Prof Philip Leach

Philip Leach is Professor of Human Rights Law at Middlesex University, a solicitor, and Director of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), also based at Middlesex University. He has extensive experience of representing applicants before the European Court, in particular against Russia, Turkey and the UK. He is the author of 'Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights', 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2011 His recent human rights research projects have been commissioned, or supported, by the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Council of Europe. He is the author of a number of books, journal and onlines articles and book chapters on various human rights issues. He is a member of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (which provides advice to the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody). He is on the Editorial Board of European Human Rights Law Review, and is a Trustee of the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) and the Human Dignity Trust. He has conducted human rights training for the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the British Council, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Arab Lawyers' Union and for various NGOs.

Selected Publications:

Books

Taking a Case to the European Court of Human Rights, third edition, Oxford University Press, 2011

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

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

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]