Amal Clooney: Five more cases for the energetic barrister

Marriage to a Hollywood movie star does not seem to have distracted Amal Clooney from her work as a human rights barrister. The high-profile cases just keep coming.

She weighed in on the Elgin Marbles controversy just a month after marrying George Clooney in Italy and also represents one of three al-Jazeera journalists detained in Cairo.

And now it has emerged that she will be representing Armenia against a Turkish politician who is appealing against his conviction for denying the 1915 Armenian genocide ever happened.

Her expertise in extradition, humanitarian and human rights law puts her at the centre of some of the world's most high-profile cases - representing Julian Assange against Sweden's attempts to send him for trial there, for example. So what other cases might she take up?

Putin's Russia

Mrs Clooney has apparently briefed Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, on proposals for fresh sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime. She discussed implementing a "Magnitsky law", named after a Russian accountant who died after months of brutal beatings in prison. His "crime" was to blow the whistle on corrupt state officials. The US adopted a law banning 34 public officials involved in Mr Magnitsky's prosecution and death from entering the country and campaigners want the UK to do likewise.

Drones

Mrs Clooney has already been involved in a United Nations investigation into the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and their role in targeted killing during counter-terrorism operations. At a time when the use of drones in conflict is expanding ever more rapidly, and critics warn their deadly force is not properly regulated, could she perhaps have a part to play in drawing up a new legal framework?

Northern Nigeria

The International Criminal Court is looking at Nigeria's Boko Haram problem with a view to opening a full-blown investigation. There seems little doubt the violent jihadists have committed crimes against humanity, but the question is whether the Nigerian government is doing everything necessary to bring criminals to justice, or whether President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, is content to let things fester so that insecurity prevents northern Muslims getting to the polls next month.

Israel and the Palestinian Territories

Mrs Clooney has already had a chance to get her teeth into this one. Last year the United Nations announced she was joining a commission of inquiry set up to look at - among other things - violations of humanitarian law committed by Israeli armed forces during Operation Protect Edge in Gaza. Within hours Mrs Clooney had turned the job down. She said she had never agreed, but could it be that such a controversial topic might not sit well with voters if her husband made a run for office?

Darfur

It is seven years since President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan was charged by the ICC with crimes against humanity. The conflict that erupted in 2003 rumbles on with little end in sight. At the end of last year the ICC admitted it was getting nowhere and was having to shelve its prosecution for now. The signs are that 2015 will be another bloody year, with reports already of tens of thousands forced to flee violence. It was her husband's pet project until he realised just how hard it was to solve. Might his missus have more success?