Cian has extensive expertise and experience in international law, including international human rights law, and international dispute settlement, having spent ten years as a legal academic before coming to the Bar. 

Cian’s current and recent instructions in international human rights law include:

• Representation of pro-democracy leader Mr Ali Karimli in his application for interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights;
• Assistance with an Article 10 ECHR claim before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of a whistleblower;
• Assistance to Transparency International – Georgia in relation to international challenges to the “Foreign Agents Law”.

Cian also has experience in investor-state dispute settlement and was the Assistant to the ICSID Arbitration Tribunal (under the presidencies of Judge David D. Caron and Judge Peter Tomka) in Kim v Uzbekistan (ARB/13/6).

In 2024 he published By Peaceful Means: International Adjudication and Arbitration as part of a team led by Judge Charles N. Brower and former President Joan D. Donoghue of the International Court of Justice. He is the editor of the forthcoming, posthumous publication, of Caron’s A Theory of International Courts and Tribunals (Hague Academy Recueil des Cours).

Previously Cian has provided consultancy support for litigation in EU counter-terrorism law, in which field he is the author of the prize-winning monograph, EU Counter-terrorism Law. He has published extensively on EU, international, and transnational law. 

Cian has led NGO rule of law training and spoken at remote oral advocacy training for an international dispute settlement centre. He has collaborated on events and training with The AIRE Centre, JUSTICE, Lawyers without Borders, and Delos Dispute Resolution. He is a member of the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Research Consortium, and the American Society of International Law. 

Cian has significant public law expertise. He has been instructed in relation to judicial review proceedings for Claimant and Defendant litigants. The subject matters have included Government policy, local authority decisions, and the Coronial jurisdiction.

He was part of the wider team instructed to support judicial review challenges to the 28 day move on period for new refugees to leave asylum accommodation.

He has also recently been led by Maya Sikand KC in relation to a challenge brought against the Secretary of State for Justice in relation to a miscarriage of justice; and by Sam Jacobs in relation to a decision on the establishment of an Article 3 ECHR compliant inquiry.

Cian’s earlier successes included ensuring accountability for actions taken in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. In one such challenge, the Government conceded the need to make changes to its policy on charges for hotel quarantine.

Cian has expertise in relation to protest law, and has assisted with protest-related matters in criminal court, in judicial review, and in civil claims. 

Cian also has an interest in international matters or those with a cross-jurisdictional dimension. He has assisted with matters in St Helena, and Gibraltar, amongst others.

He has written about the challenges that decisions such as AB v. Secretary of State for Justice [2021] UKSC 28 pose for human rights advocacy in the European Human Rights Law Review.

Cian regularly acts in inquests touching on deaths in settings including prisons, hospital, mental health custody, and in the community. Cian often represents include the family of the deceased, as well as other interested persons, such as an educational institution, and a national charity. 

Cian’s inquest practice benefits from his experience in other fields, including actions against public authorities, education, and community care law, as well as his expertise on the European Convention on Human Rights.

Cian’s instructions have included in inquests into the deaths of:

• Simon Ludlow, and MM, both of whom died from drug toxicity at HMP The Mount;
• Jack Booth, who was inappropriately left alone by Police after he said he wanted to take his own life;
• Amir Safi, a young asylum seeker who died hours after his age claim had been rejected;
• Melissa Parrish, who died a self-inflicted death after a failure in an Eating Disorder Clinic (reported by The Independent and Sky News);
• Daniel Weighman, in which the jury found multiple failures contributed to the death, and the Coroner made a Prevention of Future Deaths report;
• Nashon Esbrand, in which the jury found “clear and direct causal connection” between police failings and Nashon’s murder;
• Caitlin Mack, whose death in the community may have been avoided with mental health support and appropriate accommodation;
• Stephen Weatherley, whose death led the Coroner to make a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Ministry of Justice;
• Daniel Varndell, whose death after release from prison led the Coroner to make a Prevention of Future Deaths report in relation to release conditions;
• Peter Hart, a frontline medical worker who died from COVID-19 after he was infected while working in an A&E Department;
• an individual who died while in the healthcare unit of a prison in relation to which the jury found neglect and extensive causative failings contributed to death.

Cian was led by Maya Sikand KC in the inquest into the death of Mark Culverhouse, who took his own life while unlawfully detained at HMP Woodhill. The jury found that a defect in the system of licence recall and release, as well as detention in the Segregation Unit, contributed to Mark’s death.

He was led by Fiona Murphy KC in the inquest into the death of Shane Bryant, who died after a 17 minute long restraint by an off-duty police officer and members of the public. The jury found that unreasonable force, and missed opportunities, both contributed to the death.

Cian has particular expertise on the engagement of Article 2 ECHR and has given training on Article 2 and its role in inquests and related civil claims. He accepts appropriate instructions on a public access basis.

Cian advises, and provides representation, in media law, in particular in relation to data protection and freedom of information. This has included work for both claimants and defendants; including in relation to the processing of sensitive personal data.  

He has significant expertise on the impact of technology on privacy and related human rights. He has edited a Common Law World Review Symposium on State Access to Encrypted Communications. He has also written about the regulation of artificial intelligence, including on the Council of Europe Framework Convention and on the JCHR Report on Human Rights and the Regulation of AI. 

Cian’s recent instructions include:

• advice in relation to the unlawful publication of sensitive personal information relating to a young person;
• the defence of a data protection claim on behalf of a vetting service provider;
• advice to a healthcare provider on its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act;
• a successful action in relation to unlawful disclosure of sensitive personal information by a private healthcare provider;
• advice to a sporting organisation in relation to data protection law and related legal frameworks;
• the defence of a data protection and breach of confidence claim against a solicitors firm;
• assistance with the preparation of the Media Lawyers Association Online Safety Guide for Journalists.

Cian has particular experience with cases with overlapping claims including breach of confidence, and legal privilege. 

Cian undertakes education work, and community care work, including under instructions from the Official Solicitor on behalf of vulnerable children and adults. He provides representation before the High Court (Administrative Court), and Special Educational Needs and Disability First Tier Tribunals. 

Cian also advises on broader matters of education law including challenges to the conversion of a school into an academy; and a proposal to merge two independent schools.

Cian’s instructions include:

• a successful application for judicial review of a local authority’s failure to issue an EHC Plan within the statutory timeframe;
• claims for unlawful removal of children from their parents, for failure to remove children, and for delays in the issue of care proceedings;
• the successful appeal against a refusal by a local authority to issue an EHC Plan for a child with special educational needs that arose from anxiety;
• advice in relation to judicial review proceedings for failure to implement an EHC Plan;
• a claim for delay in the issue of a deprivation of liberty proceedings.

Cian has a strong commitment to access to education and undertakes pro bono work in this field.

Cian offers advice and representation in relation to actions against public authorities, including the police, as well as prisons and local authorities. This includes civil law claims as well as judicial review proceedings.

Cian’s instructions have included:

• a successful claim by Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine against their arrest by police after inquiries they had made at their daughter’s school. See reporting by the BBC, The Guardian, and an editorial in The Times;
• a successful claim against a police service for failures in investigation of a historical crime;
• successful claims by prisoners against unlawful-strip searches in prison, and by a young person for assault in a Youth Offender Institution;
• a successful claim on behalf of a family whose home was wrongfully subject to a search.

Cian is a member of the Police Action Lawyers Group (PALG), and is a contributor to the LAG book: Police Misconduct: Legal Remedies in its chapters on police organisation and on anti-discrimination law and the police.