Natasha Simonsen is a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Previously, she worked as a consultant for UNICEF and has interned with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan. Earlier this month, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down its decision in Gäfgen v Germany. The case raised…

The UK Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the contention that state immunity and/or foreign act of state barred courts from hearing claims of UK complicity in abduction and torture. The judgment in Belhaj & Rahmatullah (No 1) v Straw & Ors [2017] UKSC 3 – just one of three “blockbuster” decisions handed down in yesterday’s bonanza-…

Natasha Simonsen is a graduate student in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford Earlier this month, the UK’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission (‘SIAC’) ordered the release from detention of controversial Jordanian-born cleric Abu Qatada. SIAC held that he could not be deported to Jordan, because there was a ‘real risk’…