Philip Leach is Professor of Human Rights Law at Middlesex University, a solicitor, and Director of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC: ehrac.org.uk), also based at Middlesex University. He has extensive experience of representing applicants before the European Court of Human Rights, in particular against Russia and other former Soviet states, as well as the UK and Turkey. He researches and publishes widely in the field of international human rights law. He was a member of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody from 2009-2015 and a member of the Harris Review (2014-2015). He was appointed Specialist Adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for its inquiry into mental health and deaths in prison in 2016-2017. He is Vice-Chair of the European Implementation Network EIN), a member of the Advisory Board of the Open Society Justice Initiative, and a former trustee of the Media Legal Defence Initiative and the Human Dignity Trust. is He is the author of ‘Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights’, 4^th ed., Oxford University Press, 2017. In 2015, Leach was named Human Rights Lawyer of the Year by the Law Society of England and Wales.

Selected Publications:

Books

Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights, fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 2017

Parliaments and the European Court of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, 2016 (co-authored with Alice Donald).

Towards Coherence in International Human Rights Law: Approaches of Regional and International Systems, Brill (Martinus Nijhoff), 2016 (co-edited with Carla Buckley and Alice Donald).

Responding to Systemic Human Rights Violations - An analysis of pilot judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and their impact at national level, Intersentia, 2010 (co-authored with H. Hardman, S. Stephenson & B. Blitz)

International Human Rights and Fact-Finding – An analysis of the fact-finding missions conducted by the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, co-authored with Costas Paraskeva & Gordana Uzelac, Human Rights & Social Justice Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, February 2009

European Court Litigation – a Manual (ed.), European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, 2006 (Russian language)

Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights, second edition, Oxford University Press, 2005

Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights, Blackstone Press, 2001

Your Rights, the Liberty Guide, (co-ed), 1998, Pluto Press

Journal Articles/Book Chapters/Blogs

What Implications for Applicants’ Right of Access to the European Court?, ECHR Blog, Blog Symposium on Protocol 15 ECHR, 2021

Enhancing fact-finding in Inter-State cases: A Critical Challenge for the European Court of Human Rights, Völkerrechtsblog, 2021

On Inter-State Litigation and Armed Conflict Cases in Strasbourg, European Convention on Human Rights Law Review, 2021, 2(1), 27-74

EHRAC Guide to Litigating Article 18, EHRAC, 2021

Some Justice Out of Repression and Reprisals: On the Plight of Human Rights Defenders in Azerbaijan, HRLIP Blog, 2021

Damage control after Georgia v Russia (II) – holding states responsible for human rights violations during armed conflict, Strasbourg Observers, (co-authored with Jess Gavron), 2021

Engaging with Europe after Brexit: Time to reset the UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe, Foreign Policy Centre, (co-authored with Dr Alice Donald), 2020

Urgency at the European Court of Human Rights: New Directions and Future Prospects for the Interim Measures Mechanism?in Dr. Eva Reiter and Dr Karin Zwaan (eds), Urgency and Human Rights - The Protective Potential and Legitimacy of Interim Measures, Asser, 2020

Monitoring, cajoling and promoting dialogue – what role for supranational human rights bodies in the implementation of individual decisions?, Journal of Human Rights Practice, (co-authored with Clara Sandoval and Rachel Murray), 2020

Human Rights – The Essential Frame of Reference in the Global Response to COVID-19, VerfBlog, 2020/5/12 (co-authored with Alice Donald)

Fact-Finding: European Court of Human Rights. Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law [MPEiPro] Ruiz Fabri, Hélène, ed. Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law [MPIL] Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2019

What future for settlements and undertakings in international human rights resolution?, Strasbourg Observers, 15 April 2019 (co-authored with Nino Jomarjidze)

The European Court of Human Rights: Achievements and Prospects. In: Oberleitner G. (eds) International Human Rights Institutions, Tribunals, and Courts. International Human Rights. (2018) Springer, Singapore

A wolf in sheep’s clothing: why the draft copenhagen declaration must be rewritten. EJIL: Talk! (Blog of the European Journal of International Law). (with Alice Donald) (2018)

Copenhagen: keeping on keeping on. A reply to Mikael Rask Madsen and Jonas Christoffersen on the draft Copenhagen declaration. EJIL: Talk! (Blog of the European Journal of International Law) (with Alice Donald) (2018)

The UK can be a leader post-Brexit — on human rights. The Times, 25 January 2018

The continuing utility of international human rights mechanisms? EJIL: Talk! (Blog of the European Journal of International Law) (2017)

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Marten Breuer and Stefanie Schmahl (eds), ‘The Council of Europe – Its Law and Policies’, (Oxford University Press), 2017

The Duty to Investigate Right to Life Violations across Three Regional Systems: Harmonisation or Fragmentation of International Human Rights Law? (co-authored with Dr. Clara Sandoval and Prof. Rachel Murray) in ‘Towards Coherence in International Human Rights Law: Approaches of Regional and International Systems’, Brill (Martinus Nijhoff), 2016 (co-edited with Carla Buckley and Alice Donald).

The right to life – interim measures and the preservation of evidence in conflict situations in Lawrence Early et al (eds), ‘The right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights – twenty years of legal developments since McCann v. the United Kingdom (Will-Jan van der Wolf, 2016), 171-178.

Thawing the frozen Conflict? The European Court’s judgments on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, blog post on EJIL:Talk! (the blog of the European Journal of International Law), 6 July 2015

Applicants (ECtHR), in ‘Dictionary of European Actors’, Elisabeth Lambert Abdelgawad & Helene Michel (Larcier, 2015)

The Role of Parliaments Following Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, in ‘Parliaments and Human Rights – Redressing the Democratic Deficit’, Murray Hunt, Hayley J Hooper and Paul Yowell (Hart Publishing, 2015)

Human Rights Implementation: Our Shared Responsibility, co-authored with Alice Donald, blog post on EJIL:Talk! (the blog of the European Journal of International Law), 22 March 2015

Ireland v UK: Revisiting the case of the ‘Hooded Men’, blog post on JURIST.org, 6 December 2014

Ukraine, Russia and Crimea and the European Court of Human Rights, blog post on EJIL:Talk! (the blog of the European Journal of International Law), 19 March 2014

The protection and safety of journalists: the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, Synergy magazine (European Law Students Association), No. 56, 2014

The European System and Approach, in ‘The Routledge Handbook of International Human Rights Law’, Nigel Rodley & Scott Sheeran) (Routledge, 2014).

No longer offering fine mantras to a parched child? The European Court’s developing approach to remedies, in ‘Constituting Europe - The European Court of Human Rights in a National, European and Global Context’, Andreas Føllesdal, Birgit Schlütter & Geir Ulfstein (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

What is Justice? Reflections of a practitioner at the European Court of Human Rights [2013] 4 EHRLR 392

Note to British MPs: think before criticizing the European Court, Open Democracy Russia, 17 January 2013

Phone-hacking, the famous and a free media - balancing freedom of the press and privacy in 'Freedom of Expression – Essays in honour of Nicolas Bratza, President of the European Court of Human Rights', Wolf Legal Publishers, 2012

The South Ossetia Conflict 2008, in 'International Law and the Classification of Conflicts', ed. Elizabeth Wilmshurst (OUP, 2012)

Investigating Deaths of Patients Detained under the Mental Health Act in England and Wales, Inquest Law Journal, July 2012

Strasbourg: focus on facts, not the fiction, The Times, 19 April 2012 (co-authored with Alice Donald and Jane Gordon)

Tinkering with the powers of the human rights court could be dangerous, Guardian cif, 3 March 2012

Resolving Systemic Human Rights Violations – Assessing the European Court's Pilot Judgment Procedure in S. Besson (ed.) The European Court of Human Rights after Protocol 14 – Preliminary Assessment and Perspectives, Geneva, Schulthess, 2011.

The European Court of Human Rights: achievements, problems and prospects, Chapter in Handbuch der Menschenrechtsarbeit [The Human Rights Handbook], Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung and Forum Menschenrechte, Berlin, 2010-2011.

Quelles sont les réparations adéquates dans les affaires de 'disparitions'? Leçons issues des affaires sur la Tchétchénie in E. Lambert Abdelgawad & K Martin-Chenut (eds), Réparer les violations graves et massives des droits de l'homme : La Cour InterAméricaine, pionnière et modèle ? Collection de L'UMR De Droit Comparé de Paris (Université de Paris1/CNRS UMR 8103), volume 20, Société de Législation Comparée, Paris, 2010

Can the European Court's Pilot Judgment Procedure Help Resolve Systemic Human Rights Violations? Burdov and the Failure to Implement Domestic Court Decisions in Russia, Human Rights Law Review, 10:2 (2010), 346-359 (co-authored with H. Hardman, S. Stephenson)

Human Rights Fact-finding – the European Court of Human Rights at a Crossroads, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol 28/1, March 2010, 41-77 (co-authored with C Paraskeva & G Uzelac)

Analysis: On Reform of the European Court of Human Rights [2009] EHRLR 725-735

Tackling systemic human rights violations – the role of Pilot Judgments, chapter in 'Pilot Judgment Procedure in the European Court of Human Rights – 3rd informal seminar for Government Agents and other Institutions', Kontrast, Warsaw, 2009

The European Court of Human Rights: achievements, problems and prospects, Chapter in The Human Rights Handbook, [German language] Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung and Forum Menschenrechte, Berlin, 2008- 2009.

The Chechen Conflict: Analysing the Oversight of the European Court of Human Rights [2008] EHRLR 732-761 (also published in Russian in Comparative Constitutional Review 1 (74) 2010, 143-168)

Strasbourg's oversight of Russia – an increasingly strained relationship, Public Law, Winter 2007, 640- 654. The Role of the Committee of Ministers in supervising the enforcement of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights [2006] Public Law 443 (a revised Russian-language version published in Comparative Constitutional Review, No. 1(58) 2007, pp 128-137)

Access to the European Court of Human Rights – From a Legal Entitlement to a Lottery?, 27 HRLJ 11 (2006)

Positive Obligations from Strasbourg – where do the Boundaries Lie? (2006) 15 Interights Bulletin 123 (also published in Russian in Права человека – Практика Европейского Суда по Правам Человека [Human Rights Journal: the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights], No. 9, 2006)

Russia should be held to account over human rights abuses, The Guardian, 9 February 2006

Stay inside when the wind blows your way – engaging environmental rights with human rights [2005] 4 Env. Liability 91

The British military in Iraq – the applicability of the espace juridique doctrine under the European Convention on Human Rights, [2005] Public Law 448

Russia put to the test on human rights, The Times, 12 July 2005

Beyond the Bug River – A new dawn for redress before the European Court of Human Rights [2005] EHRLR 148 (also published in Russian in Sravnitelnoe Konstitutsionnoe Obozrenie (Comparative Constitutional Review), No. 3 (52) 2005 94-104, Institute for Law and Public Policy, Moscow.

Praise the Lords, Guardian Unlimited, 16 December 2004

Human rights hotspots and the European Court, New Law Journal, 6 February 2004 [published in Finnish as Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuin kaipaa kehitysta, Ihmisoikeus Raportti (Human Rights Report, published by the Finnish Helsinki Committee & Finnish League for Human Rights), 1 2004, 25-27.]

Europe Turns spotlight on Human Rights in Chechnya, The Times, 28 January 2003

The effective assessment of clinical legal education, Investigations in University Teaching and Learning, London Metropolitan University, vol. 1 (2) winter 2003, 62-65.

Keep out: it's my life, The Times, June 12, 2001

Protecting human rights in Turkey, The Times, March 7, 2000

Automatic denial of bail and the European Convention, [1999] Crim. L.R. 300

Reports

Independent Review into Self-inflicted Deaths in NOMS Custody of 18-24 year olds (the Harris Review), July 2015 (co-author, as member of Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody)

The Principles which can be drawn from the Case-law of the European Court of Human Rights relating to the protection and safety of journalists and journalism, CDMSI(2013)Misc3, 13 February 2013 (for the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society)

The UK and the European Court of Human Rights, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2012 (co- authored with Alice Donald and Jane Gordon)

Evaluating the Impact of Selected Cases under the Human Rights Act on public service provision - report commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009 (co-authored with Jenny Watson, Alice Donald & Liz Mottershaw)

Human Rights in Britain since the Human Rights Act 1998: A Critical Review - report commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, April 2008 (co-authored with Jenny Watson & Alice Donald)

European Parliament Briefing Paper: Implementation of the EIDHR – The Example of EHRAC's Work in Russia/Chechnya - Report to the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (EP/ExPOL/B/2006/35), November 2006

Review of Key Human Rights Issues in Serbia and Montenegro during 2003 & Recommendations for OMiSaM's 2004 Human Rights Agenda, OSCE Mission in Serbia and Montenegro, 4 March 2004 [co- authored with Bill Bowring & Brad Blitz]