Tim Eicke QC confirmed as Britain's next human rights judge

London barrister Tim Eicke QC has been confirmed as the United Kingdom's next judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Mr Eicke was elected to the post by parliamentary representatives at the Council of Europe, securing 94 votes, ahead of rival nominees Jessica Simor QC (47) and parliamentary legal adviser Murray Hunt (17), following interviews and a recommendation by members of the Strasbourg assembly. 

A fluent German speaker who has frequently appeared in international courts, Mr Eicke, studied the English law degree course at Dundee University and German law at Passau University. He was appointed a QC in 2011 and has regularly appeared before the UK Supreme Court and international courts.

He will succeed Paul Mahoney, who reaches the mandatory retiring age of 70 in September.

The UK Government has still to reveal its proposals to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a British Bill of Rights. However to date it has said it does not intend to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights

If the home secretary, Theresa May, has her way, Eicke may have a remarkably short tenure. Last month, May called for the UK to remain in the EU but pull out of the European convention on human rights and the Strasbourg court.

Britain’s record at the ECHR is good, with judges finding relatively few human rights violations. Last year there were only four cases in which violations were recorded. Nine other judgments found no violations and 533 applications were declared inadmissible or struck out.

Simor, a fluent French speaker, is a barrister at Matrix chambers. She became a QC in 2013 and has also appeared for the government and claimants. She represented the Open Rights Group and Privacy International at the European court of justice in Luxembourg this month in a surveillance case against the UK government.

Hunt, the legal adviser to parliament’s joint committee on human rights, is also a distinguished human rights expert. He, like Simor, was a founder of Matrix chambers, when he worked as a barrister, and is a visiting professor at Oxford University’s law faculty.