Geoffrey Nice

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Geoffrey Nice
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC.jpg
Born21 October 1945 Edit this on Wikidata (age 75)
London (United Kingdom) Edit this on Wikidata
Educationprofessor Edit this on Wikidata
Alma mater
OccupationBarrister (1971–), judge (1984–2018) Edit this on Wikidata
Employer
Awards

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (born 21 October 1945) is a British barrister.

Biography[edit]

Nice's family home was in Catford,[1] where he attended St Dunstan's College, and later Keble College, Oxford. He became a barrister in 1971 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990. Since 1984, he has been a part-time judge at the Old Bailey.[2] Geoffrey Nice was made a Knight Bachelor in 2007.[3] In 2009, he was named Vice-Chair of the Bar Standards Board. In 2012 he was appointed the Professor of Law at Gresham College, a position formerly occupied by Baroness Deech.[2] [4]

Nice has been involved with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He was lead prosecutor at the trial of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague and initiated the prosecution's initial case of linking atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia to Milosevic. He prosecuted the ICTY the cases of the Bosnian Croat Dario Kordić and the successful prosecution of Goran Jelisić. Since working with the ICTY, Nice has been active in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in pro bono work for victims groups.[2] His practice includes human rights/public law and personal injury.[3]

In August 2010, Judith Armatta, a journalist who followed the proceedings in ICTY, had published a book titled, Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic.[5] On 16 December 2010, Geoffrey Nice reviewed this book on London Review of Books.[5] In his review, Nice criticized the ICTY for its decisions during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the president of the former Yugoslavia.[5] Nice alleged that the prosecutor of the ICTY, Carla Del Ponte had compromised with Slobodan Milosevic, which then led to a failure of Bosnia-Herzegovina in their genocide case against Serbia in February 2007.[5] Nice also expressed his opinion about Slobodan Milosevic, evaluating that the former president was "inept" and "died before judgment was given".[5]

He was appointed Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Kent in 2005, and was knighted in 2007 for services to International Criminal Justice.

In 2009, a conviction Nice had presided over was ordered quashed and retried after a Privy Council Appeal found his handling of the case had resulted in an unfair hearing.[6] One reason that Nice was criticized by the Privy Council for his unfair handling in the trial of a St. Helier-based accountant Peter Michel.[7] Michel was accused of ten counts of money laundering in 2007 and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2009, however, the Privy Council quashed the conviction against Michel, and said that Nice had been snide and sarcastic during the trial, such action had rendered the trial unfair.[7] In the same report, the Jersey Evening Post claimed that the actions could have cost the Jersey taxpayers "millions of pounds."[7]

Nice was the chair of the China Tribunal, an independent tribunal into forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China. He is also heading a 2021 Uyghur Tribunal by the World Uyghur Congress, which represents exiled Uyghurs.[8]

Nice's stance on illegal organ trade of Kosovo has also been questioned. On 14 December 2010, Dick Marty, former member of the Swiss Council of States, published a report for adoption by the Council of Europe, alleging inhuman treatment of people and killing of prisoners with the purpose of removal and illicit trafficking on human organs in Kosovo.[9] This sensitive issue involved Hashim Thaçi, the former Prime Minister of Kosovo and Kosovo Liberation Army political leader.[9]

On 3 February 2011, Geoffrey Nice reviewed the report on London Review of Books, and titled the review Who is K144.[10] The article questioned the veracity of Marty’s report, claiming there is no actual basis related to the organ trade in Kosovo.[10] In his review, Geoffrey Nice tried to prove that "witness K144" might never truly exist, and this "K144" was barely a product of Serbian media propaganda.[10] Geoffrey Nice’s stance, however, was then countered by Diana Johnstone, an American political writer based in Paris. Diana accused Geoffrey Nice of using diversionary tactic to divert public attention.[11] In Nice’s review, he centered his stance on an unidentified "witness K144", and claimed that "K144" was the basis for the Marty’s report.[10] Whereas, Johnstone pointed it out that there is no "witness K144" mentioned in the Marty's report, and Nice's citations of "witness K144" do not correspond to the Marty Report.[11] The attempt made by Nice to discredit the Marty's report was interpreted by Diana Johnstone as "double standard" with an understatement to the wrongdoings of "our side" and the intransigent "culture of impunity" of self-righteous western democracies.[11]

In 2021, in retaliation for sanctions issued against Chinese officials by the United States, European Union and United Kingdom, the People's Republic of China issued sanctions against Nice that banned him from entering territory that the country controls or from doing business with Chinese persons. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that these sanctions were issued due to Nice's spreading of what the Chinese government calls "lies and disinformation" surrounding China's policies regarding Xinjiang.[12][13][14]

He co-authored the 2014 Syrian detainee report.

Politics[edit]

In the 1983 United Kingdom general election and 1987 United Kingdom general election, he was the Social Democratic Party candidate for Dover.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Keble Association (1965) Keble College Address List; p. 88
  2. ^ a b c "Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC | Gresham College". Gresham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  3. ^ a b "EUROPE | Profile: Sir Geoffrey Nice". BBC News. 2002-02-13. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  4. ^ Advocacy: 'as if' the Person Represented, or 'for' Them? - Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, retrieved 2021-08-14
  5. ^ a b c d e Nice, Geoffrey (December 16, 2010). "Del Ponte's Deal". London Review of Books.
  6. ^ "Privy Council Appeal No 0075 of 2008" (PDF). 2011-11-19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-11-19. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  7. ^ a b c "'Unfair' judge costs millions « Jersey Evening Post". Jersey Evening Post. 2009-11-06. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  8. ^ "UK independent tribunal to scrutinise claims of Chinese genocide of Uighurs". The Independent. 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  9. ^ a b http://www.assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2010/ajdoc462010prov.pdf
  10. ^ a b c d Nice, Geoffrey (February 3, 2011). "Who is K144?". London Review of Books.
  11. ^ a b c Johnstone, Diana. "Diana Johnstone: The Culture of Impunity, NATO Style".
  12. ^ Wintour, Patrick (26 March 2021). "China imposes sanctions on UK MPs, lawyers and academic in Xinjiang row". The Guardian.
  13. ^ Wu, Wendy; Bermingham, Finbarr (26 March 2021). "China sanctions British MPs, lawyers, businesses for Xinjiang 'disinformation'". South China Morning Post.
  14. ^ "Uighurs: China bans UK MPs after abuse sanctions". BBC News. 26 March 2021.
  15. ^ https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/hookedonjustice/pages/136/attachments/original/1523967614/legal_aid_letter_to_MPs_WEB_VERS.pdf?1523967614
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