Dr Bharat Malkani

Lecturer

Birmingham Law School

Photo of Dr Bharat Malkani

Contact details

Telephone +44 (0)121 414 6315

Fax +44 (0)121 414 3585

Email b.malkani@bham.ac.uk

Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
United Kingdom

About

Dr Malkani researches and teaches in the fields of human rights and criminal justice. He is  the Co-ordinator of Birmingham Law School’s Pro Bono Group, which he established in 2009. The Pro Bono Group provides free legal services for the local community, and enables students to gain experience of the law in practice, to complement their studies.

Feedback & office hours:

My office hours for this semester will be Mondays 1-2pm and 4-5pm.

Outside of these times, or outside term time, please email me for an appointment.

Qualifications

  • LLB (Bristol)
  • LLM (Nottingham)
  • PhD (Bristol)

Biography

Bharat Malkani joined Birmingham Law School in September 2008 whilst completing his doctorate at the University of Bristol, which he completed in 2009. Prior to commencing his PhD, Bharat worked at the American Bar Association (Juvenile Justice Center) in Washington DC, where he helped co-ordinate an ultimately successful national campaign to have the death penalty for juvenile offenders abolished in the United States of America. He authored an amici curiae brief on the relevance of international human rights law to the interpretation of the US Constitution, which was cited by the US Supreme Court when abolishing the death penalty for juvenile offenders in Roper v. Simmons (2005). While at Bristol, Bharat helped set up the first Innocence Project in the UK, which enables students to research and investigate claims of miscarriages of justice.

Teaching

  • Human Rights & Criminal Justice (LLB and LLM, module leader)
  • International Human Rights Law (LLB and LLM, module leader)
  • Sentencing and Penal Policy (LLM)
  • Criminal law (LLB)

Postgraduate supervision

  • Human Rights Law
  • International Law
  • Criminal Law

Current doctoral supervision

Dr Malkani is currently supervising one doctoral student undertaking research in the following area:

  • Environmental philosophy in international law: a study of environmental philosophical perspectives in decisions of the ICJ

Research

Bharat Malkani is broadly interested in the relationship between international human rights law and domestic law, which was the subject of his doctoral thesis. He focuses in particular on the impact that human rights law has had on the domestic criminal justice system.

In February 2012 Dr Malkani recorded a podcast with the University of Birmingham Ideaslab on the topic of Human Rights: noble concept or a shield for terrorists?

Other activities

  • Bharat is currently the Pro Bono Coordinator at Birmingham Law School

Publications

Chapters in Books

  •  'The Judicial Use of International and Foreign Law in Death Penalty Cases: A Poisoned Chalice?' in Austin Sarat (ed.) Is the Death Penalty Dying? (Volume 42 Studies in Law, Politics and Society, Elsevier: Oxford 2008)

Articles

  • 'The Obligation to Refrain from Assisting the Use of the Death Penalty' International and Comparative Law Quarterly (forthcoming, 2013)
  • 'Sentencing children who kill: one giant leap for the US Supreme Court, one small step for international human rights law' (2012) 12 Human Rights Law Review 801-813
  • 'A rights-specific approach to section 2 of the Human Rights Act' (2012) 5 European Human Rights Law Review 516-528
  • 'Human rights treaties in the English legal system' [2011] Public Law 554-577
  • 'Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the decision to prosecute' (2011) 12 Criminal Law Review 943-956

Expertise

Human rights and criminal justice, with particular focus on the death penalty;  the relationship between international human rights law and domestic law.

Expertise

Human rights and criminal justice, with particular focus on the death penalty; the relationship between international human rights law and domestic law

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