Livio Zilli

Practice

Livio became a tenant at Garden Court in October 2008 after successfully completing pupillage under the supervision of Duran Seddon and Leslie Thomas. During his pupillage Livio gained experience in asylum and immigration, criminal, coronial, extradition, housing, prison and public law. As a junior tenant, Livio has continued to develop a successful practice in some of these areas of law.

Asylum and Immigration and public law

As a pupil Livio had exposure to and worked on a wide range of asylum and immigration and public law cases at all levels, including: EB Kosovo - v - SSHD [2008] UKHL 41; SSHD - v - AP [2008] EWHC 2001 (Admin); and R (AC, by his litigation friend) -v - Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWCA Civ 882. Livio represents appellants before the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in a range of asylum and immigration hearings, including deportation appeals. He also acts pro bono for Bail for Immigration Detainees.

Inquests

As a pupil under Leslie Thomas's supervision, Livio gained experience in coronial law and worked on a number of 'death in custody' inquests, including being led by Leslie Thomas at the inquest into the 2005 death of Wayne Reid at HMP Rye Hill - an Art. 2 inquest in which the jury found that the prison authorities did not do all that could reasonably be expected of them to prevent the risk of harm to the deceased. Livio is currently instructed in a number of other inquests into deaths in custody.

Recent Cases

Inquest into the death of Shaun Jones, which involved the tragic death of 14-year-old boy 12 hours after taking anti-acne tablet.
Shaun Jones, a fit and healthy schoolboy and rugby player died on 22 October 2008 at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, approximately 12 hours after taking an antibiotic tablet to treat acne. On 27 February 2009, at the conclusion of the inquest into his death, Mary Hassell, HM Majesty's Coroner for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, returned a short narrative verdict in which she identified medical complications as a result of an idiosyncratic adverse reaction to minocycline hydrochloride, the active ingredient in the anti-acne drug, as the most likely cause of Shaun's death. Among other things, the Inquest heard that when Shaun went to the pharmacy, he was given a different drug to the one which the doctor had prescribed. Shaun was given a drug for the first time without the product information leaflet.
Livio Zilli was instructed by Betesh Partnership Solicitors and acted pro bono for the parents of Shaun Jones. Read the guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/27/acne-drug-inquest/print

In July 2009 Livio was instructed by Farleys Solicitors as counsel for the Clarke family at the Inquest into the death of Peter Andrew Clarke whose body, together with that of his partner, Sharon Arthurs-Chegini, was found on a yacht off the coast of Senegal in September 2006.
Read the guardian article http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/23/british-couple-dead-yacht-inquest/print

Background

Prior to coming to the bar, Livio worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International where, since the mid-90s, he was employed in various capacities, including as researcher on the UK until starting pupillage in October 2007. On behalf of Amnesty, Livio carried out extensive legal research and produced many published reports documenting human rights violations as a result of the implementation of terrorism, asylum and immigration legislation. Livio was also centrally involved in assisting in the preparation of Amnesty's written and oral submissions to the House of Lords in a number of pivotal cases, including the A No. 1 (internment/derogation) and A No. 2 (torture evidence) litigation and Al-Skeini (applicability of the ECHR/HRA to Iraq). Livio provided advice to the Legal Office and the Secretary General of Amnesty on a variety of domestic legal issues in the UK.

Publications

"Environment at HMP Rye Hill contributed to death", Leslie Thomas and Livio Zilli, Inquest Law, Issue 15, November 2008

Livio wrote numerous reports whilst working at Amnesty International, including:

"UK - Seeking asylum is not a crime: detention of people who have sought asylum", Amnesty International, AI Index: EUR 45/015/2005, 20 June 2005 (co-written with Jan Shaw);

"UK - Human rights: a broken promise", Amnesty International, AI Index: EUR 45/004/2006, 23 February 2006.

Academic articles

"Children's Right to a Fair Trial in International Law", Trinity College Law Review, Vol. 5, 2002.

"Decriminalising consensual heterosexual conduct outside marriage: the women's case under international human rights law", Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights; vol. 20, no. 3, September 2002, pp. 299-314.

"The Crime of Rape in the Case Law of the Strasbourg Institutions", Criminal Law Forum, vol. 13 issue 2, 2002, pp. 245 - 265

Societies

Livio is a member of Amnesty International and of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association.

Last Updated February 2010

Year of Call

Education

Send Email

Telephone

Practice Areas