Harendra Beniwal

Harendra is a lawyer, researcher and legal policy specialist with experience spanning environmental law, sustainable development, public policy, intellectual property and constitutional law. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Law at SOAS University of London, where his research examines ecological law and the integrated governance of land and water resources.

At SOAS, Harendra teaches Intellectual Property Law as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and supervises Master’s dissertations in the School of Law, Gender and Media. He also contributes to the Environmental Law Advice Clinic (ELAC), working on public-interest environmental matters involving environmental regulation, statutory nuisance, planning and access to environmental information. He previously worked as a researcher at Wedlake Bell LLP, a London-based law firm.

Harendra contributed to a team advising the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on the development of its Draft Policy on Environmental Crimes under the Rome Statute. His wider professional experience includes legal practice before the Rajasthan High Court and Supreme Court of India, advising on constitutional, environmental, property and education law, as well as legal and public-policy work on environmental protection, water conservation and government programmes.

Before commencing his PhD, Harendra completed an LLM at the University of Cambridge and served for two years as a Law Clerk-cum-Research Assistant to a former Chief Justice of India. He has also worked in public-policy consultancy and has published nine research papers addressing legal, social and economic issues.