John Macdonald is a well known human rights lawyer who has also practised continuously at the Chancery Bar since 1957. He made his name in the Ocean Island case in the mid seventies, which examined fifty years of British Colonial history. Today he divides his time between complex commercial and property litigation, constitutional and human rights disputes, and judicial review. His extensive knowledge of the ways of government at all levels and his great experience as a trial advocate are used across the whole field of public law, as well as covering real property, civil fraud, misfeasance in public office, insolvency, shareholder disputes, professional negligence and probate. His international practice has taken him to Antigua, Nevis, The United States, Hong Kong, Russia, Fiji, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. He has appeared in three leading cases on article 6 at the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and he is the co-author of the practitioner’s book Macdonald and Jones: The Law of Freedom of Information.

John Macdonald is a skilful cross examiner, who is at his best in court, but is also in demand as a negotiator who knows how the worlds of business and politics inter-connect. He works well with people and is an ideal team leader.

Written Constitutions
As early as 1969 John Macdonald drafted a Bill of Rights for the United Kingdom which was adopted by the Liberal Party Annual Assembly and introduced into the House of Commons by Emlyn Hooson MP on 22 July 1969 and debated in the House of Lords on a motion put by Lord Wade.

In 1990 John Macdonald drafted a written constitution for the United Kingdom which was published by the Liberal Democrats as part of the federal green paper “We the People”. John Macdonald revised this in 1993. In 1996-7 he was a member of the joint consultative committee on Constitutional Reform under the chairmanship of Robin Cook and Robert Maclennan whose report set out the agreement between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Parties on constitutional reform. John Macdonald will be delivering a lecture “Towards a written constitution” in response to the Government’s 2007 Green Paper The Governance of Britain (cmd 7170) in Lincoln’s Inn in November 2007.