Governments, non-government institutions and international affairs

At McCue Jury & Partners, we have experience in all elements of Government, NGO and international Affairs representation. Our expert team is on hand to advise and represent governments and international institutions across all elements of law.

We can advise and represent governments and international institutions on all aspects of human rights law including compliance and obligations (locally and internationally), best practice, and the protection, promotion, and safeguarding of their citizens’ human rights at home and abroad.

Our legal team and network have experience advising and acting both for and against states in some of the most high-profile international human rights litigation of the past decades.

The firm and its consultant network can provide a government with independent advice, representation, and expertise in public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international refugee law, and on international treaty obligations.

The firm is very active in producing and developing government white papers on a broad array of legal subjects. It has been mandated over the years to compile a variety of white papers directly for governments or on behalf of individuals and corporations for their presentation to governments at home and overseas.

McCue Jury & Partners provides independent audits/assessments, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of state and judicial institutions and offices. These assessments draw on international best practice, international law, legal compliance, and our practical and professional experience. The team can provide recommendations that can provide for a staged process towards necessary institutional reform and foster and enable donor funding for such reforms.

We are well known for providing such advice in relation to security sector compliance and reform.

McCue Jury & Partners and our consultant network have broad and diverse experience in successfully resolving (often critical to national interests) commercial disputes that states face by providing advice and representation relating to litigation, dispute tribunals, international arbitration, mediation, or direct negotiation.

The firm is highly experienced in supporting states to maximise their position and presentation of legal issues, whether civil, commercial, criminal, international, or public in nature, within a foreign state or international legal system. We have become trusted providers of such legal assistance to foreign governments and their embassies within the UK. We can use our expertise to assist a foreign state to manoeuvre and steer around a foreign legal system and better present its complaints and issues to maximise impact and success. Our team provides all aspects of legal advice, representation, and private diplomacy to ensure your legal issue is dealt with appropriately, fairly, and as quickly and effectively as possible.

The team also has extensive experience in extradition and mutual legal assistance, bilateral MOUs, and in the extra-territorial application of national criminal law.

McCue Jury & Partners has assisted in conflict resolution, post-conflict transitional justice, and state-building matters in a number of conflict-zones and armed struggles worldwide.

The team and its consultant network has experience of providing legal advice and solutions on matters such as the laws of war and justice issues during a conflict, including war crimes and the preservation of evidence, conflict resolution, transitional justice (truth and reconciliation schemes, reparations (and compensation)) and post-conflict transition (transitional government, rule of law and constitutional reform as well as at locating, tracking, seizing, and obtaining misappropriated assets).

Our network includes experts on the law of armed conflict (including asymmetrical conflicts such as terrorism and cyber warfare). We can advise on the application of humanitarian law and on issues of military and command responsibility.

We advise states, international bodies and coalitions on their legal obligations and duties for reducing the risk of harm to civilians (e.g., relating to reparations, children and women, and sexual violence) and to property (such as artworks and historic sites) and achieving accountability for violations of human rights and international law.

The team has experience of many of the international or internal armed conflicts to have come before an international criminal tribunal in recent years.

The team include experts in conflict prevention. We advise on consultation, mediation, and on dialogue platforms as well as other conflict prevention measures. The team has direct experience of bilateral and multilateral negotiations, negotiations with armed groups and terrorist organisations, as well as of all levels of civil society mediation (cross-community or with government).

McCue Jury & Partners have advised and represented key stakeholders in several peace processes. As well as providing pertinent legal advice, our team also advises on tactics, frameworks, international obligations, as well as providing expert drafting capability. We have experience of advising on and carrying out public and private ‘shuttle diplomacy’, pre-talks, as well as ‘exploratory’, ‘go-between’ and ‘deniable’ talks.

The firm and its consultant network can advise states on transitional justice and government as well as post-conflict peace-building mechanisms. The team includes experts who have participated in many of the initiatives established in various parts of the world in recent decades for setting up national and regional transitional governments, judicial tribunals, commissions for truth and reconciliation, reparation and compensation schemes, decommissioning processes, tracing missing persons and repatriating human remains.

The team offers advice on good governance, counter corruption, and standards for compliance across all departments and levels of state and government infrastructure.

Our team can provide independent reviews and recommendations of public governance and implement and monitor any reform. As well as promoting better domestic standards, independent reviews can also facilitate international engagement, support and funding.

McCue Jury & Partners can conduct internal investigations and advise public inquiries to the highest international standards, utilising and combining law with its own consultant network of highly experienced investigators. Our team of lawyers and investigators has acted for states, organs of government, companies and NGOs, and has been directly involved in numerous high-profile investigations and inquiries over the last decades, concerning matters of war crimes, crime against humanity, coup d’états, corruption, asset recovery, political scandals, terrorist bombings, environmental disasters, and natural disasters. The firm can offer a comprehensive service for all forms of public and private investigation, with the highest levels of independence, integrity, and credibility.

The firm has vast experience in handling whistle-blower matters, providing corroborative investigations, and managing supportive and protective strategies. Our team, through RIGEL, has the capability to mount appropriate covert investigations.

The team has great experience in designing, implementing, and managing government or independent tribunals into various matters. These range from pioneering anti-corruption tribunals (focused on determining the propriety of prior government concessions and tenders) to historical fact tribunals.

We can advise states, institutions, and corporations on all aspects of prevention, responsibility, and liability in relation to all forms of corruption as well as provide anti-corruption initiatives and best practice safeguards. Our auditing and recommendations can prevent problems from occurring, find solutions to problems, and provide the insurance and peace of mind to protect against rogue elements of corruption within and mitigate against liability for such rogue actions.

We are regularly approached by governments to advise on, design models for, and implement best practice asset recovery initiatives to retrieve misappropriate state assets. We have designed several recovery models that provide for best practice recovery, successful repatriation, good governance utilisation of recovered assets, means to garner public and international support, and enable self-financing and sustainable recovery projects. We also pioneered and worked on the development of “amnesty” asset recovery programs to facilitate speedy recovery, unity, reconciliation, and stability in conflict, transitioning, or post-conflict states.

Our team’s consultant network enables us to carry out asset tracing and asset recovery. With a global network of experienced investigators and lawyers, we can better identify assets, patterns of dealings, and recovery strategies to enable the quick repatriation of stolen assets. Our team’s combination of law, private diplomacy, and negotiation are the ingredients to success.

The firm has developed several innovative solutions to foster and succeed in de-escalating political confrontation capable of resulting in civil unrest, violent extremism, or civil war. Whether through creating mediation or dialogue platforms for the political stakeholders or through “political reconciliation” tribunals, our team develops bespoke solutions to reduce political tensions within a given state. The firm specialises in the discrete issues surrounding such problems arising during the transition from a single to a multi-party system.

Our team can provide legal and best practice advice surrounding all aspects of political campaigning and elections (including relating to fundraising, polling, and media controls) as well as provide independent and credible election monitoring.

We provide dispute resolution services to states and independent resolution platforms for all forms of border and territory disputes, whether land, maritime, commercial, or historic in nature, and whether the dispute is interstate, tribal, or intercommunity. The team is specialised in public international law, sociology, and conflict resolution and has worked closely with international institutions, including the UN, on border security issues.

We have years of experience in dealing with multilateral and unilateral sanctions regimes (military, economic, and travel) and other such measures against states and targeted individuals. The firm provides advice to states on lobbying and petitioning for international sanctions, as well as on their removal and remedies.

McCue Jury & Partners and our consultant network have extensive direct experience (across Europe, Africa, and Asia) in developing and implementing state and non-state initiatives aimed at countering terrorism, countering radicalisation, and increasing society’s resilience to political violence. Our team is highly experienced in dealing with victims of terrorism and related gender-specific issues. We can foster all aspects of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS), and through our diverse skill-set team, can confidently provide a multi-disciplinary strategy for countering the spread of terrorism.

We have experience of a diverse range of related peace-building initiatives including the development and implementation of dialogue platforms, ‘secret’ talks, confidence-building measures, and the creation of direct and indirect channels with the terrorist communities and the terrorists themselves.

The firm’s combined network experience of leading intelligence professionals, lawyers, anthropologists, and social scientists can advise on best practice, and identify bespoke counter-extremism, terrorism, and radicalization strategies. We can carry our reviews and recommendations followed by implementation and monitoring thereof.

We are also the world’s leading firm in designing and implementing ‘lawfare’ strategies and initiatives (fostering victims of terrorism and civil law actions against terrorists and their supporters) for governments as part of their asymmetrical response towards counterterrorism.

The firm, through working with the state, international bodies, or NGOs, can provide advice on developing suitable conditions and an environment to foster and promote a vibrant civil society. Our team specialises in designing and implementing structures and initiatives to better enable consultation (general or specific issue) and mediation between government and civil society as well as providing dialogue platforms to foster reconciliation and reconcile disputes.

We provide advice to NGOs in connection with operating within a host state, the specific activities they pursue, and their obligations and liabilities regarding financing and accounting. We can provide peace of mind to NGOs that have teams working in high-risk environments.

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