This essential guide sets out the core legal and procedural issues for developing principled litigation and compliance strategies in human trafficking and modern slavery cases. Bridging disciplines and jurisdictions, it draws on domestic, European, and international frameworks, warning against siloed approaches and advocating cohesive, lawful decision-making.

The codification of slavery, forced labour, servitude, and trafficking is analysed in depth, with clear explanations of how reforms, including the Modern Slavery Act 2015, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Illegal Migration Act 2023, reshape UK law and its relationship with international standards, including evolving ICC jurisprudence. Positive obligations under Article 4 ECHR run throughout, with expert analysis of key developments such as VCL v UK, Begum v SSHD, World Uyghur Congress v NCA and R v Webb & Somerset How.

The Third Edition expands coverage with new chapters on supply chain accountability, transnational corporate remedies, and trauma informed practice. It incorporates novel scholarship and offers practical tools for practitioners and judges managing cases involving victims of exploitation, whether as victims or defendants. Step-by-step guidance includes jury directions, routes to verdict, and identifying victims of trafficking and modern slavery, a frequent point of appellate criticism. Recognised as the practitioner's 'bible', it remains the definitive single-source reference for this complex and evolving field.

This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Immigration and Nationality Law online service.

Philippa Southwell is Managing Director of Southwell & Partners, a leading human rights and criminal law firm. An internationally recognised expert in modern slavery law, she has acted in most leading forced criminality modern slavery cases, including VCL v UK, at all levels up to the European Court of Human Rights. She lectures internationally and gave expert evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee Modern Slavery Inquiry.

Michelle Brewer, a judge and former barrister, has shaped leading trafficking jurisprudence (R v L, Hounga v Allen and VCL v UK). Her analysis of States' positive obligations under Article 4 ECHR underpins this edition's treatment of modern slavery. She trains judges globally for the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and Judicial College.

Ben Douglas-Jones KC is a barrister, Deputy High Court Judge, and Recorder, recognised for trafficking, homicide, and complex fraud. He has appeared in almost all leading trafficking appeals and co-authored guidance underpinning the Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 45. He lectures internationally and writes extensively on modern slavery law.