Curriculum vitae

Nicolas Bratza was educated at Wimbledon College and Brasenose College, Oxford. Called to the Bar in 1969, he practised as a barrister as a member of commercial law Chambers at 1 Hare Court, Temple. He also developed a practice in human rights and appeared as Counsel in numerous cases before the former European Commission and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He was appointed as a Junior Counsel to the Crown in 1978 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1988.

In 1993 he was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court and became a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. In the same year he was elected as the United Kingdom member of the European Commission of Human Rights, becoming Vice-President of the First Chamber of the Commission in 1997.

In 1998 he was appointed a High Court judge and elected as the first United Kingdom judge of the new, permanent European Court of Human Rights. In the same year, and again in 2001, he was elected as one of the four Section Presidents of the Court. He was re-elected as a judge of the Court and as a Section President in 2004. In 2007 he was elected as one of the two Vice-Presidents of the Court. He was re-elected as a Vice-President in 2010. He was elected President in 2011.

He is a member of the Advisory Council and former Vice-Chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights, a member of the Council of Management of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a member of the Editorial Board of the European Human Rights Law Review. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Essex and the University of Glasgow.

Full CV

Photo gallery

Photo gallery of Sir Nicolas Bratza, President