Professor Surya Subedi

Professor Surya P. Subedi, OBE, KC, DCL is Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds, an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, University of Oxford, and a practising barrister in London. He has published 12 books and more than 60 scholarly articles in all major areas of international law in leading international law journals throughout his academic career. He obtained a DPhil (PhD) in Law with a prize from the University of Oxford in 1993. He was awarded Oxford’s highest accolade – the degree of Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) – in 2019 by the University of Oxford and the degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) honoris causa by the University of Hull in 2020 in recognition of his contribution to international law. The judges of the award panel at Oxford described him as “a scholar of uncommon breadth of knowledge and depth of thinking in international law” when deciding to award him the DCL.

Professor Subedi has advised governments in different countries on international legal matters and acted as a counsel in several cases before the international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). He has been appointed to the list of arbitrators under a post-Brexit comprehensive free trade agreement between the UK and the EU – Trade and Cooperation Agreement. He also was appointed in 2004 by the World Trade Organization to the Roster of Panellists of its Dispute Settlement System and was designated to serve on the panel of arbitrators of ICSID. He is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). Professor Subedi was elected to the exclusive Nobel Peace Prize winning Institut de Droit International in 2011 and made a Membre Titulaire in 2015.

Professor Subedi has covered all major areas of public international law in his research and publications. His research interests range from international investment law and arbitration to WTO Law, land and maritime boundary disputes in international law, international human rights law, and international watercourses law.

Professor Subedi has a long-standing interest in a number of South-east Asian countries and examples of some of his work in the States in this region are as follows:

Vietnam
Professor Subedi has a long-standing research interest in Vietnam. He advised the National Assembly of Vietnam on behalf of UNCTAD in the run up to and in the aftermath of Vietnam’s accession to the WTO in 2006-2007 and he edited a book ‘International Trade and Business Law’ with special reference to the legal system in Vietnam which was published by Hanoi Law University. The 1st edition of this book was published in 2012 and the 2nd edition in 2018 as part of an EU-Vietnam Multilateral Trade Assistance Project (MUTRAP) III. He also has researched on the disputes in the South China Sea abutting Vietnam and published an article ‘The Disputes in the South China Sea and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’, 14 (1) Soochow Law Journal (January 2017), pp. 15–41. His research on the outer limits of the maritime zones of coastal states led to the publication of the following article ‘Problems and Prospects for the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in Dealing with Submissions by Coastal States in Relation to the Ocean Territory Beyond 200 Nautical Miles’, 26 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague, 2011), pp. 413–431.

Indonesia
Professor Subedi was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia to advise on some international legal issues including developing the disciplines of international law and international relations in Indonesian higher education in 2002 and has kept up his interest in the country since then. Some of his work resulted in the publication of an article in an Indonesian journal with the title ‘Developing the Disciplines of International Law and International Relations in Indonesian Higher Education’, 2(3) UNPAD Journal of International Law (University of Padjadaran, Indonesia, December 2003), pp187-196. His research on the outer limits of the maritime zones of coastal states led to the publication of the following article ‘Problems and Prospects for the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in Dealing with Submissions by Coastal States in Relation to the Ocean Territory Beyond 200 Nautical Miles’, 26 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague, 2011), pp. 413–431.

Cambodia
The United Nations Human Rights Council voted unanimously for Professor Subedi to be the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia at the 10th Session of the Council in 2009. During his six years of service for the UN, he produced a number of reports on judicial, parliamentary, electoral and land reform in Cambodia. A number of his recommendations, including those relating to judicial and electoral reform, have been implemented by the Government of Cambodia. His comprehensive report on land reform in the country entitled 'A Human Rights Analysis of Economic and other Land Concessions in Cambodia' (2012) (UN Doc. A/HRC/21/63/Add.1) became a primary source of reference for the Government of Cambodia, UN agencies, and donor agencies that continue to be drawn on today.