Find a Barrister  Search site
Download/Print CV

ERIC METCALFE

BA, LL.B. (University of Canterbury, NZ), LL.M. (Queen’s University, Canada), D.Phil (Oxon)
CALL DATE: 1999

SUMMARY

Eric joined Monckton Chambers in October 2011 after nearly nine years as the director of human rights policy at JUSTICE, one of the UK's leading human rights organisations and the British section of the International Commission of Jurists. Called to the Bar in 1999, he is an experienced litigator and managed JUSTICE's third party interventions in many of the leading human rights cases of the last decade, including seventeen cases before the House of Lords, seven cases before the UK Supreme Court, and seven cases before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

In addition to specialising in human rights and public law, he also has considerable public policy expertise, having regularly briefed parliamentarians on the human rights aspects of legislation including more than twenty-two appearances before various parliamentary committees, among them the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, the House of Lords Constitution Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights. He also has substantial human rights experience at the EU and international level, including preparing submissions to the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and various UN treaty bodies.

 

MAJOR CASES

HUMAN RIGHTS AND PUBLIC LAW

  •  Nada v Switzerland (European Court of Human Rights, heard 23 March 2011) - compatibility of sanctions regime under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 with articles 8 and 13 ECHR.
  • Othman v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights, heard 14 December 2010) -use of memorandum of understanding and closed materials on Art 3 risk on return in deportation to Jordan.
  • Al Khawaja and Tahery v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights, heard 19 May 2010) - compatibility of hearsay evidence under Criminal Justice Act 2003 with right to a fair trial under Art 6 ECHR.
  • Al Rawi v The Security Service and others [2011] UKSC 34; Tariq v Home Office [2011] UKSC 35 (UK Supreme Court) - closed proceedings in civil claims under common law and their compatibility with Art 6 ECHR in Employment Tribunals.
  • Al Jedda v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, 7 July 2011) - conflict between UN Security Council Resolution 1546 and right to liberty under Article 5 ECHR.
  • R (Cart) v Upper Tribunal [2011] UKSC 28; Advocate General v Eba [2011] UKSC 29 (UK Supreme Court) - amenability of statutory tribunals designated as superior courts of record to judicial review.
  • R (Adams) v Secretary of State for Justice [2011] UKSC 19 (UK Supreme Court) - definition of 'miscarriage of justice' under s133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
  • WL (Congo) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] UKSC 12 (UK Supreme Court) - presumption of liberty under the Immigration Act 1971.
  • A v Netherlands; Ramzy v Netherlands (European Court of Human Rights, 20 July 2010) - application of Art 3 ECHR in cases of deportation on national security grounds.
  • Al Saadoon and Mufdhi v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights, 2 March 2010) - whether transfer of prisoners to Iraqi custody breached Art 3 ECHR and interim measures under Rule 39.
  • R (Binyam Mohamed) v Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2010] EWCA Civ 65 (Court of Appeal) - disclosure of classified material relating to torture received from a foreign government.
  • Ahmed and others v HM Treasury [2010] UKSC 2 (UK Supreme Court) - vires of Orders in Council made under the United Nations Act 1946 pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions on terrorist financing.
  • R(A) v B[2009] UKSC 12 (UK Supreme Court) - jurisdiction of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to hear claims under the Human Rights Act.
  • Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF and others [2009] UKHL 28 (House of Lords) - absolute duty under Art 6 ECHR to disclose closed material in control order proceedings.
  • A and others v United Kingdom (2009) 49 EHRR 29 (European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber) - use of special advocates in SIAC proceedings under Part 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001.
  • RB and another (Algeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and OO (Jordan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] UKHL 10 (House of Lords) - diplomatic assurances against torture and use of closed evidence re risk on return.
  • EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] UKHL 64 (House of Lords) - scope of 'flagrant breach' test under ECHR in immigration removal cases.
  • R (Corner House and CAAT) v Serious Fraud Office and BAE Systems [2008] UKHL 60 (House of Lords) - relationship between prosecutorial discretion and the rule of law.
  • Van Colle and another v Chief Constable of the Hertfordshire Police [2008] UKHL 50 (House of Lords) - Art 2 duty to take preventative operation measures.
  • Norris v United States of America [2008] UKHL 16 (House of Lords) - legal certainty and dual criminality requirement in US-UK extradition treaty.
  • Al Jedda v Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 58 (House of Lords) - conflict between UN Security Council Resolution 1546 and right to liberty under Article 5 ECHR.
  • Secretary of State for the Home Department v MB [2007] UKHL 46 and Secretary of State for the Home Department v JJ and others [2007] UKHL 45 (House of Lords) - compatibility of control orders with Arts 5&6 ECHR.
  • YL v Birmingham City Council [2007] UKHL 27 (House of Lords) - definition of 'public authority' under the Human Rights Act.
  • Al Skeini and others v Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 26 (House of Lords) - extra-territorial application of Human Rights Act to UK military in southern Iraq.
  • Ron Jones v Saudi Arabia [2006] UKHL 26 (House of Lords) - state immunity of foreign governments for acts of torture.
  • Price v Leeds City Council [2006] UKHL 10 (House of Lords) - stare decisis and Article 13 ECHR.
  • A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No 2) [2005] UKHL 71 (House of Lords) - admissibility of evidence obtained under torture abroad.
  • Secretary of State for the Home Department v Limbuela [2005] UKHL 66 (House of Lords) - Art 3 ECHR in asylum support cases under s55 of the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
  • Roberts v Parole Board [2005] UKHL 45 (House of Lords) - whether use of 'special advocates' and closed proceedings contrary to Article 5(4) EHCR.
  • R v Special Adjudicator ex parte Ullah [2004] UKHL 26 (House of Lords) - application of Human Rights Act 1998 and ECHR to immigration removal decisions.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Before coming to the Bar, Eric completed his doctorate in legal philosophy at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford, during which time he also taught jurisprudence to undergraduates at New College and Trinity College, Oxford. He undertook an LL.M. at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and was an undergraduate at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he read law, history and English literature.

Following his call to the Bar in 1999, he worked as a research assistant in the Law Commission and undertook his pupillage at 39 Essex Street. He was subsequently a lawyer in the immigration and asylum judicial review team of the Treasury Solicitor's Department before joining JUSTICE in January 2003.

He writes and speaks regularly on UK, European and international human rights law in both national and international settings, including the Administrative Law Bar Association Summer Conference, Chatham House, Columbia Law School, the Royal United Services Institute, the University of Oxford, and Yale Law School. His publications include the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 for Current Law Statutes Annotated (Sweet & Maxwell) and the JUSTICE reports Secret Evidence (2009) and Freedom From Suspicion: Surveillance Reform in a Digital Age (2011). He has also conducted training in human rights law for diplomatic staff in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Policing Board in Northern Ireland, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Ireland, NGO lawyers in Russia and Turkey, and government officials in Armenia, Belarus and Taiwan.

He is a member of the Administrative Law Bar Association, JUSTICE, Liberty, the executive committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association, and the legal team of the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

He is a citizen of Canada, New Zealand and the UK.