School of Law

Professor of International Law

I am a professor and a barrister specializing in the fields of public international law, international law of trade and investment, and international human rights law. At present, I am Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds and Barrister at Tanfield Chambers in London. I have been the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia since 2009 and currently also serves as a member of the Advisory Group on Human Rights to the British Foreign Secretary. I was elected to the Institut de Droit International in 2011. I am Vice-President of the Asian Society of International Law and Editor of the Asian Journal of International Law published by Cambridge University Press.

I have published widely in international law with six books, including a major book on international investment law, and more than 80 scholarly articles in most major international law journals and chapters in edited collections. I hold a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford, an LLM with Distinction from the University of Hull, and an LLB from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. I was admitted as an Advocate by the Supreme Court of Nepal in 1981 and was called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple in London in 2007.

I began my career in law as an Advocate in 1981 and went on to become an Under-Secretary in the International Law Division of the Ministry of Law and Justice and a legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal. I have been appointed by the World Trade Organization to the Roster of Panellists of its Dispute Settlement System. Throughout my career, I have taught international law at universities in The Hague, Hull, London, New York, and Washington DC.

I have a number of state honours and academic prizes to my credit. I was awarded the Dasturzada Pavry Memorial Prize for an outstanding thesis by the University of Oxford for my doctoral thesis, a prize for one of my books for Outstanding Legal Scholarship by the British Society of Legal Scholars and the Josephine Onoh Memorial Prize for best LLM student of the year by the University of Hull. I have won a British Council Scholarship to Hull for LLM studies and a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship to Oxford for my Doctoral studies. 

I  was made in 2004 an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for my services to international law and to Britain-Nepal relations and was decorated in 1998 by His late Majesty King Birendra of Nepal with the Order of Suprabal Gorkhadaxinbahu for my services to international law and to the nation.

I am a frequent contributor to various media corporations such as BBC TV and Radio and CNN on international legal issues.