Felicity Gerry
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Education
Gerry studied undergraduate law at the University of Kingston Upon Thames, earning a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree.[7][8] She attained postgraduate qualification as a barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law, London (Middle Temple) in 1994.[7] She later went onto complete her Masters of Law (LLM) and PhD at Charles Darwin University.[1]
Career
Gerry has appeared in the UK Supreme Court on joint enterprise law and the Australian High Court on rights to second appeal.[9][6] She contributed to the International Bar Association's report on human trafficking, and is a senior anti-human trafficking consultant for Lawyers Without Borders.[2][10][11] She has conducted research and handled cases involving human trafficking and modern slavery.[12][13] In 2015, she assisted in reprieving human trafficking survivor Mary Jane Veloso from execution in Indonesia.[14]
She co-wrote a legal memorandum on due diligence and compliance issues under international law (including modern slavery considerations) regarding the Singapore stock exchange listed Golden City scheme in Myanmar.[15] This memo led to divestment from the scheme.[16]
She is a professor of Legal Practice at Deakin University, where she teaches courses on contemporary international legal challenges, including sanctions law, war crimes, modern slavery, and digital law.[2][17] Gerry has also been appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Salford.[17]
She is a commentator on international legal issues, particularly relating to international crimes, terrorism, and human rights abuses.[18][12][19] She has appeared in a number of documentaries and news stories, including BAFTA nominated, The Cruel Cut, the Foreign Correspondent produced, Mary Jane: The woman who escaped a firing squad, the Logie Award nominated, The Queen & Zak Grieve, and BBC Three's Sex on the Edge.[20][21][22][23] She is also the Editor-in-Chief of ANZSIL Perspective.[24]
Key cases
- Gerry led the appeal before the UK Supreme Court in R v Jogee,[25] in which the court held that the law on joint enterprise had been wrong for three decades.[26]
- Co-counsel for Al Hassan at the International Criminal Court.[27]
- Lead counsel for the Bahtijari defence team at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.[28]
- Led the defence for an accused 'Federation Square bomb plot' at the Supreme Court of Victoria[29] and for a 'terrorist acts' case associated with a fire at a mosque in a Melbourne suburb in 2016.[30]
- Led the team that obtained the first successful petition for mercy in the Northern Territory for young Indigenous man Zak Grieve.[31]
- Led the intervention for Justice on the law on 'subjecthood' in the Shamima Begum appeals.[32]
- Led the submission for reparations for historic slavery in the Cook Islands for Cook Islands lawyer Michelle Tangimama.[33]
Law reform
In 2014 Gerry was part of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales team drafting a report to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Female Genital Mutilation ('FGM'), which contributed to legislative change on FGM law in the United Kingdom.[34][35][36] She is the co-author of the Sexual Offences Handbook: Law, Practice and Procedure, published by Wildy, Simmonds and Hill Publishing in the United Kingdom and has written two reports for LexisNexis on women in prison.[37][38]
She is also leading the campaign for posthumous exoneration of Christine Keeler, who was jailed for nine months in 1963 for a perjury, associated with the Profumo scandal.[39]
In addition to her work in R v Jogee, she has contributed research and advocacy to changing the law on joint enterprise in the United Kingdom, and was a co-drafter of the Joint Enterprise (Significant Contribution) Bill tabled in UK Parliament by Kim Johnson MP in 2023.[40][41][42]