Ruth Brander

Ruth Brander practices in crime and public law, prisoners' rights, mental health, civil actions against the police and inquests.

She was named Young Legal Aid Barrister of the Year at the 2006 LAPG / Independent Lawyer Legal Aid Lawyer Awards.

Ruth appears regularly in the Crown Courts, Admin Court, at Parole Board hearings and inquests. She has a particular interest in the rights of vulnerable, young or mentally disordered defendants and detainees. She also specialises in representing political protesters in domestic criminal trials.

Her public law work includes challenges on behalf of prisoners and young detainees on issues of parole, recall, conditions of detention - including segregation, and resettlement. She represented the family of the deceased at all stages of the challenge in R (Takoushis) v HM Coroner for Inner North London [2006] 1 WLR 461 (concerning the scope of the coroner's inquiry into the death of an undetained psychiatric patient).

Ruth's criminal practice ranges from regular Crown Court trials, to appellate work. She has particular expertise in CCRC referrals and has represented a series of appellants challenging HM Revenue and Customs use of participating informants: R v Vernett-Showers & 10 Others [2007] EWCA Crim 1767; R v Osman, Latif, Shahzad & Others [2007] EWCA Crim 307; R v Choudhery & Others [2005] EWCA Crim 1788.

Ruth's human rights and constitutional law work includes Bowe and Davis v R [2006] UKPC 10 and Boyce & Joseph v R (2005) 1 AC 400 (challenges to the mandatory death penalty in the Bahamas and Barbados); George Worme & Grenada Today v Commissioner of Police (2004) 2 AC 430 (challenge to criminal libel in Grenada); Ricardo Williams v R [2006] UKPC 21 (appeal against murder conviction; 12 year old defendant in Jamaica). In July 2007, she appeared as junior counsel before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a challenge to the mandatory death penalty in Barbados. She was also instructed by Amnesty International in their intervention in the House of Lords in A & Others [2005] 2 WLR 87 (Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act detainees).

Ruth was a contributing author to the third Democratic Audit publication and provides case commentaries for the Butterworths online human rights service and to the public law practitioner updates for the New Law Journal.

last updated October 2007

Year of Call

2001

Education

BA Hons (Cantab), CPE Distinction, Scarman Scholar

Email Address

r.brander@doughtystreet.co.uk

Specialist Teams

Ruth Brander is a member of the following specialist law teams:

• Actions Against the police
• Criminal Law
• Human Rights
• International Law Group
• Mental Health
• Public and Administrative Law