Sean Aughey

Practice Areas

Sean specialises in public international law (‘PIL’), investor-state arbitration, and public law and human rights.

Sean’s recent notable instructions include cases before the International Court of Justice (including representing Iran in two cases), the European Court of Human Rights (including in cases concerning the right to property), investor-state tribunals (including two cases as lead counsel for respondent states), before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (for the UK), and before the English Courts (particularly on the relationship between English law and PIL).

Sean was appointed to the B Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown (the UK Attorney General’s Public International Law Panel) in 2017. He previously worked as an Assistant Legal Advisor in the Legal Directorate of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He is a member of the BIICL PIL Advisory Panel and a committee member of the Administrative Law Bar Association. Before joining the Bar, Sean completed a traineeship at the European Court of Human Rights.

Sean previously held the positions of Visiting Scholar (EALS) at Harvard Law School, Adjunct Professor in Public International Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, and Bye Fellow in Law at Downing College, Cambridge.

Sean recently co-authored an article (with Amy Sander) entitled ‘Intervention before the ICJ: A practical guide’(2022). He is currently writing a chapter on ‘Public International Law and Foreign Relations in Judicial Review’ for a leading practitioners’ text on judicial review. He recently spoke at the London Conference of International Law 2022.