Following a five year tenure as principal Legal Adviser of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, from May 2006 to May 2011, Daniel Bethlehem returned to practice at 20 Essex Street as of September 2011 specialising in public international law. He accepts instructions as counsel and adviser as well as arbitration and inquiry appointments. Having practised from chambers from 1990 until his appointment to the FCO in 2006, Daniel has extensive advisory, litigation and arbitration experience representing States, international and non-governmental organisations, corporations and individuals on issues across the full breadth of public international law as well as aspects of European Union law and international and European human rights law. He has appeared frequently before a wide range of international courts and tribunals, from the International Court of Justice to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, WTO and regional trade panels, ad hoc international arbitration panels, and other international dispute settlement mechanisms. He has similarly appeared before all levels of English courts and tribunals, from Employment Tribunals (addressing issues of State immunity) through to the High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords / Supreme Court. He has also appeared before the EU courts in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In these roles, he has acted both as counsel and as agent overseeing and guiding the strategic formulation of litigation and dispute settlement policy.
Complementing this experience, Daniel has also advised and represented States, international and non-governmental organisations, corporations and individuals in respect of high legal content policy and political matters, ranging from international peace negotiations to arms limitation talks and political representation in such fora as the United Nations, European Union and Council of Europe.
Daniel is currently sitting as presiding arbitrator or arbitrator in a number of international investment cases. He is a panellist on the WTO indicative list of panellists maintained pursuant to Article 8.4 of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding and has previously participated in both NAFTA and ad hoc Canada - U.S. trade panel proceedings. Before his appointment to the FCO, he was a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and, in this capacity, sat as arbitrator in various CAS proceedings.
In parallel with his pre-FCO Bar practice, Daniel was the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge from 2003 to 2006 and before that, from 1998 to 2003, its Deputy Director. He was, throughout this period, a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Prior to his move to Cambridge in 1998, he was a lecturer in international law at the London School of Economics from 1992 to 1998. From 1990 to 1992, Daniel practised European Community law in Brussels as counsel associated with the law firm Forrester Norall & Sutton. Before commencing practice at the Bar in 1990, Daniel worked for a number of years in investment banking at Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Nikko Securities in the fields of European equity strategy and corporate finance, observing first hand both the "Big Bang" deregulation of the London financial markets of 1986 and the stock market crash of 1987.
Having returned to the private sector, following the end of his FCO tenure, Daniel is, in parallel with his Bar practice, also actively engaged in the foreign policy advisory field, as Director of Legal Policy International Limited (LPI) and as a Consulting Senior Fellow for Law and Strategy at The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He is a member of the Advisory Council of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the Advisory Committee of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and a Counsellor of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. He has previously been a member of the Council of the British Branch of the International Law Association and of the Advisory Council the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
Daniel has published, taught and lectured widely on topics across the range of public international law from the use of force and economic sanctions to trade, human rights and refugee law, and the place and role of law in international dispute settlement.
Daniel is a Bencher of Middle Temple. He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2010.
Personal and Academic Background
Born in London in 1960, Daniel grew up in South Africa, studying Political Science and International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, obtaining a BA degree in 1981. Returning to the UK thereafter, he studied law at Bristol University (LLB, 1985) and in Cambridge (Queens' College, LLM, 1990). He is an experienced Master scuba diver and has trekked to Everest base camp, climbed Kilimanjaro and scaled glaciers in Patagonia.
For principal cases, appointments, publications and lectures up to September 2011 click here.
Key public appointments:
- Appointed a member of the U.S. Department of State's Advisory Committee on International Law, May 2012
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Appointed to the Foreign Secretary's "Locarno Group" of external advisers on UK foreign policy issues, November 2011 - Click here
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Member of the Search Committee for the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court - Click here
Cases and appointments in the public domain since September 2011 (updated details available on request)
- External Legal Counsel to the Government of Bahrain on the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, December 2011 - March 2012
- Counsel for MTSF in Mobile TeleSystems Finance SA v. Nomihold Securities Inc., proceedings before the English Court of Appeal and Supreme Court concerning a challenge to the enforcement of an LCIA arbitration award
For further information, see www.danielbethlehem.com
Further enquiries should be directed to Mat Kesbey on 020 7842 1204 / mkesbey [at] 20essexst [dot] com
