Martha Spurrier | |
|---|---|
 Spurrier in 2016 | |
| Born | 1986 (age 37–38) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Godolphin and Latymer School |
| Alma mater | Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Barrister, human rights campaigner, former director of Liberty |
| Spouse | Jesse Nicholls |
Martha Spurrier (born 1986) is a British barrister and human rights campaigner. She was the director of the advocacy group Liberty from 2016 to 2024. [1] [2]
Spurrier was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School in London, and then at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in history. [1] [3] She took a law conversion course at City University London, and then the bar professional training course at BPP University. [3]
Before joining Liberty from June 2016, Spurrier worked as a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, of which she remains an associate tenant. [3] [4] She is the author of Freedom to Write: A User's Guide (English PEN, 2012). [4]
In 2015, she was one of the three joint founders of the "Act for the Act" campaign (with Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Fiona Bawdon), a crowdfunded advertising campaign to tell positive stories about the Human Rights Act 1998. [5] [6]
She took up her post at Liberty at the end of May 2016, taking over from Shami Chakrabarti. [7] She was replaced as director by Akiko Hart in January 2024. [2]
In July 2018, Spurrier was awarded the "Hero Award" at the 20th Annual ISPA [a 1] Awards by the ISPA Council for challenging the Investigatory Powers Act in the High Court. [8]
She is married to fellow barrister Jesse Nicholls. [9]
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith, motivated by their humanist convictions.
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson is an Australian-British barrister, academic, author and broadcaster. Robertson is a founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. He serves as a Master of the Bench at the Middle Temple, a recorder, and visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London.
Eleanor ‘Leo’ Veronica Elizabeth Sharpston KC is an English barrister who served as an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) from 2006 to 2020.
David Philip Pannick, Baron Pannick, is a British barrister and a crossbencher in the House of Lords. He practises mainly in the areas of public law and human rights. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Doughty Street Chambers is a British set of barristers' chambers situated in Bristol, Manchester and London's Doughty Street, undertaking criminal justice, public law, immigration, employment, human rights and civil liberties work.
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. He was previously Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
Geraldine Van Bueren is a British international human rights lawyer. She is Professor Emerita of International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary University of London and barrister. The Independent newspaper has described her as one of the stars in the Law Department.
SharmishtaChakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
Sir Rabinder Singh, PC, styled The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Singh, is a British Court of Appeal judge and President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, formerly a High Court judge of the Queen's Bench Division, a King's Counsel and barrister, formerly a founding member of Matrix Chambers and a legal academic.
Edward Hamilton Fitzgerald is a British barrister who specialises in criminal law, public law, and international human rights law. His work against the death penalty has led him to represent criminals such as: Myra Hindley, Mary Bell, Maxine Carr, various IRA prisoners, and Abu Hamza. Fitzgerald is currently the joint head of Doughty Street Chambers.
Jennifer Robinson is an Australian human rights lawyer and barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London.
Michael Benedict Emmerson CBE KC is a British barrister, specialising in public international law, human rights and humanitarian law, and international criminal law. From 2011 to 2017, he was the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism. Emmerson is currently an Appeals Chamber Judge of the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals sitting on the Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He has previously served as Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Special Adviser to the Appeals Chamber of the ECCC.
On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom (UK) invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) which began the member state's withdrawal, commonly known as Brexit, from the European Union (EU). In compliance with the TEU, the UK gave formal notice to the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the EU to allow withdrawal negotiations to begin.
Tim Eicke is a German-born British barrister and Judge of the European Court of Human Rights.
David William Kinloch Anderson, Baron Anderson of Ipswich, is a British barrister and life peer, who was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation in the United Kingdom between 2011 and 2017. On 8 June 2018 it was announced that he would be introduced to the House of Lords as a cross-bench (non-party) working peer. On the same day he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for services to national security and civil liberties, in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours.
Nigel John Richardson is a British human rights lawyer who serves as a deputy district judge. He was appointed to that office in May 2009. As a lawyer, Richardson is known for representing victims of human rights abuses in high-profile criminal cases with international element.
David Isaac, CBE is a British solicitor and Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, where he took office in July 2021. He was previously a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons. He was appointed as the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2016, serving in that capacity until August 2020. He is also chair of the Court of Governors at University of the Arts London (2018–present). He was previously chair of Stonewall from 2003 to 2012. He was a director of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund (2005–2014), the Big Lottery Fund (2014–2018), Black Mountains College (2019–20) and a trustee of 14-18 NOW (2016–2019).
Adam Wagner is a Doughty Street Chambers barrister, a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's panel of counsel.
Jonathan Paul Cooper was a British barrister and human rights activist, described by The Guardian journalist Owen Boycott as "at the forefront of efforts to decriminalise homosexuality around the world". He practised at Doughty Street Chambers and edited the European Human Rights Law Review. In 2011, he co-founded the Human Dignity Trust, a UK-based charity that focuses on strategic litigation against the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide, and served as its director until 2016.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is an Irish-born barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, specialising in human rights and civil liberties.