The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) today announced that it has appointed Gopal Subramanium as an Honorary Fellow.
London, UK – UK-based Gopal Subramanium holds legal and academic positions in both the UK and India, bringing to BIICL an invaluable perspective on international legal systems, supporting their mission to develop and advance the understanding of international and comparative law globally.
BIICL is an independent international and comparative law institute with over 60 years of experience providing informed, independent and practical legal ideas for global law communities. Its founders include prominent legal figures Lord Denning and Hersch Lauterpacht.
The appointment signals Subramanium’s intentions to further expand his legal, academic, and philanthropic activity in the UK. In 2019, he was elected a Foundation Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford. Then, in October 2021, Subramanium was inducted into the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors by Lord Patten of Barnes.
Subramanium also founded his own multi-disciplinary study centre that provides vital research into mental health illnesses.
Subramanium has a distinguished legal career spanning over 40 years. He is a Senior Advocate at the Indian Supreme Court, former Solicitor General of India, and a noted scholar on legal philosophy, constitutional law, and human rights theory.
He served as Solicitor General of India from 2009 to 2011, during which period he was also Chairman of the Bar Council of India. From 2005 to 2009, he served as Additional Solicitor General of India.
Subramanium currently heads up his own Delhi-based Chambers, where he regularly appears at the Supreme Court of India and High Court of Delhi. He has acted as Lead Counsel in several path-breaking corporate matters for multinational clients, including Amazon, Google, and Novartis.
Having trained under former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, Subramanium was designated a Senior Advocate suo-motu by the Supreme Court in 1993, one of the youngest in India’s history to receive the designation.
In 1991-1992, Subramanium acted as Counsel to the Judicial Commission headed by Justice J.S. Verma to inquire into security lapses leading to the assassination of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. In 1993, he acted as Prosecuting Counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India in the trial of persons accused of setting off a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai.
In 2001, Subramanium acted as the Special Public Prosecutor in the case involving a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament. In 2013, he served on the JS Verma Commission, which recommended amendments to Indian laws to safeguard the safety and dignity of women and children.
In 2015, he was appointed a Supplementary Judge at the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Tribunal. In February 2020, he then went on to become the first Indian Senior Advocate to appear before the Singapore Court of Appeal.
In the UK, he is an Associate Member and Arbitrator at 3 Verulam Buildings and Honorary Master of the Bench of The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn.
Gopal Subramanium said: “I am delighted to join such a prestigious international legal institution. BIICL is at the forefront of understanding contemporary issues relating to international and comparative law, and I look forward to supporting their research and education projects in any way I can.”
Professor Spyros Maniatis, Director of BIICL, said: “I am delighted to welcome Gopal to BIICL. We are already discussing a number of exciting initiatives as we seek to work together to engage with students, academics, practitioners and policy makers based in or focused on India. These are such positive developments in challenging times.”