Jamie Burton KC

About me

Jamie Burton is a public lawyer with expertise in judicial review and human rights. His main areas of practise are human rights, social and clinical care, housing, social security and actions against the police. He acted in several important cases which challenged central government cuts to public services pursuant to the Equality Act 2010. He regularly appears in the higher courts, including the Supreme Court. Jamie is head of the Doughty Street Community Care and Health Team and is a leading authority on the Care Act 2014. 

Jamie acts for Claimants and Defendants and regularly advises public authorities on their policies and procedures in relation to their statutory and human rights obligations. In addition to his public law work Jamie is also very experienced in private law claims (both in the County and the High Court) in contract, sports law and actions against the police and landlord and tenant. Jamie is also Chair and co-founder of ‘Just Fair’, a registered charity that works exclusively on human rights issues, particularly economic, social and cultural rights. Just Fair has had a significant impact on the public debate on human rights in the UK. It has produced several landmark reports on the housing crisis, food poverty and disability rights. 

Jamie represents Just Fair at the UN and in 2016 he will make submissions to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights about the UK’s compliance with its human rights obligations. Jamie is a member of the Expert Panel of ‘Housing Rights Watch’ - a pan-European think-tank that works on housing and homelessness rights across Europe. It has brought collect complaints to the Council of Europe against France, Netherlands and Ireland. In addition Jamie was invited to sit on UNICEF's Expert Group on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and assisted in the drafting of its landmark 2012 report on domestic incorporation of the Convention. In 2014 he was invited to advice Oxfam on strategic litigation in Bangladesh. In 2009 Jamie spent six months working on welfare and environmental issues in India. He was involved in a group action concerning the largest anti-poverty scheme in the world ("the Right to Food campaign") and assisted in various claims relating to environmental damage caused by mining in south India. For many years Jamie has presented seminars and given lectures on human rights law and judicial review and is an experienced public speaker. In the last 12 months he has been invited to speak about human rights at conferences organised by Lawyers Without Borders, The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Public Law Project, Housing Rights Watch, FEANSTA, SOAS and the International Commission of Jurists. He has written on human rights, public and housing law. Most recently he co-authored "Children in Need", published by LAG.