Twenty Essex

Twenty Essex’ members remain at the forefront of public international law, receiving instructions in significant public international proceedings including state-to-state and investor-state disputes, as well as complex matters arising under international and multilateral treaties, conventions and institutions. Lord Verdirame KC represented the Rwandan government in its arbitration against the United Kingdom over the failed asylum seeker transfer agreement, while Daniel Bethlehem KC leads Philippa Webb KC, who took silk in 2026, in the Indus Waters arbitration, Pakistan v India. Various members of chambers acted for the successful claimant, the Marshall Islands, in The M/T “Heroic Idun” (No. 2), with a 2026 finding that Equatorial Guinea had violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea after the Equatoguinean navy boarded a Marshallese-flagged ship in the Equatorial Guinea EEZ following an unsubstantiated piracy alert. Bethlehem led the team, which included Penelope Nevill, Manuel Casas, Courtney Grafton and Paolo Busco.