David Philip Pannick QC (born 7 March 1956) is a leading barrister in the United Kingdom. He practises mainly in the areas of public law and human rights. He has argued more than 75 cases in the House of Lords, more than 25 cases in the European Court of Justice, and more than 30 cases in the European Court of Human Rights. Pannick is shortly to become a crossbencher in the House of Lords.
Career
Pannick was educated at Bancroft's School and Hertford College, Oxford, where he graduated as a MA and a BCL. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1979, and was a Junior Counsel to the Crown in Common Law from 1988 to 1992. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1992,[1] a Recorder on the South Eastern Circuit in 1995,[2] and a deputy High Court judge in 1998. Pannick has appeared in the courts of Hong Kong, Brunei and the Cayman Islands.
Noted cases
He has acted in a wide range of high-profile cases, including the Spycatcher case. More recently, he acted for Liberty in arguing that the detention of terrorism suspects without trial was illegal, for the League Against Cruel Sports in defending a challenge to the validity of the Hunting Act 2004, for a woman who established that she was entitled to be prescribed with the breast cancer drug Herceptin, and for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its claim to state immunity against claims of torture. He was a member of the Independent Arbitration Panel for the case Sheffield United v FA Premier League.
He appeared for BBC director-general Mark Thompson when an attempt was made to prosecute the BBC for showing Jerry Springer: The Opera. The High Court ruled that the musical was not blasphemous, and Pannick stated that the Judge "had acted within her powers and made the only decision she could lawfully have made; while religious beliefs were integral to British society, so is freedom of expression, especially to matters of social and moral importance."[3] He is the counsel of Gary McKinnon in the celebrated NASA hacking / extradition case.[4]
Academic career and publications
He has been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford since 1978, and became an Honorary Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford in September 2004. He writes on legal matters for The Times, and is co-author with Lord Lester of Herne Hill of Human Rights Law and Practice (1st edition 1999; 2nd edition 2004).
Peerage
On 29 September 2008 it was announced by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that Pannick had been nominated for a Life peerage as a Crossbencher.[5] His title has not yet been gazetted.
Publications
- Judicial Review of the Death Penalty (1982, Duckworth),
- Sex Discrimination Law (1985, Oxford University Press),
- Judges (1987, Oxford University Press),
- Advocates (1992, Oxford University Press)
- Human Rights Law and Practice (general editor with Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC, Butterworths, October 1999, second edition March 2004)
External links
References
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