John R.W.D. Jones

John R.W.D. Jones specialises in extradition, war crimes and terrorism.

He is also a general criminal practitioner and part-time Immigration Judge.

John read Philosophy, Politics and Economics as an open exhibitioner at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University where he gained an M.A.. He also has an M.A. in Law from City University in London and an LL.M. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

He was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1992.

John is also admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, USA and the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Extradition

John is a specialist extradition practitioner and author. He publishes the Extradition Law Handbook (Oxford University Press, 2005, with Arvinder Sambei), and the Extradition Law Reports (Southside Legal Publishing, 2007). He has appeared on behalf of requested persons, foreign governments and judicial authorities in a large number of extradition proceedings. He has represented, among others, governments and judicial authorities of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, HKSAR, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States. In 2007, he was seconded to the Extradition Unit of the Crown Prosecution Service's Serious Crimes Division, where he was responsible for preparing extradition requests on behalf of the CPS and representing foreign states and judicial authorities in extradition proceedings in the English courts.

John is listed as an "up and coming" extradition expert in Chambers & Partners' 2009 UK Guide.

War crimes

Since 1995, John has worked as an international criminal lawyer, practicing at the war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. He has recently been involved as counsel in four separate war crimes cases (Mehmed Alagic, Naser Oric, Momcilo Krajisnik (as amicus) and now Rasim Delic).

Between 1995 and 1999, he worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, as a law clerk and then associate legal officer to Judge Antonio Cassese, the first President of the ICTY. In 1998, John worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania, as an associate legal officer, where he helped draft the first judgement on genocide.

In 2003, John was the first acting Principal Defender of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In that capacity, he helped to set up the SCSL Defence Office and represented suspects and accused appearing before the SCSL - including a former Government minister, rebel (RUF) leaders and members of the AFRC junta - and assigned defence teams. He filed briefs and appeared in court on behalf of suspects, devised a legal aid system for the SCSL, and appeared on Sierra Leonean radio and television to explain the role of the Defence in international criminal trials.

Since 2001, John has been involved in international criminal defence work. He represented Naser Orić - the wartime commander of Srebrenica in Bosnia & Herzegovina - in his trial and appeal before the ICTY from 2003-2008. Orić was fully acquitted of all charges on appeal (see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3719434.stm and
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/03/europe/hague.php).

John has also appeared before the ICTY in three other cases:

• co-counsel in the case of Mehmed Alagić, a Bosnian Army General;
• consultant to the amicus curiae team in the appeal by Momcilo Krajisnik, former Speaker of the Bosnian Serb Assembly, against his conviction of crimes against humanity;
• co-counsel in the appeal of Rasim Delic, the highest-ranking officer in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was convicted on the basis of superior responsibility for crimes committed by mujahedin in Bosnia.

John has published and lectured extensively in the field of war crimes law. He has advised governments and international organisations on war crimes issues.

John also teaches international criminal law at the London School of Economics.

Terrorism

John is currently acting in a control order case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. He has advised on the freezing of assets under the Al-Qaida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2002 and acted in extradition cases relating to terrorism.

Criminal law

John's criminal practice includes Crown Court trials for serious offences, including robbery and aggravated arson, as well as District and General Courts-Martial.

Human rights / Civil liberties

John's practice encompasses human rights and civil liberties generally. For the past 2 years he has been listed in the "Legal Experts" directory in the field of Civil Liberties.

Immigration and asylum law

John sits, part-time, as an Immigration Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. In the past he sat as a legal member of the Immigration Appeals Tribunal and he has also sat on reconsideration applications at Field House. As an advocate, he has appeared for appellants in asylum applications.

International commercial arbitration

From 1999 to 2001, John worked for White and Case in Paris, practicing in international commercial arbitration and also lecturing, in French, at the Law Clinic of Paris (Université de Paris-I).

Recent cases include:

Navadunskis v Serious Organised Crime Agency
[2009] EWHC 1292 (Admin)
Extradition to Lithuania - Judicial Review of SOCA's "decision" to remove extraditee after withdrawn appeal - Interaction of extradition and asylum law - remedies available where statutory appeal cannot be re-opened under CPR 52.17

Farnesi and Fawaz v Court of Livorno
[2009] EWHC 1199 (Admin)
Extradition to Italy - whether EAWs sufficiently particularised and whether extradition compatible with human rights

Trenk v District Court in Plzen-Mesto
[2009] EWHC 1132 (Admin)
Extradition to Czech Republic - appellant discharged on basis that it was unclear whether his extradition was sought as an accused person or merely for questioning

Moulai v Director of Public Prosecutions of Creteil France
[2009] EWHC 1030 (Admin)
Extradition to France - Conviction in absence - whether EAW a conviction or accusation EAW - whether EAW sufficiently particularised

Spanovic v. Government of Croatia
[2009] EWHC 723 (Admin)
Extradition to Croatia for war crimes - passage of time, psychiatric condition and extraneous circumstances - Articles 5, 6 , 8 and 14 of the ECHR

Symeou v. Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Appeals, Patras, Greece
[2009] EWHC 897 (Admin)
Extradition to Greece - abuse of process based on misconduct by Greek police.

R v Morton (William James)
[2009] EWCA Crim 704
Appeal to Court of Appeal from General Court-Martial - Court-Martial ordering Newton hearing despite signed Basis of Plea, Goodyear indications

Hutton v Government of Australia
[2009] EWHC 564 (Admin)
Extradition to Australia - psychiatric condition

Kalniets v District Court of Ogre
[2009] EWHC 534 (Admin)
Extradition to Latvia - admissibility of fresh evidence in statutory appeal to High Court

Cleeland (R on the application of) v Criminal Cases Review Commission
[2009] EWHC 474 (Admin)
Judicial Review - alleged historical miscarriage of justice - status of lead tests for firearms discharge residue

Mucelli v Government of Albania/ Moulai v Deputy Public Prosecutor in Creteil, France (House of Lords)
[2009] 1 WLR 276, [2009] UKHL 2
Extradition to Albania and France - Court's jurisdiction to vary time-limits for serving notices of appeal

Kwietniewski v Circuit Court in Tarnobrzeg Poland
[2008] EWHC 3121 (Admin)
Extradition to Poland - psychiatric condition and suicide risk

Louca v. The Office of Public Prosecutor in Bielefeld, Germany
[2008] EWHC 2907 (Admin), The Times, 10 December 2008)
Extradition to Germany - whether an EAW needs to refer to other EAWs issued for the same offence
The House of Lords has granted leave to appeal

Olah v Regional Court In Plzen Czech Republic
[2008] EWHC 2701 (Admin)
Extradition to the Czech Republic - District Judge refusing an adjournment - availability of judicial review in extradition proceedings

El Farargy v El Farargy & Ors
[2008] EWCA Civ 884
Matrimonial finance - Article 6 of the ECHR

Bogdani v Albanian Government
[2008] EWHC 2065 (Admin)
Extradition to Albania - rights of re-trial where conviction in absence

Moulai v Director of Public Prosecutions of Creteil France
[2008] 1 WLR 2460, [2008] 3 All ER 226, [2008] EWHC 1024 (Admin)
Extradition to France - Court's jurisdiction to vary time-limits for serving notices of appeal

R (on the application of Hilali) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2008] EWHC 905 (Admin)
Extradition to Spain - whether undetermined asylum claim is a bar to extradition to a third state

Wiercinski v. The 2nd Division of the Criminal Circuit in Olsztyn, Poland
[2008] EWHC 200 (Admin);
Extradition to Poland - whether extradition may be ordered where aggregate sentence imposed for offences which include a non-extradition offence

Prosecutor of the ICTY v. Naser Orić (IT-03-68-T) (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia)
Trial Judgement, 30/06/06 (http://www.un.org/icty/oric/trialc/judgement/ori-jud060630e.pdf)( partial acquittal after trial)
Appeals Judgement, 03/07/08 (http://www.icty.org/x/cases/oric/acjug/en/080703.pdf) (full acquittal on appeal)
War crimes - command responsibility in relation to events in Srebrenica in 1992-1993

Publications

Among his publications, John has published the following books:

• International Criminal Practice (3rd edition, Transnational Publishers-Oxford University Press: 2003) by John R.W.D. Jones and Steven Powles;
• Extradition Law Handbook (Oxford University Press, 2005), co-author with Arvinder Sambei;
• The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (edited by Antonio Cassese, Paola Gaeta and John R.W.D. Jones) (Oxford University Press, 2002, 3 volumes);
• The Practice of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (Transnational Publishers: Irvington-on-Hudson, NY, USA. 1st edition: 1998, 2nd edition: 2000).

Languages

John is a fluent French speaker and also proficient in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.

Year of Call

1992

Membership of foreign bars: District of Columbia, USA (1999); Kingdom of Cambodia (2009)

Email Address

j.jones@doughtystreet.co.uk

Specialist Teams

Member :

• Courts Martial
• Criminal Law
• Extradition
• Human Rights
• Immigration
• International Law Group