Civil Liberties and Human Rights

Matrix has been at the forefront of human rights and civil liberties litigation since its formation in 2000. Matrix members have been involved in many of the most significant human rights cases of the last two decades, embedding and expanding legal protection for individual rights. Our human rights case work covers a broad range of subject matters: the rights of prisoners, migrants and victims of crime; protest and free speech; national security and terrorism; welfare benefits and education; political and corporate accountability. Our barristers regularly appear in the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, and European Court of Human Rights, where clients – including individuals, NGOs, and Government departments – benefit from the inter-disciplinary expertise on offer in Matrix’s human rights team.

International expertise

In addition to our extensive domestic civil liberties work, Matrix barristers routinely act and advise in matters involving international human rights. We appear before regional and international human rights tribunals and committees, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights. We also appear regularly before the Privy Council in appeals in death penalty cases from various Commonwealth countries and other overseas territories. Our barristers also provide training and consultancy services in international human rights law, domestically and internationally, to judges, prosecutors, foreign bar associations, NGOs [and corporations], and are frequent speakers at conferences and expert events here and abroad.