Surya Subedi


Surya Prasad Subedi, QC, OBE, DCL is an international jurist. He was the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia and has written a number of works on the theory and practice of international law and its impact on human rights and other areas of policy. His publications include eight books and more than 60 scholarly articles that cover international law. He has advised governments in several countries on international legal matters and acted as a counsel in a number of cases before the International Court of Justice. He has been Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds since 2004 and is a visiting faculty member at the University of Oxford, a member of the Institut de Droit International, and a practising Barrister in London.

Early life and education

Subedi was born in Nepal. He began his higher education at Tribhuvan University, completing his LLB degree in 1981 and an MA in 1984. He then proceeded to practise law as an advocate, including as a law officer in the international law office of the Government.
In 1986, as a recipient of the British Council Scholarship, he moved to the United Kingdom to begin and subsequently complete a degree at the University of Hull and thereafter the University of Oxford.

Career

Academia

Subedi began his academic career as a Lecturer in Law in 1993 at the University of Hull. After promotion, he became a Professor of Law in 1999 at Hull. He moved to the University of Leeds to become Professor of International Law.
He has taught courses in international investment law, international human rights law, the law of the sea, WTO law, and international environmental law. His publications include:
  1. ‘The Effectiveness of the UN Human Rights System: Reform and the Judicialisation of Human Rights ’, which “creates a modern vision of the United Nations that could function better in a multipolar world to help secure a better mode of living for more people around the world”
  2. “The Universality of human rights and the UN human rights agenda: The impact of the shift of power to the East and the resurgence of the BRICs” (55 Indian Journal of International Law, 2015, which argues that human rights will not be impeded by the rise of the BRICs and other non-western-centric power polarities.
  3. ‘International Investment Law: Reconciling Policy and Principle’ published by Hart Publishing, Oxford. First published in 2008, it is now in its 4th edition. It has been translated into foreign languages, including Chinese and Persian, and published in several countries.
He has also advised governments in several countries on international legal matters. Over his career, Subedi has assisted several governments in working towards establishing independent judiciaries.

Law

Subedi was involved in the establishment of the Asian Society of International Law with its head office at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore, and is Chairman of the Board of Editors of the flagship publication of the Society – the Asian Journal of International Law – published by Cambridge University Press. Prior to this, he was chief editor of the Asian Yearbook of International Law between 1999 and 2006 published by Martinus Nijhoff in The Hague. He also is Chairman of the Research Committee of the Society and has led the establishment of nine study/interest groups of scholars from across Asia researching in international law. In addition, he is editor of a series of monographs on 'human rights and international law' published by Routledge.
Prior to qualifying for the English Bar, he was a consultant on international legal matters to Mishcon de Reya Solicitors in London. He was appointed in 2004 by the World Trade Organization to the Roster of Panellists of its Dispute Settlement System. He was also designated to serve on the panel of arbitrators of an intergovernmental organization – the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes with its headquarters at the World Bank in Washington DC.

United Nations Special Rapporteur

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted unanimously for Subedi to be the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia at the 10th Session of the Council in 2009. As one of only 12 country-specific UN special rapporteurs in the world, Subedi identified human rights problems in the country and gave recommendations to help tackle them. Responding to the news of his appointment, Subedi said: "The main task would be to cast an impartial expert eye on the overall human rights situation in Cambodia and offer constructive advice to the Government to address the problems that exist with regard to the overall situation in the country.” When he commenced his human rights work in the county, the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, asked publicly Subedi to go back to his own country and sort out the political issues in the country rather than lecturing the Government of Cambodia on how to improve the situation of human rights. The Prime Minister had been irked by the reports of Subedi stating that the judiciary and electoral commission were not independent in the country. Subedi was on the verge of being declared a persona non-grata in Cambodia by the Government. However, Subedi received support for his UN work from the international community, including the US President Barack Obama and the European Parliament.
Subedi continued to argue that the Government of Cambodia should carry out political reforms in the country, stating that as long as Cambodia was a member of the UN it had an obligation to promote and protect human rights and he was appointed by the UN expert to help usher the country towards a genuine rule of law, stronger democracy and greater respect for human rights in the country. Eventually, Prime Minister Hun Sen was persuaded to come around to working with Subedi. 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.

Honours

Subedi was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2017 in recognition of his contribution to the development of international law and to the advancement of human rights. A press release of the British Government of January 2017 stated that Subedi had made "an exceptional contribution over a sustained period at the international level to develop international law and to advance human rights."
Prior to this, he was made an OBE in 2004 for his services to international law. Speaking at the OBE investiture on 19 October 2004 in London, the British Foreign Secretary stated that Subedi had "made a highly distinguished contribution to our understanding of international law, and to its evolution" and his work in international law had "spanned almost every aspect of it – with a special focus on issues... which make a real difference to people's lives".
Subedi has a number of other honours, including the Dasturzada Pavry Memorial Prize by the University of Oxford for an outstanding DPhil thesis in 1993, an SPTL Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship by the British Society of Legal Scholars for one of his books in 1997 and the Josephine Onoh Memorial Prize as best LLM student of the year by the University of Hull in 1988. He also won a British Council Scholarship to study for an LLM in International Law. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford in 2019, reportedly on the basis of "exceptionally insightful and distinctive publications that contain significant and original contributions to the study of law".

Other activities

He was appointed as UK Crown Representative on the Governing Board of SOAS, University of London, in 2007 and he completed a five-year term of office in 2012. He is a regular hiker and has completed, among other hikes, the 100 km non-stop hike dubbed as the 'Didi-Daju Dash' along the south coast of England in July 2015 and the Hadrian Wall Path hike in July 2017 covering 135 km from the east coast of England to the west coast.

Publications

Selected works

Books