practice

Counsel and advisory work in public international law and international dispute settlement.

A particular focus on proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and tribunals constituted under the ICSID Convention.

Engagements ordinarily arise from inter-state proceedings, advisory opinion requests, investor-state arbitration, and the questions that sit between them: state responsibility, the law of treaties, jurisdictional immunities, the law of the sea, the use of force, foreign investment protection, and the international human-rights and humanitarian-law obligations that increasingly cut across the rest.

Recent matters have included:

• Counsel and adviser roles in contentious and advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice;
• Support to a State chairing a group of States on matters of the law of the sea;
• Assistance to party-appointed arbitrators in investment-treaty disputes administered under the ICSID Convention;
• Research and drafting support to a Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission;
• Advisory work on a use-of-force matter arising under a multilateral treaty;
• Advisory work in a boundary dispute;
• Consultancy to inter-governmental research initiatives on questions of public international law;
• Training and capacity-building for diplomats and government officials.

Work is undertaken as sole counsel, in support of leading counsel teams and firms, or in association with academic institutions and inter-governmental research initiatives. Confidentiality is the default. References on application.

A non-exhaustive selection of recent matters and projects appears under research and data. Inquiries by correspondence.