Our People

Rajesh K. Rai (1993)

Teams

Crime, Immigration, Public Law & Judicial Review

Profile

Rajesh was called to the Bar in 1993 and his areas of expertise include Crime, Public Law, Immigration & Asylum, Humanitarian Law (both domestic and international) and Community Law.

His Immigration practice includes immigration offences both in the Civil and Criminal Courts, business immigration and advice/ appeals on Tiers 1-4 of the Points Based System.

Rajesh has extensive hands-on experience in humanitarian and environmental issues, working with NGOs, on cooperative and company law and international affairs. This has given him a unique insight into his practice as a Barrister in these specialist fields of law.

He has been a director of The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and is a director and treasurer of the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP).

Rajesh is a founder director of HIC, an NGO based in Cameroon, and founding director of a company promoting land and community regeneration programmes internationally.

He has lectured on CPD accredited courses for chambers and JCWI. He also lectures internationally on a wide variety of legal issues for the KHRP and BHRC including Freedom of Expression (to the Bar of Armenia), Enforcement of European Court Judgments (to Human Rights organisation in Turkey) and Women's Rights (Cross Border conference in South East Turkey to NGO's working in Kurdish regions).

More recently Rajesh has concentrated his efforts on community and social regeneration programmes. This has been reflected in lectures delivered which included Rajesh chairing and delivered lectures in India during the Kumbh Mela on "Energy Farming" (2007) in Africa and Asia, in the USA on "Ethical enterprise and holistic trusteeship of people and land" (2008) and "Spirituality today: shared benefits and shared responsibilities" (2009).

Publications

Rajesh was a contributor to the 1998 edition of the JCWI Handbook on Immigration and Asylum Law.

He has conducted a number of international trial observations in the last ten years in regions such as Turkey, Tunisia and Armenia and has had a number of reports published. They include "Publishers on trial: Freedom of expression in Turkey in the context of EU Accession", "Trial observation: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association - Unfair trials in Tunisia".

More recently Rajesh travelled to South East Turkey to report on the ongoing issue with Ilisu Dam.

Rajesh has also developed models promoting community and environmental regeneration programmes. He is the founding director of "HI Community Centre" based in Cameroon and soon to be deployed in Sub Sahara Africa and the Americas and Human Energy (Uganda) Ltd.

Notable cases

Rajesh's reported cases include:

R v Daniel (Anthony Junior) (CA) [1998] 2 Cr App R 373, Times Law Reports 10 April 1998
Right to silence in criminal proceedings and proper directions to be given by judge to jury.

R v SSHD ex parte Gloszczuk (ECJ) [2001] 3 CMLR 46 C-63/99
Leading case on rights of establishment of businesses pursuant to Association Agreements with EC, this was heard before the Grand Committee of the ECJ.

Stepenyan v Armenia (EctHR) (45081/04) (2009)
Dealing with infringements to the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a KHRP assisted case in which Rajesh led on submissions.

Interests

Eastern philosophy, Yoga, Sanskrit and my vegetable garden.