Robert Clarke specializes in religious freedom issues and cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as leading ADF International’s advocacy team around the world in defence of life, family, and religious freedom. Prior to joining ADF International, Clarke prosecuted cases of medical misconduct for a healthcare regulator in London. He qualified as a barrister in London, specializing in criminal and regulatory law.

During his time at ADF International, Clarke has been involved in cases before the UK Supreme Court and more than 20 before Europe’s highest human rights court, the European Court of Human Rights, which has jurisdiction over 46 countries. These cases include Mortier v. Belgium, challenging Belgium’s liberal euthanasia laws – which resulted in a finding of a violation of the right to life, and Tonchev v. Bulgaria, in which the Court found that Bulgaria had violated the right to religious freedom after distributing ‘educational’ fliers to citizens describing the evangelical church as a ‘dangerous sect’.

Clarke earned his LLB with American law from the University of Nottingham with honours in 2012, having also been selected to spend one year at the University of Virginia School of Law. He completed the Bar Professional Training Course at Nottingham Law School. Clarke participated in the ADF leadership development program to become a Blackstone Fellow in 2012. As a barrister, he is admitted to the Bar of England and Wales.

Clarke is also the editor of a book, The ‘Conscience of Europe?’: Navigating Shifting Tides at the European Court of Human Rights (Kairos, 2017), and the author of a chapter in the publication, ‘Religious Beliefs and Conscientious Exemptions in a Liberal State’ (Hart, 2019).