Publications
Tatyana regularly participates in seminars and conferences on current issues in public international law, international criminal law, and international human rights law, and has guest lectured on international law and the use of force and on terrorism at the University of Southern California (USA).
Publications:
• Yazidi Justice Committee, ‘State responsibility and the Yazidi genocide’, (co-author), 6 July 2022.
• International Law Association (British Branch) Spring Conference, ‘Synergy Between the Law of Treaties and the Law of International Responsibility: So Far Apart but Still So Close’, 23 April 2021.
• European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group on International Justice, Journal of International Criminal Justice, ‘Torture by Non-State Actors: Rationale(s), Legal Frameworks and Implications’, 30 March 2021.
• Hostage Aid Worldwide, Launch Event: Issues related to State Sponsored Hostage Taking, 4 March 2021.
• CREID and Refcemi, ‘Religious Inequalities as “Conditions of Life Calculated to Bring about the Physical Destruction in Whole or in Part” Deliberately Inflicted on Religious Minority Groups’, 25 February 2021.
• The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Uyghurs, Coalition for Genocide and René Cassin, ‘Addressing the Many Faces of Complicity in Genocide’, 4 February 2021.
• ‘Rebel governors in areas of limited statehood: State responsibility and “agents of necessity”’ in Hamid, L. and Wouters, J. (eds.), Rule of Law and Areas of Limited Statehood (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021).
Industry Sector Expertise
Public international law and human rights
Tatyana advises States, individuals, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations on a wide range of public international law and international human rights law issues that include consular access and diplomatic protection; media freedom and the protection of journalists; arbitrary detention; extra-judicial killing; extraordinary rendition; the right to a fair trial; terrorism and armed conflict; torture; gender-based violence; sanctions; self-determination; state responsibility; and the extra-territorial application of human rights treaties.
Tatyana advises and represents individuals and organisations before treaty-based and regional human rights complaint procedures, including the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, and the UN Committee against Torture, as well as on engagement with the UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures.
Tatyana has advised and represented high net-worth individuals based in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa on matters relating to allegations of sanctions-busting, corruption and money laundering, the freezing and seizure of assets, and related human rights, security, and reputational management concerns.
Key cases include:
International law in the domestic courts
• Barnett LBC v AG (a child) [2022] EWCA Civ 1505, diplomatic immunity, child protection, torture and inhuman treatment (Article 3 ECHR).
• R (Kanu) v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs [2023] EWCA Civ 796, extraordinary rendition, diplomatic protection, foreign affairs.
• R v Reeves Taylor [2019] UKSC 51, on the definition of torture as provided by Art. 1 of the UN Convention against Torture and section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988
• R v Gul [2013] UKSC 64, on the scope of the definition of terrorism in situations of armed conflict.
Arbitrary detention, extraordinary rendition, and State hostage-taking
• Re. Jimmy Lai, British citizen, prominent pro-democracy activist and publisher, arbitrarily detained in Hong Kong.
• Re. Peter and Barbie Reynolds, British citizens arbitrarily detained in Afghanistan. Mr and Mrs Reynolds were released on 19 September 2025.
• Re. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe- Instructed by the human rights NGO REDRESS, worked to secure release of British-Iranian citizen arbitrarily detained in Iran from 2016 to 2022. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released on 16 March 2022.
• Re. Nizar Zakka, Lebanese citizen and US permanent resident arbitrarily detained in Iran. Mr Zakka was released on 11 June 2019.
Justice and accountability for human rights violations and crimes against journalists
• Re. Jimmy Lai, British citizen, prominent pro-democracy activist and publisher, imprisoned in Hong Kong
• RE. Issam Abdallah, Lebanese videographer and journalist killed by in southern Lebanon by Israeli tank-fire on 13 October 2023.
• Re. Palestinian journalists - Since December 2020, acts on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate in their engagement with international human rights mechanisms in seeking justice and accountability for war crimes and human rights violations committed against journalists in Palestine.
• Re. Shireen Abu Akleh, Ali Samoudi, and Shatha Hanaysha, complaints to the International Criminal Court and UN Commission of Inquiry on behalf of Palestinian journalists targeted and killed or seriously injured whilst reporting in Palestine.
• Re. Anton Hammerl, acting on behalf of the family of dual Austrian-South African citizen, UK resident, and photojournalist in seeking justice and accountability for his killing and disappearance in Libya, April 2011
• Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman v Pakistan, complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the unlawful detention of prominent media owner.
• Re. Christopher Allen, acting on behalf of the family dual British-US citizen and journalist killed in South Sudan in August 2017, seeking justice and accountability for his killing and alleged war crimes committed against him.
International Criminal Law and Counter-Terrorism
Tatyana advises and represents individuals and organisations on matters concerning the investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in domestic courts and the International Criminal Court, and on related matters of State responsibility.
Tatyana has acted in high-profile criminal appeals before the UK Supreme Court that concern the interpretation of international law on, for example, war crimes, terrorism, and torture, and the application of international law in domestic proceedings.
Cases include:
• R v Reeves Taylor [2019] UKSC 51, on the definition of torture as provided by Art. 1 of the UN Convention against Torture and section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988
• R v Gul [2013] UKSC 64, on the scope of the definition of terrorism in situations of armed conflict.
Expert testimony
Tatyana has provided expert evidence and opinion to the United Nations and parliamentary select committees.
• oral evidence to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, on the targeting of journalists working in Palestine (November 2022).
• oral evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the FCDO’s approach to state level hostage situations (July 2022).
• written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry on Xinjiang Detention Camps, on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee (December 2020).
• expert evidence to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on consular access and diplomatic protection of dual nationals (November 2017).
• expert opinion to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary killings on questions of immunity and jurisdiction arising out of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (August 2019).
