Shaheed Fatima
- Called to Bar:
- 2001; NY Bar, 2002
- Practice areas:
- Degrees:
- LLB (Hons) (Glasgow) Joint First Class , BCL (Oxon), LLM (Harvard - Kennedy Scholar and Gammon Fellow), Holder of Arden, Bedingfield and Karmel Scholarships (Gray's Inn)
Shaheed is featured in Chambers UK 2010 as a leading junior in four areas:
- Administrative & Public Law – “Shaheed Fatima gets the vote of many as ‘she has better written work than some silks, and she's incredibly bright but wears it nicely’.”
- Human Rights & Civil Liberties – “a real superstar”
- Public International Law – “a very, very bright lawyer”
- Employment – “formidable opponent argues with determination and great intelligence but is never hidebound and is always prepared to meet the other side halfway if it's appropriate”
In the Legal 500 2009 Shaheed is featured as a leading junior in three areas:
- Human Rights & Civil Liberties – “excellent junior”
- Administrative & Public Law - Shaheed is ranked and has previously been described as an “intellectual heavyweight - a steely advocate, incisive, thorough and very capable.”
- Public International Law - “Shaheed Fatima ‘has an ability to understand the most complex legal issues’and is building a strong appellate practice’.”
Shaheed is also listed in the Public international law section of Chambers Global 2008.
In an article in The Lawyer (18.4.05) on six star lawyers under the age of thirty, Shaheed was featured as the “human rights champion”. She was “Lawyer of the Week” in The Times (26.6.07) and was featured as one of ten “Future Stars of the Bar” in Times Online (1.10.07). In November 2007 she was awarded the “Professions Woman of the Future” Award at the second “Women of the Future Awards” and in December 2007 she was awarded the Liberty/JUSTICE “Human Rights Lawyer of the Year” Award for “her remarkable work, often on a pro bono basis. For her brilliant analysis, consistent arguments and commitment in debating human rights cases before both the British and the European Courts.” In July 2008 she was featured by Management Today in their “35 women under 35” list. In October 2009, Legal Week included Shaheed in their “Top 10 Stars of the Commercial/Chancery Bar” saying “clients refer to her as ‘like having another silk on the case’.”
Since starting practice in 2002, Shaheed has written a book (“Using International Law in Domestic Courts”) and, since 2004, has been instructed in seven House of Lords cases and the first Supreme Court case. In 2008 she was appointed a Lecturer at Harvard Law School and taught “The War on Terror and Human Rights in the UK” in Spring 2009.
Professional Experience
Appointments:
Shaheed is a member of the Attorney-General's 'B' Panel.
Publications:
Using International Law in Domestic Courts (Hart Publishing) - published in October 2005 with a Foreword by Lord Bingham. Shaheed speaks regularly at conferences on this topic. The book has been reviewed in the Cambridge Law Journal; Judicial Review; European Human Rights Law Review, New Law Journal and King’s College Law Journal. See also (on the same topic) articles in the journal Judicial Review: [2003] JR 81, [2003] JR 138; [2003] JR 235.
Membership of Professional Bodies:
- HRLA
- ILA
- New York State Bar Association
Shaheed is a Council member of Liberty, a Committee member of the International Law Association and a member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn Scholarships Committee.
Public Law and Human Rights
Shaheed advises and acts for governments, NGOs and individuals regarding constitutional and human rights issues, often in a judicial review context involving international law.
Current and recent work
- R (Bary) v Secretary of State for Justice (pending before the Divisional Court)
- Ahmed and others v HM Treasury [2010] UKSC 2 (Supreme Court)
- Re M (Children) [2009] EWHC 3172 (Fam)
- R (People and Planet) v HM Treasury [2009] EWHC 3020 (Admin) (pending before the Court of Appeal)
- Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v United Kingdom (EHRC intervening) App. No. 61498/09 (pending before the European Court of Human Rights)
- A v H (Registrar General for England and Wales and Secretary of State for Justice intervening) [2009] EWHC 636 (Fam)
- Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF and others (JUSTICE intervening) [2009] 3 WLR 74 (House of Lords)
- R (Al-Sweady) v SSD [2009] EWHC 1687 (Admin) and [2009] EWHC 2387 (Admin)
- R (Brown) v (1) SSWP (2) SSBERR [2008] EWHC 3158 (Admin)
- R (Corner House Research) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (JUSTICE intervening) [2008] 3 WLR 568 (House of Lords)
- R v Asfaw (UNHCR intervening) [2008] 1 AC 1061 (House of Lords)
- Entico Corporation v UNESCO (Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth intervening) (2008) 1 Lloyd’s Rep 673
- Animal Defenders International v Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport [2008] 2 WLR 781 (House of Lords) (pending before the European Court of Human Rights)
- R(Al-Jedda) v Secretary of State for Defence [2008] 1 AC 332 (House of Lords) (pending before the Grand Chamber, European Court of Human Rights)
- R(Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence [2008] 1 AC 153 (House of Lords) (pending before the Grand Chamber, European Court of Human Rights)
- R (European Roma Rights Centre) v Immigration Officer at Prague Airport [2005] 2 AC 1 (House of Lords)
- Xenides-Arestis v Turkey 6.4.05 (European Court of Human Rights)
- Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Port Louis v Tengur [2004] UKPC 9 (Privy Council)
Commercial
Shaheed has a wide-ranging general commercial law practice (including international arbitration) with a special emphasis on cases involving private international law/conflicts of law or public international law. She has particular expertise on state/sovereign immunity, non-justiciability/ act of state, and the rights and obligations of international organisations.
Current and recent work
- Hi-Spec Facilities v Derwent Housing Association (pending before the QBD)
- C v D [2007] EWCA Civ 1282 (2008) 1 Lloyd’s Rep 239
- Cambridge Gas Transport Corp v Navigator Holdings plc [2007] 1 AC 508 (Privy Council)
- Ansol Ltd v Tajik Aluminium Plant and others [2006] EWHC 2374 (Comm)
- Ashton Investments Ltd v OJSC Russian Aluminium and others [2006] EWHC 2545 (Comm)
- Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Canada v Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (UK) Limited [2006] EWHC 2716 (Comm)
Other relevant experience
Shaheed contributed to Goode, Commercial Law (2005) (chapters 37 Conflict of Laws and 38 Commercial Litigation), was a research assistant for North and Fawcett, Cheshire and North’s Private International Law (1999) and for Crawford, Private International Law in Scotland (1998). From 2003-2005 Shaheed was a Retained Lecturer in Contract Law at Pembroke College, Oxford.
Media and Entertainment
Shaheed regularly advises on contractual and IP issues in the media and entertainment sector. Her recent cases relate to the construction of music management agreements, transfer of copyright, legal implications of territorially limited exclusive licences and assignments of copyright, payment of royalties to collecting societies and on the interpretation of patent licences.
Current and recent work
- Novello and Co. Ltd v Keith Prowse Music Publishing Company Limited [2005] EMLR 21 (Court of Appeal)
Public International
Shaheed has advised and acted for various foreign governments and individuals in public international law matters concerning, for example, treaty rights and obligations, human rights (including, in particular remedies arising from the deprivation of property e.g. expropriation) and international law immunities and privileges. Much of her work in English courts has involved elements or questions of public international law.
Current and recent work
- Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo (Request for Advisory Opinion) (pending before the ICJ)
- Ahmed and others v HM Treasury [2010] UKSC 2 (Supreme Court)
- Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v United Kingdom (EHRC intervening) App. No. 61498/09 (pending before the European Court of Human Rights)
- A v H (Registrar General for England and Wales and Secretary of State for Justice intervening) [2009] EWHC 636 (Fam)
- R (Corner House Research) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (JUSTICE intervening) [2008] 3 WLR 568 (House of Lords)
- R v Asfaw (UNHCR intervening) [2008] 1 AC 1061 (House of Lords)
- Entico Corporation v UNESCO (Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth intervening) (2008) 1 Lloyd’s Rep 673
- R(Al-Jedda) v Secretary of State for Defence [2008] 1 AC 332 (House of Lords) (pending before the Grand Chamber, European Court of Human Rights)
- R(Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence [2008] 1 AC 153 (House of Lords) (pending before the Grand Chamber, European Court of Human Rights)
- Xenides-Arestis v Turkey 6.4.05 (European Court of Human Rights)
- Mariam Aziz v Aziz and HM the Sultan of Brunei (Intervener) [2008] 2 All ER 571 (Shaheed was junior counsel for HM the Sultan of Brunei in the High Court)
