Phil Shiner

Phil Shiner  (lawyer, academic)
Founder of	Public Interest Lawyers
Interests	human rights

Phil Shiner was a reputed lawyer who worked on issues concerning international, environmental and human rights law. He founded Public Interest Lawyers, which pursued a range of human rights legal cases of national significance, including some which progressed to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. After a secret tribunal egun in 2016, he was struck off in February 2017 by the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority for "dishonesty".

Background

Phil Shiner reports that he is a committed socialist and the roots of his career as a lawyer are firmly planted in the law centre movement of the eighties. Phil has had a diverse and high profile legal career where he has always acted for the victims of injustices borne of many different circumstances.

Career

Phil Shiner practised as a solicitor in the UK from 1981 to 2016. He has written extensively on international and [human rights]] law.

Shiner succeeded in establishing two separate judicial Public Inquiries into the behaviour of UK forces in Iraq: first the Baha Mousa Inquiry and then the Al-Sweady Inquiry. In recent years Phil has acted in many important Judicial Review cases. Three of these cases were later heard in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights - those of namely Al-Skeini, Al-Jedda and Hasan.

Phil Shiner has worked as a visiting professor at London Metropolitan University and a visiting fellow at London School of Economics. In 2010 he featured in The War You Don't See.

Honours

In 2004, Shiner was named "Human Rights Lawyer of the Year" in 2004 by Liberty and Justice. He was recognised by the Law Society as an outstanding achiever at the Law Society Awards in 2011. He is the Honorary Vice President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and in 2012 was presented with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Public Interest Law throughout his career.

SRA Tribunal

In 2016, Shiner was subject to a secret tribunal by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. John Hyde, writing for the Law Society Gazette, criticised the process, opining that "the Mail and Sun are desperate to nail Shiner" in an article headlined "Shiner’s secret prosecution is a farce". A 2017 Evening Times article published in January 2017 while the tribunal was ongoing contains a lot of details.

In February 2017, the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority struck off Shiner after concluding that he had been “dishonest”. An anonymously authored report in "The Telegraph" was headlined "Phil Shiner should face a criminal investigation over his dishonesty in smearing British troops".

 

A Document by Phil Shiner

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Second Baha Mousa Memorial Lecture	speech	September 2010	Baha Mousa UK/Torture Iraq Historic Allegations Team	A shocking introduction to the systematic abuse of prisoners by the British military in Iraq and focusing on the case of Baha Mousa

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