Jonathan Cooper is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. Prior to returning to full time practise at the Bar, Jonathan was Assistant Director of JUSTICE. He has taken several cases to the European Court of Human Rights and written numerous publications on human rights topics. He is the editor of the European Human Rights Law Review (Sweet & Maxwell) and co-editor of; Legislating for Human Rights, a guide to the Parliamentary Debates on the Human Rights Act 1998 (Hart Publications); Understanding Human Rights Principles (Hart Publications) and Delivering Rights (Hart Publications).

Jonathan has been instrumental in training public authorities and lawyers in the UK on the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 and was responsible for devising and carrying out human rights training for various government departments, including the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and what is now the Department for Constitutional Affairs. He has also trained a number of public bodies including all the equality commissions and the Information Commissioner. He is often asked to train judges and lawyers in human rights principles in other jurisdictions. These have included Serbia, Croatia, Albania, and the Gambia. He also prepared, with the Slynn Foundation, a training programme for the Lithuanian judiciary.

Jonathan recently devised for the Council of Europe a human rights training programme for the Turkish Ministry of Justice, which is designed to train the Turkish judiciary and public prosecutors in human rights.

He is the Director of the Human Rights Programme for the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals (UCL) and a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Human Rights Lawyers’ Association. He is also a member of the FCO’s rule of law panel.