Is a Failure to Act on Climate Change a Crime against Humanity?
Introduction The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established to try those…
Lionel Nichols specialises in international and cross-border disputes, focusing on commercial litigation, international arbitration, public international law, private international law and human rights.
Lionel is ranked as a Leading Junior in Commercial Litigation by the Legal 500.
Lionel has experience advising and acting for sovereign States, corporations, NGOs and individuals before a wide range of international courts and tribunals. He has worked on cases heard by all levels of English courts (including the Supreme Court, the Privy Council, the Court of Appeal and the High Court) and by international tribunals under all of the major institutional arbitral rules, including ICSID, ICC, LCIA, SCC, UNCITRAL and CIArb. He has also acted on matters before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Lionel also sits as an arbitrator and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
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“His quick understanding and appreciation, thoughtful questions, careful explanations, clever and clear drafting, and collaborative approach to the development of case strategy are impressive.” – Legal 500
Ranked as a Leading Junior by the Legal 500, Lionel’s broad commercial practice focuses on complex international and multi-jurisdictional disputes and includes:
Featured Commercial Law Cases
Lionel has experience acting under all major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL and CIArb. His practice comprises complex cross-border disputes and disputes with an international dimension. The sectors covered by this practice include banking & financial services, commodities and international trade, and energy & infrastructure, with a focus on Africa, CIS & Russia, as well as offshore jurisdictions. He has also advised both claimants and States in relation to potential claims under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties.
He has particular expertise in applications under the Arbitration Act 1996, including challenges under sections 67, 68 and 69, stays of proceedings under section 9, freezing injunctions under section 44 and determinations of jurisdiction under section 32.
Lionel also sits as an arbitrator and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Featured International Arbitrations as Counsel
Featured Challenges to Arbitral Awards
Featured Arbitrations as Arbitrator
Prior to joining Chambers, Lionel spent three years working in The Hague, first with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, then with Trial Chamber II at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
His doctoral dissertation analysed the International Criminal Court’s strategy of positive complementarity under Article 17 of the Rome Statute and was the first academic consideration of the Office of the Prosecutor’s investigations into the Kenyan situation. This was later published as a monograph (The International Criminal Court and the End of Impunity in Kenya, Springer, 2015).
Lionel has also acted as a researcher and an advisor for the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, a small private foundation founded in 1996 by Benjamin Ferencz aimed at advancing the goal of criminalising the illegal use of force.
Featured International Criminal Law Cases
Lionel has extensive experience acting for individuals, NGOs, corporations, and States in human rights cases, before a range of domestic, regional and international courts and tribunals. He is particularly regarded for his work on core human rights such as the right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from discrimination, the right to a fair trial, the right to liberty and freedom of movement.
Lionel is currently advising the Norfolk Island Government in its attempts to obtain the status of non-self-governing territory under Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter.
He is also known for his expertise in Business & Human Rights. This includes advising corporations on issues relating to supply chains and modern slavery, as well as claimants and third-party funders on potential claims against multinational corporations. Lionel has also served as an expert reviewer in a comparative study conducted by the University of Oxford’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights on civil liability for human rights violations across 18 jurisdictions, and publishes regularly in the fields of Business & Human Rights, and Climate Change Litigation.
Lionel accepts instructions on a contingency and pro bono basis for suitable cases.
Featured Human Rights Cases
Lionel has a broad and growing public international law practice in which he advises individuals, NGOs, corporations and States on all aspects of international law. Recent advices have concerned jurisdiction, State responsibility and sovereign immunity.
He holds two master’s degrees in international law, a master’s degree in international relations, and a doctorate in international law. Prior to joining Chambers, Lionel was the Global Justice Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He has published widely in the field of public international law and is regularly invited to speak at conferences.
Featured Public International Law Cases
International Court of Justice
United Nations Human Rights Committee
International Criminal Tribunals
Investment Arbitration
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
European Court of Human Rights
Domestic Courts
Lionel has experience in advising clients on all aspects of sanctions law across the UN, EU and UK frameworks, particularly in the context of financial sanctions and export control. He also advises clients in relation to potential sanctions challenges.
Lionel Nichols is regularly instructed in jurisdiction challenges in both the English courts and in international arbitration.
Within litigation, Lionel has experience in dealing with matters involving the Brussels I Regulation (and the associated Brussels and Lugano Conventions) on jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments, challenges on forum non conveniens grounds, and Rome I and Rome II regulations on the law application to contracts and to non-contractual obligations.
In international arbitration, Lionel is an expert in jurisdictional challenges both before arbitral tribunals but also under sections 9, 32, and 67 of the Arbitration Act 1996.
Recent experience includes:
On 14 November 2023, 4 New Square’s Lionel Nichols met with a…
4 New Square Chambers has announced that Lionel Nichols has joined chambers…
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
DPhil in Law (University of Oxford)
MPhil in Law (Dist.) (University of Oxford)
BCL (University of Oxford)
Master of International Politics (University of Tasmania)
Bachelor of Laws (1st) (University of Tasmania)
Bachelor of Arts (1st) (University of Tasmania)
Rhodes Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship, Tim Hawkins Memorial Scholarship
Introduction The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established to try those…
1. The Court of Appeal has recently refused ClientEarth’s application for permission…
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