Ben Emmerson

In 1998, Emmerson successfully represented the claimants in the groundbreaking case of Osman v United Kingdom, a seminal decision of the European Court of Human Rights that first established the principle that a State owes a positive obligation to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights from the criminal acts of a private individual.^[54] The case concerned the fatal shooting of a man in London by a teacher who had become obsessed with the victim's son. It was alleged that the police had failed to heed multiple warning signs, or take necessary action to prevent the murder, and that the British courts had failed to provide an effective remedy for the police negligence. The Court held that the United Kingdom had violated the victims’ rights to a fair hearing through the grant of an effective legal immunity to the police, shielding them from legal liability in the tort of negligence, and awarded damages for the breach.^[55]

The following year, he successfully challenged the UK government's ban on homosexuals serving in the military, when he represented two

In 2003, Emmerson represented Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, accused of being a member of Al-Qaeda, along with a number of inmates of Belmarsh Prison, at a joint hearing of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, challenging their indefinite detention, without charge or trial, on national security grounds.^[58][59] The case (reported as A. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department), went to the House of Lords,^[60] which held that the indefinite detention of foreign terrorist suspects without trial was in breach of Articles 5 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the UK's derogation from its obligations under the convention was invalid because it was discriminatory and disproportionate. The decision established key principles about the relationship between the judiciary and the executive. Lord Bingham, the Senior Law Lord, held that the House of Lords was entitled to overrule the decisions made by Government and Parliament in that case.^[61] The case subsequently went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg which upheld the decision of the House of Lords, adding that the secret nature of the procedure was unfair to the accused.^[62] In a subsequent decision arising out of the same case, Emmerson successfully argued in the House of Lords that the detention of terrorist suspects could not be justified by reference to evidence obtained by acts of torture committed abroad by the agents of a foreign state.^[63]

Between 2005 and 2012, Emmerson successfully defended Ramush Haradinaj, the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, on war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.^[4] Following Haradinaj's acquittal,^[4] the Prosecution successfully appealed, and the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY ordered a partial retrial, which concluded in November 2012, with Haradinaj's acquittal a second time.^[64][65] Haradinaj was subsequently re-elected as Kosovo's Prime Minister in 2016.^[66]

In 2014, Emmerson was appointed Counsel for the

In 2015 Emmerson represented Marina Litvinenko, wife of Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, at the public inquiry into his murder in London in 2006, using a radioactive isotope, (Polonium 210).^{[11][12][13][14]} Emmerson argued a successful judicial review challenge to the British Government's refusal to hold a public inquiry to examine the responsibility of the Russian State for Litvinenko's murder.^[71] At the completion of the public inquiry, the judge, Robert Owen, found that the Russian State was responsible for ordering the murder, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "probably" given his personal approval to the killing.^[72] Following the publication of the Inquiry report, Emmerson described the murder as an act of "nuclear terrorism" and called on Prime Minister David Cameron to take effective action, saying that a failure to respond would be a "craven" abdication of his responsibilities.^[73] An official spokesperson for the Prime Minister commented: "The conclusion that the murder was authorised at the highest levels of the Russian State is extremely disturbing" and promised to take effective action in response.^[73]

In 2016, Emmerson was appointed to the legal team representing

In 2018, Emmerson took the case of Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, to the UN Human Rights Committee, arguing that the Government of Spain had violated his right to participate in political life through a legal crackdown, following an independence referendum in Catalonia in October 2017.^[77] He also took up the case of several prominent Catalan politicians and civil society leaders at the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, arising out of their imprisonment in Spain on charges of sedition and rebellion for their part in the 2017 referendum.^[78]

The same year, Emmerson appeared at the European Court of Human Rights in two inter-State cases against the Russian Federation. The first case, brought by Georgia, alleged that Russian forces and their proxies in the separatist movements in South Ossetia and Abkhazia committed war crimes during the invasion of Georgia in 2008. At a hearing on 23 May 2018, Emmerson argued that Russian troops were guilty of multiple violations during a "rampage" across Georgian territory in which Russia's aim was to "occupy as much territory as it could get away with".^[79]

During 2018, Emmerson also represented the

During the International Criminal Court investigation in Venezuela, Emmerson represented Nicolás Maduro's government its appeal of the process.^[17]

Writing

Emmerson was the founder editor of the European Human Rights Law Review and is co-author, with Professor Andrew Ashworth KC, of Human Rights and Criminal Justice (Sweet & Maxwell, 3rd Edition), the leading text on the application of the Convention in criminal cases. From 1995 to 2015 he was the human rights editor of Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice, Evidence and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell).

Honours

Emmerson was appointed as a

In the 2022 ITVX miniseries Litvinenko, Emmerson was portrayed by Stephen Campbell Moore.^[84]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ben Emmerson.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ben Emmerson.

• Council of Europe interview with Ben Emmerson, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
• Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on human rights, talks to Al Jazeera
• Ben Emmerson at
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Legal offices
Preceded by Martin Scheinin	United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights 2011–2017