Matthew Parish | |
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| Born | Headingley, Leeds, England |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, academic, author, international relations expert |
| Website | matthewparish.com (archived on 4 November 2023) |
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Matthew Parish is a British international lawyer and scholar of international relations.
Parish was born in Leeds, in West Yorkshire. [1] He is a graduate of Cambridge University. [2]
Parish worked in the legal department of the International Supervisor for Brčko, part of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [3] [4] [5] His first book, on reconstruction in post-war Brčko, A Free City in the Balkans (2009), [6] drew on his experience working for the OHR. [3] The book has been criticized for being too sceptical of the international community's statebuilding efforts in the country. [7]
Parish's second book, Mirages of International Justice, was published in 2011. The book describes international law as "for the most part quite useless". According to a sceptical review by Christian Axboe Nielsen, the book "concludes by wishing that both international law and international organizations would disappear from the face of the earth". Nielsen compares the book unfavourably to A Free City in the Balkans, describing the latter as making "provocative and, by comparison, cogent arguments". [8]
Parish left Akin Gump's Geneva office for Holman Fenwick Willan's (HFW) Geneva office in 2011. [9] In December 2014 he and a colleague at HFW set up their own practice, Gentium Law Group. [10] [11] Gentium was one of the first boutique arbitration law firms that involved teams of senior arbitration lawyers splitting away from large established law firms and forming their own smaller practices under new brands. The group was nominated as a Global Arbitration Review Top 100 Law Firm worldwide in 2016 and 2017. [12] [13] In November 2018 Parish ceased to manage the company having handed control to a new partner. [14]
In 2018, Parish was found guilty of criminal defamation in Switzerland for making reports to Western intelligence services accusing his former clients, Murat Seitnepesov and Konstantin Ryndin, of money laundering, fraud and financing terrorism. [15] Sentenced to two months, [16] Parish reports in a self-published book that he spent 23 days in prison. [17]
Parish was further charged in 2019. [18] He was subsequently fined, given a one-year suspended prison sentence and instructed by the court to see a psychiatrist. Reuters reported that a spokesman for the Geneva prosecutor's office said: "Mr. Parish is found guilty of defamation, calumny, a coercion attempt and of failing to conform with an authority’s decision." Parish indicated his intention to appeal the conviction. [2]
Parish has also been convicted in Switzerland for his role in a fraudulent arbitration in a dispute between rival members of the Kuwaiti ruling family aimed at falsely authenticating fraudulent videos showing corruption and breach of Iran sanctions. [19] [20] [21] [22] AP reported in February 2021 that a court hearing had been held and adjourned until August 2021. [23] [24] In September 2021, Parish was convicted and sentenced to three years' jail time and was banned from practicing law in Switzerland. [25] [26] [27] As AP reports, "Judge Gonseth said he was an arbitration expert and 'manifestly' involved at all stages of the process". [25] [22] On 18 December 2023, Parish had an appeal against his conviction dismissed, though an appeal against his sentence was partially allowed, with the custodial element reduced to two years' imprisonment, all of which was suspended. [28]
In September 2024, an order allowing Parish to bring a libel claim against the Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed by the High Court in London. Parish said that the Wikipedia article about him was defamatory as it had been published in England and Wales, but Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that the London courts had no jurisdiction in the matter, as the issue related primarily to his career as a lawyer in Switzerland. [29] The claim was also dismissed as it had been made more than a year after the date of publication, and because Parish had failed to disclose that he had been living and working outside England for over twenty years. [30]
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe, situated on the Balkan Peninsula. It borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest. In the south it has a 20-kilometre-long (12-mile) coast on the Adriatic Sea, with the town of Neum being its only access to the sea. Bosnia has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat. Herzegovina, the smaller, southern region, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous. Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city.
Demographic features of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords, and colloquially known as the Dayton in ex-Yugoslav parlance, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, finalised on 21 November 1995, and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the three-and-a-half-year-long Bosnian War, which was part of the much larger Yugoslav Wars.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two entities composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of ten autonomous cantons with their own governments and legislatures.
Wolfgang Petritsch is an Austrian diplomat who served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1999 to 2002.
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War. The purpose of the High Representative and the OHR is to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton agreement. They are appointed by, and serve to represent the countries of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC).
Orrick is an international law firm founded in San Francisco, California. The firm advises on transactions, litigation and regulatory matters for venture-backed companies, public companies, E&I funds, financial institutions and governments.
Brčko is a city and the administrative seat of Brčko District, in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies on the banks of Sava river across from Croatia. As of 2013, it has a population of 39,893 inhabitants.
Brčko District, officially the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a self-governing administrative unit in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Under the "Law on Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government" adopted in 1994, Republika Srpska was divided into 80 municipalities. After the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the law was amended in 1996 to reflect the changes to the entity's borders and now provides for the division of Republika Srpska into 64 municipalities.
The Inter-Entity Boundary Line is the administrative line that subdivides Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The total length of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line is 1,080 km.
HFW is a global, sector-focused law firm providing services to businesses in aerospace, commodities, construction, energy and resources, insurance and reinsurance, and shipping. The firm was founded in 1883 and now has more than 600 lawyers, including 170 partners, based in 20 offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, also known as Ahmad Al-Fahad, is a controversial Kuwaiti politician, ruling family member, and disgraced former sports administrator.
Charles Clarence Adams Jr. is the former United States Ambassador to Finland.
Douglas Samuel Jones, is an independent international arbitrator based in London, Sydney and Toronto. He is a door tenant at Atkin Chambers, London, a member of Sydney Arbitration Chambers, and a member of Toronto Arbitration Chambers in Toronto, Canada. He serves as an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court.
The International Supervisor for Brčko is the representative of the international community in the Brčko District.
Roberts Bishop "Bob" Owen was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as Legal Adviser of the Department of State from 1979 to 1981 and acted as a mediator and arbitrator in several international disputes.
The Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot Court or Frankfurt Moot is a moot competition co-organised by the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. It is the oldest student competition in the area of investment arbitration, with the first edition of the moot taking place in 2008. As the class-leading moot in its field, it is considered one of the grand slam or major moots. With the exception of India and China, national rounds are not conducted, but each university may only send one team, unlike the Foreign Direct Investment Moot. Like many other arbitration moots, pre-moots are also conducted by institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce, HKIAC, and European Court of Arbitration.
Milan Blagojević in Gračanica is a Serbian jurist, full-time professor of Constitutional Law and the former judge of the District Court of Banja Luka. In 2023, he was a legal advisor of the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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