Ruth Brander

Overview

Ruth Brander specialises in prisoners' rights, civil actions against the police, inquests, public law, international law and appellate crime.

Ruth has a particular interest in the rights of vulnerable, young or mentally disordered detainees. She regularly represents bereaved families at inquests and in civil proceedings. 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 has been junior counsel in some of the key constitutional challenges to the death penalty in the Caribbean.

Ruth has particular expertise in criminal appellate work, especially 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; Latif, Shahzad & Others [2007] EWCA Crim 307; R v Choudhery & Others [2005] EWCA Crim 1788. She is currently instructed on behalf of a number of these appellants in civil claims arising out of their criminal cases.

She also specialises in representing political protesters in criminal, civil and public law proceedings and is co-author of The Law of Public Order and Protest (OUP 2010).

Ruth provided advice on a consultancy basis to Dignity in Dying during the passage of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in respect of assisted suicide.

Awards

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

What the directories say

Ruth is ranked by Chambers UK 2010 as a leading junior in the fields of civil liberties and police law. She is described as having "an extremely good grasp of the issues" and as a "superb advocate".

Notable Cases

• R (on the application of Misick) v Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2010] EWCA 1549 - challenge by the former premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands to the suspension of democracy and the right to jury trial.
• R v Trimmingham [2009] UKPC 25 - appeal against the imposition of the discretionary death penalty in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The case defines strict limits on the circumstances in which the death penalty may be imposed.
• Cadogan v Barbados [Inter-American Court of Human Rights 24 Sept 2009] - challenge to the imposition of the mandatory death penalty in Barbados. Establishes that in every case where the sanction is the mandatory death penalty the accused must be afforded the right to a psychiatric evaluation prior to trial.
• R (on the application of Takoushis) v HM Coroner for Inner North London [2006] 1 WLR 461 - challenge to the scope of inquest into the death of non-detained mental health patient.
• 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).
• Ruth 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).

Publications

Ruth is a contributing author to Human Rights and the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime, edited by Jonathan Cooper OBE and Madeleine Colvin [OUP 2009] and co-author of The Law of Public Order and Protest [OUP 2010]. She contributed 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.

Languages

Conversational French

Year of Call

2001

Education

BA Hons (Cantab), CPE Distinction, Scarman Scholar

Email Address

r.brander@doughtystreet.co.uk

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Specialist Teams

Member :

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