bodies on the formulation of policy in a manner which is consistent with domestic and international legal obligations.

Chambers has particular experience in the following areas of public law:

• Criminal Law (including public interest immunity, compatibility of offences with the European Convention on Human Rights, cautions, decisions on whether to prosecute, and prosecutorial policy)
• Employment (including challenges to employment policy as well as decisions to suspend/dismiss in particular public law contexts)
• Freedom of Information and Data Protection (including acting in claims before the Information Tribunal)
• Human Rights and Civil Liberties (including allegations of abuse by police, prison staff and the armed forces, and applications for declarations of incompatibility)
• Police law (including police discipline, police employment, force amalgamation, pensions, disclosure, operational policy)
• Public inquiries (including challenges to terms of reference and the procedures adopted by a public inquiry)
• Terrorism (including policy advice and acting in challenges to control orders and deportation decisions)

Members of Chambers acted in both the very last appeal to be decided by the House of Lords and in one of the first to be decided by the new Supreme Court.

Chambers have been involved in the following important recent public law cases:

R (L) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] UKSC 3

Whether the disclosure of intelligence to the putative employer of a person who would have access to children was a breach of the Human Rights Act 1998

R (Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions [2009] UKHL 45

Whether the Code for Crown Prosecutors sufficiently catered for cases of assisted suicide

Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF [2009] UKHL 28

Whether, having regard to the use of special advocates, the non-disclosure of the case against terrorism suspects in control order proceedings was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights

R (Kay) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2008] UKHL 69

Whether “critical mass” cycle rides are lawful

R (Hurst) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2007] UKHL 13

Whether a coroner’s inquest was required to satisfy the investigative obligation under article 2 ECHR in respect of a death that occurred before the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force

R (JF) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 792

Whether the notification requirements for sex offenders was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights

R (Misick) v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs [2009] EWHC 1039 (Admin)

Whether the dissolution of democratic institutions in the Turks and Caicos Islands was compatible with domestic and international human rights law

barristers specialising in Public / Administrative Law

Fiona Barton QC
Geoffrey Tattersall QC
Jason Beer QC
Jeremy Johnson QC
Anne Studd QC
Samantha Leek QC
John Bassett
Nicholas Wilcox
Alison Hewitt
Andrew Waters
Simon Walsh
John-Paul Waite
Dijen Basu
Alan Payne
Matthew Holdcroft
Russell Fortt
Charlotte Ventham
Elliot Gold
Lucinda Boon
Francesca Whitelaw
Beatrice Collier
Mark Thomas
Georgina Wolfe
Jonathan Dixey
Peter Taheri
Cicely Hayward