Penelope Nevill

Penelope Nevill became a tenant of 20 Essex Street in July 2011. Her practice covers international and domestic litigation in the field of public international law, including investment arbitration, trade, human rights, law of the sea, territorial disputes, boundary delimitation and related areas of EU Law.

Penelope has appeared as counsel in the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. She has been involved in proceedings before arbitral tribunals under bilateral investment treaties and the law of the sea convention and domestic courts involving issues of public international law. Her experience also includes advising on a range of international law subjects, including jurisdiction and the law of the sea, territory, environmental law, human rights, immunities and interpretation of domestic legislation implementing international treaties and EU law.

Before coming to the Bar, Penelope was a Fellow and College Lecturer in Law at Downing College, Cambridge, where she taught international law and EU law and lectured in the law of armed conflict and humanitarian law, and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre of International Law. Penelope is also a qualified barrister and solicitor in New Zealand, where she practiced litigation at Chapman Tripp, one of New Zealand's leading law firms.

Penelope has been appointed a Visiting Tutor this year at King's College, London, where she will be lecturing public international law.

Specialisations:

Public International Law
International Trade
Human Rights
International Arbitration
EU law

Principal Cases:

General PIL

Mauritius v United Kingdom, Annex VII arbitration under the Law of the Sea Convention - counsel for United Kingdom in the dispute over the Marine Protected Area of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Case Concerning Sovereignty Over Pulau Batu Puteh/Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge (Malaysia/Singapore), Judgment, ICJ Reports 2002, p 625 - counsel for Malaysia in dispute with Singapore concerning the sovereignty over an island at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.

Khurts Bat v Investing Judge of the German Federal Court [2011] EWHC 2029 - assisted counsel for the Foreign Office as intervenor responding to Mr Bat's claims of special mission, high ranking office and official act immunity.

Advice to a European energy company on various public international law issues arising from the proposed trans-Caspian Sea pipeline, which included presentation of the opinion to the European Commission and a foreign ministry.

Assisted counsel for the UK government with preparation for arbitration before an Annex VII UNCLOS tribunal in the dispute with Ireland over the environmental impact of the Sellafield plant (one of the Mox Plant cases).

Assisted counsel for Barbados with initial phases of preparation for arbitration before an UNCLOS Annex VII tribunal over delimitation of the maritime and continental shelf boundaries with Trinidad and Tobago.

BIT/Investment/Trade

Azurix Corp v Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. ARB/01/12 - assisted arbitrator in jurisdictional phase of a bilateral investment treaty claim arising out of investment in a water utilities concession.

Waste Management v Mexico, ICSID Case No. ARB(AF)/00/3) - assisted president of the tribunal in a NAFTA Chapter 11 dispute.

Assisted counsel with advice to a government on the interpretation of the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement.

Assisted counsel with advice to a global company on potential claims under a bilateral investment treaty and prospects of success.

Human rights (domestic and international)

Xenides-Arestis v Turkey, Application No. 46347/99, European Court of Human Rights, 22 December 2005 - counsel for Turkey in test case concerning the Court's jurisdiction over property rights claims arising out of the situation in northern Cyprus.

Assisted counsel for the defendant with response to article 6 ECHR claims arising in proceedings concerning recognition of a foreign judgment.

Education and Career:

LLB (Hons)/BA (English), University of Auckland, 1992-1996
Solicitor, Chapman Tripp (Auckland), 1997-2001
LLM (First Class), University of Cambridge, 2001-2002
Research Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, working with Sir Elihu Lauterpacht QC, Professor James Crawford SC and Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC, University of Cambridge, 2002-2005
Fellow and College Lecturer in Law, Downing College, and Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, 2005-2010

Publications:

'Relations Between International Courts and Tribunals', with James Crawford, in Margaret Young ed, Regime Interaction in International Law (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

'Treaty Interpretation and Troubled Treaty Regimes: The Case of International Investment Law', in Marcel Szabó ed, State Responsibility and the Law of Treaties (The Hague, Eleven International Publishing, 2010), 161

'Interest', with Elihu Lauterpacht, in James Crawford, Alain Pellet and Simon Olleson (eds) (with the collaboration of Kate Parlett), The Law of International Responsibility (Oxford, Oxford University Press, forthcoming May 2010)

'The Treatment of Interest in International Awards' [2007] 78 British Year Book of International Law 255

'Reconciling the Clash Between UK Obligations under the UN Charter and the ECHR in Domestic Law: Towards Systemic Integration?' (2008) 67 Cambridge Law Journal 447 (case note)

'Qualifying the Human Rights Act: Detention under Security Council Resolutions' (2006) 65 Cambridge Law Journal 476 (case note)

'New Zealand: The Privy Council is replaced with a Supreme Court' (2005) 3 International Journal of Constitutional Law (I*CON) 115

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