A global reach

Debating military action in Iraq, EU law, human rights, and formulating policy is all in a day's work for in-house lawyers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Victoria MacCallum meets the 25-strong legal team

In these dark days of looming international conflicts, the role of the lawyer in foreign policy is more vital than ever.

The advice of a government lawyer can make the difference between war and peace - and can decide whether a country is operating within the boundaries of international law, or whether it will some day find itself hauled before an international court.

For the legal advisers to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), such high-level issues form part of their day-to-day work.

Michael Wood is head of the 25-strong team of FCO legal advisers based in London (seven more at any one time are posted abroad and one is seconded to the Attorney-General's office), who deal with the gamut of international legal affairs - from the everyday to the epoch making - from the imperial splendour of their Whitehall offices.

The department covers five main areas of law; firstly, public international law - which is, according to Mr Wood, 'our great specialism'.

'This area includes the use of force, the law of armed conflict, and issues to do with the United Nations,' he says.

'International criminal law has developed hugely in the past ten years with the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals.'

On the legality or not of proposed military action in Iraq, Mr Wood declines to comment, except to say that 'it is an issue being dealt with in this office'.

The lawyers have been involved with a host of international public law issues, ranging from the trial and attempted deportation of former Chilean dictator General Pinochet, to more routine issues such as the law of the sea.

'Maritime law is always a busy area - for example, with our Caribbean territories there are issues about boundary delineations at sea.

Closer to home, we have dealt with the problems in recent weeks about unsafe ships and the extent to which states can or should control them,' he says.

The second main area of work is European Union (EU) law.

Although, by definition, all government departments are involved to a degree with EU issues, the FCO deals with more institutional matters, such as the development of new treaties.

At the moment, for example, FCO lawyers in Brussels are heavily involved with drafting the accession treaty for the ten states that are scheduled to join the EU, and also in the 'future of Europe' debate.

'Human rights law is also a busy area for us,' says Mr Wood.

'We act as the government's representative in all cases brought against it in Strasbourg, which number about 200 at any one time.'

Although barristers are hired to do much of this work, the FCO team acts as the agent in the case, controlling its progress, signing all documents and being present at any court hearings.

The fourth area of work is domestic law: as with any large organisation, the lawyers have to deal with issues such as data protection, employment law and potential defamation suits.

The final area of work is one that Mr Wood says many people overlook.

'The FCO is ultimately responsible for the good governance of around 13 British overseas territories, from the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar to the tiny territory of Pitcairn in the Pacific.'

Although the territories are largely self-governing, the FCO has to ensure that its constitutions are in good order, that they are following proper procedures, and that they have good legal systems.

'This work takes up a lot of our time, as all the territories are very different and have very specialised issues,' he explains.

Dealing with these areas, of course, necessitates a fair amount of travel for the lawyers, and language skills are vital - fluency in French is highly desirable, and anything else is a bonus.

Along with the frequent trips abroad to meetings and conferences, the lawyers are also expected to fulfil two three-year postings to cities such as Geneva or New York for UN work, Brussels for EU issues, and shortly also The Hague, to deal with work arising from the ICC.

During his 30 years at the FCO - he joined straight after being called to the bar - Mr Wood has been involved in a dazzling number of notable international conferences.

'After attending the 1979 Lancaster House conference on Rhodesia, which drafted Zimbabwe's constitution, I spent three months in Harare just before independence as one of [Rhodesia's governor] Lord Soames' two legal advisers.'

He was 'similarly involved' with drafting the post-Pol Pot peace settlement in Cambodia, and spent three weeks at the Dayton peace accords conference in 1995, which ended part of the Bosnian conflict.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the FCO always had a legal presence in both Berlin and Bonn, and Mr Wood - who was in Germany for three years - helped negotiate the historic treaty to unite Germany.

'It was incredibly interesting, as you had the UK, the US, the USSR and France (the four powers), and the two German states, all essentially ending the Second World War in 1990.'

The heavy involvement of lawyers in formulating policy is something which Mr Wood is keen to stress.

'We are members of the diplomatic service rather than the Government Legal Service,' he says.

'The legal team works closely with diplomats and ministers in the development and drafting of policy, and we negotiate both at an international level - such as at the UN - and we work closely with other government departments.'

For example, they work with the Department of Transport on air services agreements and often advise the Home Office on particularly tricky refugee or asylum issues.

Legal counsellor Huw Llewellyn - whose job is the department's third most senior level - is particularly involved at the moment with negotiating a UN protocol on reducing the risks of explosive remnants of war: unexploded cluster bombs and other munitions, which endanger civilians.

Much of his work concerns international treaties on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and he agrees that this aspect of the job is one of the most interesting.

'I joined the FCO from private practice 15 years ago.

This job is fascinating, not only because of the huge variety of advisory work involved, but also because we're involved with negotiating international treaties and thereby helping to create new international law,' he says.

Variety is certainly a major factor of the job.

Each legal adviser is assigned a certain number of 'client' FCO departments, which may include geographical departments, or 'subject' departments, such as the United Nations department or human rights department.

When an international crisis blows up unexpectedly in a certain department, the designated legal adviser is expected to work across a range of issues.

'You can be working on one issue in the morning, and then something completely different will come along in the afternoon, which you may have very little experience in,' says assistant legal adviser Hazel Cameron.

'Going from EU law to, say, UN work in the space of a day means thinking about law in a very different way and in different contexts.

It makes the days fly by, but you have to be able to cope with competing pressures from the different departments you advise.'

Ms Cameron, who has been at the FCO for slightly more than two years, qualified as a solicitor in Scotland and joined from private practice there.

'I've always been interested in international law, working out how to fulfil a country's international obligations at a high level, and you can't really do public international law for anyone other than the government.'

Even at the relatively junior position of assistant legal adviser, big issues in foreign affairs have an impact on everyday work.

Assistant legal adviser Helen Upton recalls: 'For example, there were many interesting issues arising from the conflict in Afghanistan, such as advising on the re-designation of the British embassy in Kabul and the renewal of diplomatic relations.'

Ms Upton, a barrister, spent part of her pupillage in private practice and part in the Department of Health before joining the FCO two years ago.

She says an interest in public international law is hard to fulfil in private practice.

'This is such a specialised area that this is really the only place for it,' she says.

'Here, you have to be interested more generally in international issues - not just international law, but how the UK fits into the rest of the world.'

Along with an international outlook, another vital characteristic for an FCO lawyer is, of course, academic aptitude.

The legal advisers have close links with the academic community.

For example, many of the barristers they use to represent the government are professors of law, and every year they organise a seminar at their offices for 70 to 80 legal academics.

'Much of this work is at the interface between academia and practice.

You are often advising on the practical implications of academic principles,' explains Andrew Cannon, another assistant legal adviser.

He completed his training contract at City firm Herbert Smith, and joined the office just under two years ago after working at the UN for two months and catching the international law bug.

'The work here has both an international level and a political level - you become immersed in the issues,' he says.

And that appears to be the attraction of the department: the chance to become involved with big issues at a high level.

However, with power comes responsibility, as Mr Wood freely admits: 'We have to be very careful with our work here - when we say or do something on an international level, we are setting a precedent that can change the law, and if we can do it, other countries can do it too.'

This is a work environment where 'office politics' takes on a new meaning - and the stakes are never higher than when war is brewing.