Henry Setright KC
Overview
Henry Setright KC was called to the English Bar in 1979 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2001. He has for many years specialised in international children’s and family work at the highest level, including cases in the UK Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court, and as lead English counsel in two cases on Amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court.
He has (so far) appeared in more than 130 leading cases reported in the English Family Law Reports, a total not to date equalled by any other member of the Bar. His work to date has included (for example) consideration of issues relating to acquiescence, adoption, asylum, attempted assassination, care proceedings, children’s representation, children’s views, conflict and transfer of jurisdiction in public and private law cases, custody rights, diplomatic privilege, forced marriage, habitual residence, domestic violence, human rights, immigration, marriage, relocation, risk of harm, Sharia law, settlement, international and domestic surrogacy, and welfare in the context of international family litigation.
International work at the highest domestic level has since 2005 included 5 cases in the House of Lords and 8 cases in the UKSC, four of which – A v A [2013] UKSC 60, KL [2013] UKSC 75, LC [2014] UKSC 1, and K [2014] UKSC 29 – have been heard in the last 12 months.
In October 2009 he appeared in Re: I UKSC 10 [2010], on jurisdiction and the interface in a non EU (Anglo-Pakistan) case with the Brussels II revised regulation – it was the first Family case in the UK Supreme Court.
He led an English team presenting a brief in the landmark rights of custody appeal of Abbott v Abbott, the first 1980 Hague Convention case to be heard in the United States Supreme Court (judgment in USSC 17th May 2010), and in the subsequent Hague Settlement case of Lozano v Alvarez, also in the USSC, judgment 5th March 2014 .
He has also appeared in Hague Convention cases in the ECtHR, notably Ignaccola-Zenide v Romania, Carlsson v Switzerland, and, leading an English team, in the landmark Grand Chamber case of X v Latvia, judgment 26th November 2013.
He appeared in the first family case referred by the English Court of Appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (Mercredi v Chaffe Case C 497/10 PPU judgment 23rd December 2010) on habitual residence in children’s cases. He appeared in May 2014 in a second CJEU case referred by the English Court of Appeal, E v B, judgment currently awaited.
The 2014 Family Law Reports (as of early June 2014) feature nine of his recent cases.
Other cases include Chief Constable and Another v YK and others [2010] EWCA Fam 2438) in relation to disclosure and the conduct of forced marriage hearings, on marriage/immigration policy R (Bibi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department) [2011] UKSC 45 EWCA Civ 1482, and In addition to his court appearances, he lectures regularly in England and internationally at conferences and seminars. He is the author of numerous articles on international family law, and is co-author of International Parental Child Abduction (Jordans/Family Law).
He is one of the originators of, and sits on the steering group of, the Reunite/Nuffield Foundation pilot scheme for mediation in child abduction cases, and assisted in the drafting of the Forced Marriages Bill introduced by Lord Lester of Herne Hill in late 2006, and now passed into law.
