This is the personal web page of H. Rajan Sharma, a New York based attorney practicing international law with links to legal articles, scholarship and advocacy in notable cases as well as updated links to miscellaneous articles and speaking appearances.  His biograph at Sharma & DeYoung LLP where he is a partner may be found by clicking here.

Advocacy & Notable Cases

Bodner et al. v. Banque Paribas et al., a Holocaust-era case involving illegal wartime confiscation of bank assets by more than a dozen French and British banking institutions alleging violations of customary international law under the Alien Tort Statute, the only such case which obtained a favorable judicial opinion on the merits. An article about the case is available here.

In re German & Austrian Holocaust Litig.,counsel for plaintiffs in Holocaust-era international litigation involving in major international negotiations between corporations and governments of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United States resulting in multilateral Executive Agreements resolving Holocaust-era litigation in U.S. courts by creating an additional U.S. $5.2 billion fund for plaintiffs.

 
Manning v. Utilities Mutual Ins. Co. et al., addressing novel question of which statute of limitation should be applied to the federal Medicare Secondary Payer statute, an issue of first impresion before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court unanimously held in favor of plaintiff who obtained summary judgment on remand in the trial court. The appellate opinion was published in the New York Law Journal.

 
Sahu et al. v. Union Carbide et al., an ternational environmental litigation arising from widespread groundwater pollution caused by the plant in Bhopal, India responsible for the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster. This case is still pending.

Poddar et al. v. State Bank of India, involving default on international issue of sovereign debt bonds issued by a foreign sovereign bank. The Court recently certified a class of more than 3,000 bondholders. An article about the case that appeared in the Indus Business Journal may be found here.

Khulamani et al. v. Barclays et al., involving claims brought against many foreign and domestic corporations for aiding and abetting violations of international law in the Apartheid era. Mr. Sharma was counsel for Amicus Curiae former members of the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission on behalf of plaintiffs. A PDF copy of the short amicus brief may be obtained here.

Professional Experience

Bar Admissions: State of New York, Appellate Division, First Department, Southern District of New York. 

 
Memberhsips: American Bar Association, American Society of International Law and Bar Association for the City of New York.
PARTNER [present]
Sharma & DeYoung LLP
SENIOR ATTORNEY [2001-2003]
McCallion & Associates LLP
ASSOCIATE [1997-2001]
Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow LLP
JURIS DOCTOR [1993-1996]
American University School of Law, Washington D.C.

Legal Scholarship & Articles

Globalizing Disaster, Provincializing Law: Bhopal 25 Years Later [to be published in December 2009 edition, Global Social Policy Journal].

Environmental Justice Without Borders, 32 George Washington Journal of Int’l Law & Policy 351 (2000).

International Resolution of Investment & Environmental Disputes, published by The Permanent Court of Arbitration/ Peace Palace Papers by The International Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (2001).

Crime without Punishment: International Criminal Jurisdiction, Corporate Accountability & The Failure of Legal Imagination, The Criminal Lawyer (U.K.), No. 147 (December 2004).

The Trial of Saddam Hussein, The Criminal Lawyer (U.K.), No. 151 (Apr. 2005).

Willing Accomplices: Third-Party Complicity In The Policy of ‘Extraordinary Renditions’ Under International Criminal law, The Criminal Lawyer (U.K.), No. 161 (Aug. 2006).

Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal 20 Years On, Amnesty International Report (ASA 20/015/2004); contributing author.

Catastrophe and The Dilemma of Law, Seminar magazine (Dec. 2004 New Delhi, India).

Precaution As Principle: Law, Science & Catastrophe in Bhopal, Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur).

Veil of Deception, Frontline Magazine, Vol 25, Mar.-April 25, 2008.

A Criminal Legacy, Frontline Magazine, Vo. 21 (Dec. 2004).

Contributing author, The Bhopal Reader (Apex Press 2003).

Miscellaneous Press

The Bhopal Evasion, Mother Jones.

2d Circuit Oks Suit Over Alleged Union Carbide Water Pollution in Bhopal, India, American Bar Association Journal.

Second Circuit Reinstates Bhopal Water Contamination Class Action, The AmLaw Litigation Daily.

Bhopal Tragedy: Case Against Union Carbide In US Reinstated, Sify News.

LITIGATING DISASTER, a documentary by Icarus Films, Inc., Tamouz Media, Inc. and Pointe du Jour Productions International.

Amicus Curiae Brief, submitted by U.S. Congressmen on behalf of Bhopal appellants before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Professional appearances and interviews in television, print and radio on ABC News, CNN, History Channel, Democracy Now!, Sky TV, PBS, MarketWatch, Zee News, Voice of America, The American Lawyer, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Frontline magazine, Asian Outlook, Indian Express, and The Statesman.

Guest speaker and lecturer on international law at Princeton University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Law School, New York University, Bard College, Brown University, University of Indiana, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Wyoming School of Law, Wyoming Society for International Law and New England School of Law.