Mr. Bright Theu

Head of Department, Practice Legal Skills, Chancellor College, University of Malawi

Mr. Bright Theu is an advocate in private practice and a member of the Malawi Bar. He is also a law lecturer at the University of Malawi’s Law Faculty at Chancellor College where he also heads the Department of Practical Legal Studies. Mr. Theu has special expertise in human rights law, practical legal education, and litigation with a bias in public law. Mr. Theu’s litigation advocacy, research and analytic skills and experience suit him to handle litigation and advisory services in a wide range of themes in public law, including themes in human rights, environmental law, among others. His standing as an advocate boasts of a combination of 10 years of international and domestic legal work. He has both litigated for and provided legal expert support drafting decisions of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on complaints lodged against African States. He litigated the case of Saif al-islam Gaddafi v Libya in which the ACHPR obtained its first merit judgment from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Mr. Theu also conceptualised and drew up the strategy for the litigation in IHRDA v Malawi before the ACERWC, settled amicably, as a result of which the Republic of Malawi amended its Constitution raising the age of childhood from 16 to 18 years. Mr. Theu holds an LL.M. in Human Rights and Democratisation in African obtained from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Malawi.