Provision of expert reports in Iranian and Islamic law, across a wide variety of practice areas, as well as the forensic analysis of Iranian legal and official documentation.
Qualifications:
I have been a member of the Iranian Bar Association (an Attorney-at-law) since 1998. I was awarded my qualifications from the University of Shahid Beheshti in Tehran, obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Judicial Law followed by a Masters in International Law at the University of Shiraz. Following completion of a PhD in International Law at Durham University in 2008 (with a focus on Iran), I was appointed as a special advisor to the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University and I regularly lecture in Comparative Law, concentrating on Islamic and Iranian judicial systems. I am also a registered Foreign Lawyer in the UK under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) registration number 823642.
Since 2003, I have been providing expert opinions on Iranian Law and Procedure in civil and criminal litigation to counsel and solicitors at Tribunals, Crown Courts, High Court and the Court of Appeal, as well as for a number of foreign jurisdictions including the Netherlands, Canada, USA, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Norway etc.
I have also provided oral evidence at courts and tribunals on the structure of the Iranian legal system and Iranian society. I regularly partake in research on various issues pertaining to the law in Iran and contemporary issues in Islamic law, as a special advisor to the Islam Law and Modernity research group at Durham University. This encompasses a very broad range of issues including (but not limited to) Islamic finance and banking, Islamic marriage and child custody law as well as family/inheritance law, enforcement of foreign judgments within a particular Islamic jurisdiction (Hague Convention), the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities, women and workers' rights, the availability of social security benefits and medical treatment, etc. An example of the work undertaken in 2021 includes a holistic and comprehensive research and commentary on Iranian criminal procedural law for a combined COI Report on behalf of the Belgian, Norwegian and Swiss Immigration Services.
Additionally, I am the co-founder and acted as the Associate Director (2011-2014) of the Islam Law and Modernity Research Centre at Durham Law School which focuses on law and procedure in Iran and its interaction with Western systems of law as well as incorporating cross-jurisdictional legal issues (e.g. commercial litigation, service procedure, double jeopardy, violation of international sanctions and criminal extradition, human and narcotic trafficking, money laundering, cyber-security/cyber-crime and related internet restrictions). With regard to research and academic work, I currently sit on the Editorial Board of the Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice (MJTILP), where I peer review articles for publication.
As part of my training to become an Iranian Attorney, I was trained within a Forensic Documentation Office and other related Departments within the Iranian Judiciary and thus developed a familiarity with the documentation of the Iranian legal and official system. It is accepted within Iranian Law that one role of an Attorney is to authenticate a clients documents prior to their submission to a court, therefore this forms a necessary part of an Iranian Advocate's training and everyday role. The authentication of documents is a privilege granted to first class Attorneys by virtue of Article 57 of the Iranian Civil Procedure Code. This arrangement is regularly used and enforced by the Iranian Courts. The above experience is maintained, as I remain in close contact with Iranian legal affairs through continued contact with law firms and other legal professionals in Iran, reading relevant books and journals, attending conferences and by various other means, such as the Internet. Furthermore, since 2003, I have been instructed to authenticate thousands of Iranian legal and official documents, including summonses, verdicts, birth certificates (shenasnameh), passports, educational certificates as well as a variety of other legal and official documents. I am regularly asked to attend the National Document Fraud Units branches at Heathrow, Gatwick, Newcastle, Solihull, and Liverpool for the purpose of authenticating documents.
