Edward Craven

Eddie joined Matrix as a member upon successful completion of his traineeship in 2011. He has a broad practice in all areas of public, media, criminal, commercial and international law.
 
Eddie has a broad public law and human rights practice. He has acted in a number of high profile Human Rights Act claims and judicial reviews including:

• Beghal v Director of Public Prosecutions (Supreme Court appeal concerning ECHR compatibility of Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000)
• Smith v Ministry of Defence (Supreme Court appeal concerning extra-territorial application of the ECHR)
• R (Miranda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (challenge to lawfulness of detention and seizure of journalistic material under Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000)
• Liberty v GCHQ and Security and Intelligence Services (challenge before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal concerning the legality of mass telecommunications interceptions under RIPA)
• Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Defence (judicial review and Human Rights Act claims concerning unlawful detention, torture and rendition in Iraq and Afghanistan)
• R (Duggan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Article 2 challenge to the lawfulness of post-incident conferring by police officers)
• SXH v Crown Prosecution Service (Court of Appeal HRA claim concerning application of Article 8 to prosecution of refugees)
• Privacy International v HMRC (challenge to HMRC's refusal to disclose information about investigation into alleged unlawful export of spyware to repressive regimes)
• R (Bailey) v Brent LBC (Equality Act challenge to the closure of public libraries)

 Eddie is a former Lecturer in Administrative Law and European Human Rights Law at Oxford University. He currently teaches on surveillance and fair trial issues on the postgraduate BCL course. Before joining Matrix, he spent several months working as a Stagiaire at the European Court of Human Rights.

Eddie practises in all aspects of media and information law. Legal 500 notes that he is “Recommended for data protection, copyright, contempt of court and Official Secrets Act matters.” Chambers & Partners notes he is “an acknowledged expert on media law” and is “Moving rapidly into the spotlight as an up-and-coming individual in the field due to his work for claimants in the phone hacking litigation, as well as his efforts in High Court libel cases.” He is currently instructed as one of five common costs counsel in the phone hacking litigation and as independent counsel in the NGN Compensation Scheme. He has represented a large number of clients in relation to claims arising out of Operations Weeting and Pinetree (unlawful voicemail interception) and Operation Elveden (payment of corrupt public officials). Eddie also provides regular pre-publication advice to The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, Sunday Times and BBC News.

 In addition to his civil work, Eddie has a broad criminal practice with a particular focus on proceeds of crime, white-collar fraud and money laundering offences, and cases with an international or corporate dimension. He has been instructed for the defence in fraud and corruption prosecutions and advised a large investment bank on LIBOR fixing investigations. Eddie is a contributing editor to Human Rights and Criminal Justice (3rd Ed, Sweet & Maxwell); Smith, Bodnar and Owen on Asset Recovery, Criminal Confiscation and Civil Recovery (OUP, 2nd Ed); and Montgomery and Ormerod on Fraud: Criminal Law and Procedure.

Eddie practices in both public and private international law. He is currently instructed by the Republic of Croatia in proceedings before the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention and by a Nigerian community in an action in the High Court against Shell Nigeria concerning extensive pollution of the Niger Delta. He has experience of international commercial claims and acts as an ad hoc clerk for the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Eddie also acts as an international trial observer on behalf of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. 

In 2011/2012 Eddie spent a year as judicial assistant to Lord Clarke at the United Kingdom Supreme Court. Prior to this, Eddie spent nine months as a judicial assistant to Lady Justice Arden at the Court of Appeal. Before joining the bar Eddie worked as a legal assistant to Lord Rothschild, helping to oversee a large international trust restructuring operation.

Eddie holds a first class undergraduate law degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. He undertook the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law where he was graded ‘Outstanding’ and received the Everard Ver Heyden Foundation Prize for finishing in the top 5 in his year. Eddie later read for the Bachelor of Civil Law at Brasenose College, Oxford University, specialising in criminal justice, unjust enrichment and comparative public law. He received Distinctions in all subjects and won the Ralph Chiles CBE Prize for comparative human rights law. Eddie was awarded a Sunley Scholarship, Eastham Scholarship, Hardwicke Award and Buchanan Prize by Lincoln’s Inn.

Eddie accepts instructions under the Bar Council Standard Contractual Terms, details of which can be found here.

Contact

• Telephone: 020 7404 3447
• E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Website: matrixlaw.co.uk