Guernica 37 Chambers

Heads of Chambers: Toby Cadman and Almudena Bernabeu

Senior Clerk: Mark Cornell

Head of Administration/Finance: Victoria Bernabeu

Members: 22

The Chambers

Guernica 37 Chambers is a specialist Barristers' Chambers that brings together barristers and international practitioners and has a proven record of implementing pioneering legal strategies around the globe. Chambers was formed in 2016 to advance accountability and justice strategies to successfully investigate and try international crimes and human rights violations on a national, regional, and international level. It builds international legal teams that include in-country partners fostering exchange and expertise among legal cultures, institutions, civil society groups, and victim communities.

Work Undertaken

International Criminal Law: International criminal and humanitarian law is at the forefront of Guernica 37’s practice. Its members have been involved in several high-profile matters prosecuting, defending, and acting for victims before national and international tribunals, hybrid courts and human rights monitoring bodies including the International Criminal Court (ICC), International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina War Crimes Chamber, and Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal. Previous cases have included criminal cases against General Augusto Pinochet, General Efrain Rios Montt, President Uhuru Kenyatta, former President Pervez Musharraf, former Vice President of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ejup Ganic, General Karake Karenze of Rwanda, the political leadership of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and more recently the leadership of Syrian military and intelligent forces under President Bashar al-Assad.

Guernica 37 has proven experience in cases before national courts in criminal proceedings under universal jurisdiction provisions and in civil claims under the Alien Tort Statute in the United States of America.

Guernica 37 has filed amicus briefs in a number of criminal matters including on the use of evidence obtained through torture before the Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. trial of Chelsea Manning, the Myanmar situation and the question of jurisdiction of the ICC, and further, the extent of ICC jurisdiction in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Extradition, MLA & INTERPOL: Guernica 37 regularly advises and represents individuals, foreign governments and judicial authorities in extradition proceedings at all levels. Its members have been involved in a number of high-profile extradition requests for individuals facing trials in the Balkans, South Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa and numerous Member States of the European Union.

Members have considerable experience and are available to provide immediate advice and representation to those subject to extradition requests and Interpol warrants and advise States on their treaty obligations, matters of mutual legal assistance and letters of request.

Public International Law: Members of Guernica 37 have significant experience in a number of important areas of public international law, including taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; judicial review proceedings; acting for victims of international crimes in seeking reparations; advising on the recognition of judgments in foreign jurisdictions; advising on fair trials abroad and challenging transfer of prisoner agreements.

Anti-Corruption and Bribery: Business and corporate strategy is now more global than it has ever been. With the increase in international trade and associated agreements however, international scrutiny has also increased with businesses and their conduct watched evermore closely.

​It is essential therefore that businesses are alive to both their domestic and international obligations. Dealing with multi-jurisdictional investigations is now the reality for those companies seeking to conduct business in the global marketplace.

Guernica 37 members assist businesses in designing and implementing appropriate ‘anti-corruption’ programmes with policy enactment, and employee training to ensure that the relevant provisions of relevant laws and regulations form an integral part of their business development.

Business and Human Rights: Guernica 37 provides bespoke advice and assistance to companies on compliance with human rights due diligence policies, advancing the UN Guiding Principles.

Rule of Law: Members of Guernica 37 have worked on numerous legal reform projects in the Balkans, South East Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America. Guernica 37 provides professional development and training programmes in all areas affecting the rule of law, focusing principally on international criminal investigations, international humanitarian law, human rights accountability, criminal procedure and institutional reform and development.

Current development projects include Colombia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Syria.

Government Advisory work: Guernica 37 advises and assists States as they commence a process of structural reform and transformation following periods of political instability, post-conflict, post-authoritarian regimes or prolonged periods of state institutions controlled by systemic and structural corrupt practices.

Its members support States and its clients as they embark on provisional and structural institutional reform, committed legal, judicial and security sector reform and the development and implementation of economic, social and cultural policies.

Atrocity Crime Prevention: Members of Guernica 37 have for the last two decades concentrated their efforts on investigating and seeking accountability for the victims of historical mass atrocities. Its members have an unprecedented expertise and experience in the challenges that working in the environment ‘after the event’ can present.

International Commercial Law, Arbitration and Mediation: Members of Guernica 37 are experienced in international commercial law, mediation and arbitration, including cases involving complex Islamic law. Previous instructions have included the longest running ICSID arbitration and a multi-million pound and multi-jurisdiction commercial dispute in the Commercial Court.

Shariah Finance Law: Members of Guernica 37 have extensive experience in global Islamic finance practice, advising Islamic banks, financial institutions and businesses on a wide range of Shariah-compliant transactions in the areas of syndicated finance, project finance, and asset-backed structured finance. Our members have significant experience in Sukuk structures, trade finance and real estate transactions. Members also have experience in litigations and arbitrations involving complex Islamic law issues.

International Climate Justice: Climate Justice litigation has not yet reached the level required to bring about fundamental change and is not sufficiently widespread to prompt a global change in policy. However, Guernica 37 seeks to explore high impact solutions in the private and public law sectors including enhancing corporate responsibility, targeting deforestation policies, reducing fossil fuel and ‘dirty energy’, using innovative and creative legal strategies to push the climate justice agenda by using the existing legal framework but also working with the scientific industry and civil society to ensure a social mobilisation movement.

Languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Maltese, Pidgin English, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Urdu, Yoruba.

Offices: Guernica 37 has offices in London, San Francisco, Madrid and The Hague.