George C. Gebbie
Year of Call: 1987
Starting his career as apprentice to the Crown Agent in 1979, he went on to serve as a Procurator Fiscal Depute in Glasgow from 1981 to 1984 before going into private practice as a solicitor before coming the Bar in 1987.
As well as leading in a number of landmark Scottish cases, Mr. Gebbie has a distinguished international career as an Advocate. Just two examples of this are listed below.
In 2005 in the Affaire: Beauthier; he represented one of the lawyers who had acted for one of the surviving victims in the Marc Dutroux case in Belgium. The issues were novel, complex and difficult. The pleadings he presented, both oral and written, were entirely in French. The case was heard by a bench of 15 judges in Brussels and he was part of a multi-national trans EU defence team that achieved an acquittal for M. Beauthier.
As a Member of The List Counsel of The International Criminal Court, in 2006 he was the first counsel from any United Kingdom Bar to plead before the Court and was the second counsel, from any Bar, to represent “Victims” in the Court, cf: OTP -v- Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. This required advocacy in a then completely unique and novel, hybrid legal system.
When involved in the Lubanga case before the ICC Mr. Gebbie was appointed “English Language Interlocutor” by Members of the List Counsel of the International Court to represent their interests both with the Court and the Assembly of States Parties. This involved collaborating with the “French Language Interlocutor”, the Registry, NGOs and diplomats from the ASP to advance the interests of the Court and its development.
Mr. Gebbie is fluent in English, Swedish and French.
Areas of Practice
Testimonials
Appointments & Memberships
- Member of The List Counsel of The International Criminal Court: 2006 to date.
- In 2021 and 2020 Mr. Gebbie has been a member of the Faculty working group on the Government Autonomous Vehicles Consultation. This relates to legal changes required to address this new and important advance in technology.
Publications
- New Journal of European Criminal Law (NJECL) Scott Crosby – Scotus Europae. 2021, Vol. 12(1) 88-92.
- New Journal of European Criminal Law (NJECL): “Conflict of European Jurisdiction – A Matter of Concurrence.” Special Edition 2009, page 11-16.
Journal of European Criminal Law (JECL): ““Berlusconi” v. “Pupino”: Conflict or Compatibility?” This paper now forms part of the EUR-Lex doctrine on the “Berlusconi” case. It is the only text from a member of Faculty to be so incorporated. 2007, Vol. 1 Issue 3 p.31-37. - European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: ““Trial within a trial” in Scotland and Israel.” Vol. 10, 235-364 (2002).
- 7 Eur. J. Crime Crim. L. & Crim Just.: – ““Not Proven” as a juridical concept in Scotland, Norway and Italy.” Vol. 7 262 (1999).
Selected Cases
HMA -v- Margaret Hughes [2024] HCJAC 19. This was a successful appeal against sentence relating to crimes of cruel and unnatural treatment and assault against children in an institutional selling some fifty years ago. It helped set out the criteria that must be taken into account when considering the appropriate sentence in such cases.
HMA -v- CJB [2019] HCJAC 45. This was a Crown Appeal against sentence, which was successfully defended by Mr. Gebbie and provided clear guidance on the balancing of factors to be done in terms of the sentencing guidelines.
Gubinas (Justinas) -v- HMA [2017] HCJAC 25. This brought before the Court of Appeal an area of uncertainty regarding the use of video evidence and resulted in a full bench being convened to address the matter.
Megrahi v HMA 2007. Mr. Gebbie was counsel for Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary in a Petition arising in the appeal by the man convicted of the Lockerbie Bombing of Pan Am flight 103.
HMA v Samuel Anderson (Lord Carloway, Glasgow High Court unreported) 2006. As lead counsel assisted by a junior, Mr. Gebbie successfully defended a charge of murder on the basis of a defence of necessity. To date this is the only example of a successful defence in a charge of murder in Scotland.
Campbell and Steele v HMA 2004. Mr. Gebbie was lead counsel for the appellant Joseph Steele and successfully overturned what has to date been the worst miscarriage of justice in Scottish Legal History. His pleadings were adopted by the counsel for the co-appellant, Thomas Campbell. This case has entered public awareness as the “Ice Cream Wars” appeal.