Dr Christina Lienen

Christina was called to the Bar in 2019 as a Queen Mother and Jules Thorn Scholar by Middle Temple. She holds a PhD in Constitutional Law from University College London, where she also held a position as Teaching Fellow in Public Law.

Christina's work on constitutional law and judicial reasoning in human rights adjudication has been published in high-profile peer-reviewed journals, see for example "Judicial Constitutional Comparativism at the UK Supreme Court" (2019) 39(1) Legal Studies 166-182, and "Common Law Constitutional Rights Jurisprudence: Public Law at a Crossroads?" [2018] Public Law 649-667.

She is trained as a qualified mediator - recognised by the Civil Mediation Council and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators - and is currently completing her mandatory observations to obtain full accreditation, having attended one clinical negligence mediation in February.

During her pupillage, Christina has gained significant drafting experience, including the following:

• Drafted a skeleton argument opposing renewal of a judicial review human rights challenge under the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
• Drafted a reply in the First-tier Tribunal in the context of an appeal concerning various exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act
• Drafted a skeleton argument for a summary application hearing in a commercial dispute involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties and an unlawful means conspiracy.
• Drafted a judicial review pre-action protocol letter, statement of facts and grounds and a reply in a judicial review application challenging the grant of planning permission, including a reasons challenge and climate change grounds.
• Drafted part of a planning closing statement, focusing on heritage aspects.
• Drafted advices/opinions in a number of data protection cases, including on data access requests to government bodies and inter-jurisdictional processor/controller responsibilities as well as one opinion on civil causes of action and injunctive relief in the context of illegal hunting.
• Contributed to an advice to the Equality and Human Rights Commission on their draft submissions to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the UK's compliance with the rights to privacy, freedom of expression and association under the ICCPR.

She has also produced several research notes and reviewed statements of case for a public sector equality duty judicial review defence.

Prior to obtaining her doctorate, Christina read for an MJur at the University of Oxford (Distinction), where she was awarded the Clifford Chance Proxime Accessit Prize for being ranked second in her year.

She has previously volunteered with Citizens Advice and Oxford Pro Bono Publico, and is now taking on pro bono cases as an Advocate volunteer.