David Pannick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Pannick QC (born 7 March 1956) is a leading barrister in the United Kingdom. He practises mainly in the areas of public law and human rights. He has argued more than 75 cases in the House of Lords, more than 25 cases in the European Court of Justice, and more than 30 cases in the European Court of Human Rights.

Pannick was educated at Bancroft's School and Hertford College, Oxford, where he obtained an MA and a BCL. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1979, and was a Junior Counsel to the Crown in Common Law from 1988 to 1992. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1992, a Recorder in 1995, and a deputy High Court judge in 1998.

He has acted in a wide range of important and high-profile cases, including the Spycatcher case. More recently, he acted for Liberty in successfully arguing that the detention of terrorism suspects without trial was illegal, for the League Against Cruel Sports in defending a challenge to the validity of the Hunting Act 2004, for a woman who established that she was entitled to be prescribed with the breast cancer drug Herceptin, and for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its claim to state immunity against claims of torture.

He has been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford since 1978, and became an Honorary Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford in September 2004. He writes on legal matters for The Times, and is co-author with Lord Lester of Herne Hill of the the leading legal text, Human Rights Law and Practice (1st edition 1999; 2nd edition 2004).