Shanthi Sivakumaran

Practice Areas

Inquests and Public Inquiries

Immigration

Administrative & Public Law

International Law

International Criminal Law

Immigration Detention Group

Career

Shanthi has an established public law and human rights practice; she has been instructed in major public inquiries and inquests and related civil actions. Prior instructions include the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Undercover Policing Inquiry and the Covid-19 Inquiry. She also acts in civil claims, including claims arising from violations of the human rights act, against public law authorities. Shanthi has a particular interest in public law challenges to government policies affecting the most vulnerable communities.

Shanthi’s related international law practice has focused on securing accountability for grave human rights violations through creative use of national and international mechanisms.

Shanthi’s practice has been informed by her experience working with local community groups in the UK and internationally. Before coming to the Bar, Shanthi worked in international human rights. She was regularly invited as a panel speaker on human rights and development by UN Agencies and International NGOs and has spoken at events held in Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Switzerland and Vietnam.

Professional Memberships

Administration Law Practitioners Association

Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association

Inquest Lawyers Group

Bar Human Rights Committee

Publications

UKLGIG, Still Falling Short, The standard of Home Office decision making in asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity (2018)

Human Rights Lawyers Association Journal, The Year of Reckoning of the International Criminal Court (2015) 1 YHRL (2015)

TRIAL, FIDH, ECCHR, Make Way for Justice: Universal Jurisdiction Annual Review 2015 (contributor) (2015)

Industry Sector Expertise

Public Inquiries and Inquests

Shanthi specialises in public inquiries and inquests. She has been instructed as Counsel to Inquiry and on behalf of core participants in major public inquiries of national importance. She is adept at analysing large bodies of evidence and cutting through to the key issues.

She was instructed as junior counsel to the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry. She maintained a key role supporting lead counsel in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Inquiry.

She is currently instructed as junior counsel to Category F Core Participants (families of deceased children whose identities were stolen), several Category H core participants (women deceived into sexual relationships) and a child born of a relationship with an undercover officer in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Shanthi represents the Long Covid Groups in multiple modules of the Covid-19 Public Inquiry.

Shanthi is regularly instructed on behalf of bereaved families in Article 2 jury inquests. She has experience in deaths in prison custody, psychiatric detention and following police contact.

Shanthi is known for her collaborative approach to working with instructing solicitors and clients.

Administrative and Public Law

Shanthi has a broad public law and human rights practice. She advises on merits of judicial review, procedure and costs risks. She is adept at identifying innovative means to advance a case and raise issues in the context of strategic litigation.

Drawing on previous experience in the field, she has advised on cases raising issues related to immigration and asylum law. She has a particular interest in challenging unjustified discrimination in Home Office policies affecting vulnerable migrant communities. In 2017, Shanthi was instructed as Junior Counsel in the landmark High Court challenge to the policy of removing EEA nationals for rough sleeping R (oao Gureckis & ors) v SSHD [2017] EWHC 3298 (Admin).

Drawing on her background working with a broad range of civil society organisations, she understands community organisers and activist groups and is able to advise them on potential public law challenges to policies affecting their communities.

International Law

She has advised on cases ranging from the application of universal jurisdiction principles in potential prosecutions for war crimes, to complaints to UN Special Rapporteurs to challenging the proscription of organisations before the Proscribed Organisation Appeals Commission. She has extensive knowledge of the law on diplomatic immunity and can advise on cases raising these issues. She also has experience of international criminal tribunals following a placement with the Defence Team for Mustafa Baddredine, the former military leader of Hezbollah, at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Shanthi works creatively to use national and international mechanisms in order to secure accountability and redress for victims of grave human rights violations.

She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC).

Previous instructions include:

Led by Peter Haynes KC in one of the few appeals to have reached the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC) challenging the ongoing proscription of the LTTE. Arumugam & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department Appeal No: PC/06/2022.

Instructed by Public Interest Law Centre to advise Tamil Information Centre on the prospects of a prosecution for war crimes committed by Keenie-Meenie Services (KMS), British mercenaries, in Sri Lanka during the civil war. She drafted a complaint on behalf of Tamil Information Centre to the Metropolitan Polices Service (MPS) inviting them to open an investigation into KMS. Following receipt of the complaint, the MPS moved their scoping exercise into a full investigation.

Led by Peter Carter KC in the private prosecution of Brigadier Fernando, a former Sri Lankan Defence Attaché, for threatening protestors outside the Sri Lankan Embassy in the United Kingdom. This is a seminal case considering residual diplomatic immunity in the criminal jurisdiction. Fernando v Sathananthan [2021] EWHC 652 (Admin)

Co-drafted submissions on behalf of an NGO to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the arrest and detention of a politician in an East African Country.

Co-drafted submissions to the UN Human Rights Committee on Civil and Political Rights regarding the independence of the legal and judicial profession in Zimbabwe.

Actions Against the Police and Public Authorities

Shanthi regularly advises claimants in civil claims against the police, prisons and the home office. She also has experience pursuing claims for damages under the Human Rights Act 1998. In relation to claims against the police, she has advised in claims concerning police assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office.

She is currently instructed in civil claims against the police related to conduct being investigated in the Undercover policing inquiry. She represents the families of deceased children whose identities were appropriated by undercover officers, led by Jude Bunting KC.

Experience

Shanthi has experience delivering workshops to civil society in Africa and Asia and is happy to discuss delivering bespoke in-house training or workshops.

Languages Spoken

French

Education