Robert McCorquodale

About My Work

Robert practises in public international law. This includes issues of international human rights law, business and human rights, state and diplomatic immunity, state responsibility, international investment disputes, international organisations and self-determination. He has been an advocate before the Supreme Court and the International Court of Justice.

His recent cases include the decision by the Supreme Court that Wikileaks documents are admissible in an English court in Bancoult v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No.3) and in Miller v Department for Exiting the European Union, with the former as the advocate on the international legal issues. He also appeared in the Supreme Court in the ground-breaking Lungowe and Others v Vedanta Resources Plc, concerning a parent company's duty of care in relation to human rights abroad, and he made an oral submission to the International Court of Justice in the Chagos Archipelago Advisory Opinion, representing Vanuatu. [next sentence deleted] He is a mediator on key public international issues, especially in the business and human rights area, as he is a CEDR accredited mediator.

Robert has extensive experience of the application of international law. He has been involved in the self-determination of peoples around the world, drafting of constitutions and conducting training courses around the world. He has provided advice to governments, corporations, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and peoples concerning international law and human rights issues. He has also written extensively on public international law and international human rights law, including being an author of the leading Cases and Materials on International Law, and published the major work on Business and Human Rights (2024).

He brings considerable expertise to this area of practice from his experience as having been the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law for 10 years, and as Emeritus Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Nottingham. He is also a former Fellow and Lecturer at St. John's College, University of Cambridge, and he has practised as a solicitor with leading commercial law firms. He is a Bencher of Middle Temple.

Education

• Bachelor of Economics (Sydney)
• Bachelor of Law (Sydney)
• Masters of Law (Cambridge)
• PhD (Cambridge)