‘One of the chambers at the forefront of this area’, members of Temple Garden Chambers represent clients ranging from states to victims of human rights abuses across a range of international courts. ’A first-rate technical lawyer’, Rodney Dixon KC continues to act for the self-styled East Turkestan Government in Exile concerning allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity, with a number of appearances before the United Nations, and Kathryn Howarth appeared in a judicial review concerning the obligations of the UK Government relating to arms exports and breaches of international human rights law in the conflict in Palestine. At the junior level, prominent members of the set include the ‘extremely thorough’ Aidan Ellis, who recently defended former acting president of Kosovo Jakup Krasniqi in Kosovo Specialist Chambers proceedings concerning allegations of wartime misconduct.
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Profile
Position
Rodney Dixon combines a practice at the national and international levels in public law, human rights and criminal law. He has expertise in international criminal law, humanitarian law, and public international law acting on behalf of governments, political leaders, military officers, international organisations, companies, NGOs, and victims. His international work covers all international criminal courts for trial, appeaf·and review proceedings Privy Council cases; UN and civil claims; bilateral investment treaty matters; territorial and border disputes. He regularly appears in cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC), including on behalf of the government of Kenya in the Kenya situation, Mr. Abdullah Al-Senussi in the Libya situation, and in the Sudan situation in the case concerning president Al Bashir of Sudan and on behalf of victims from Darfur in a case against rebel leaders. He has prosecuted and defended before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) including as defence counsel on behalf of the former Prime Minister of Kosovo in protracted trial, appellate and retrial proceedings. He acted on behalf of the government of Rwanda before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He has consulted in respect of the prosecution and defence of war crimes to be tried before the War Crimes Division of the High Court of Uganda. Domestically he specialises in administrative and public law particularly in the fields of foreign relations, the military, terrorism, education, inquiries, prison law, health and safety, and customs. He has been involved in proceedings on behalf of the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and other Government departments.
Career
1995-1999: Office of the Prosecutor, ICTY, The Hague; called to the Bar in 2000. Publications include co-author of Archbold International Criminal Courts (4th ed. Sweet & Maxwell); co-editor of International Criminal Law Reports (ICLR); contributor to Commentary on the Rome Statute of ICC; visiting senior research fellow, department of war studies, King’s College.
Education
BA LLB (Rhodes University, SA); Notre Dame University, Indiana (LLM International Law); D Phil Candidate (Oxford University).
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'It is one of the chambers at the forefront of this area.'
- 'This is a well known set for outstanding domestic and international criminal and humanitarian law practitioners. Recognised world wide.'
- 'Temple Garden chambers have a wide variety of barristers, working in different practice areas. A number of the market leaders in the in the field of International Criminal Law are based at Temple Garden.'
- 'Leading set on international criminal and public law - strength from Silks to juniors.'