Raj Bhala

Information about new books:
International Trade Law | Modern GATT Law | Trade War | TPP Objectively | Trade, Development, and Social Justice | Understanding Islamic Law

Raj Bhala, an Indian-American born in Toronto, Canada, joined the KU Law faculty in 2003 and serves as the Brenneisen Distinguished Professor. He received the 2011 Woodyard International Educator Award, a university-wide award granted to one faculty member for outstanding contributions to internationalization efforts, the 2010 Moreau Award for advising and counseling students, and a 2008 Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence. One of the world’s top-most scholars and teachers in international trade law, Bhala has worked in 29 countries and played in another 21 countries.

Bhala is a member of the London-based International Bar Association (IBA), Tokyo-based Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), England's Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, American Law Institute, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and All India Law Teacher's Congress. The Indian Society of International Law has conferred on him Life Membership.

Bhala's scholarly reputation in international trade is global, based in part on a sustained, prolific publication record. That record includes a treatise, “Modern GATT Law,” in its two-volume second edition, and “International Trade Law,” an eight-volume textbook in its sixth edition that is available Open Access (for free) on KU ScholarWorks. Both books are widely acclaimed for their substance and style, with each regularly consulted by students, scholars, and practitioners, and the textbook (through all its editions) used in over 100 law schools worldwide. That record also includes more than 100 law review articles in peer- and student-edited journals worldwide, including eight major pieces on the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, several critical analyses of problems poor countries face in the world trading system, a trilogy on stare decisis in WTO adjudication, and a trilogy on India's international trade policy. Bhala's articles have appeared in The International Lawyer, the world's most widely circulated international law review, six times.

Bhala's energy and enthusiasm extend to Islamic Law. He is the first non-Muslim American law professor to write a comprehensive textbook in the field, "Understanding Islamic Law Shari'a)." This highly praised, widely used work covers in an accessible manner the religion, history and law of Islam. Bhala is honored and humbled to have taught for 10 years Islamic Law to United States Special Operations Forces at the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Bhala's eagerness to pioneer new fields in the American legal academy extends to India, and to literature. He developed America's first course in International Law and Literature, and is under contract to write a book on Law, Literature, and Rhetoric. He has authored multiple articles on Shakespeare and the law.

Bhala practiced international banking law at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which twice granted him the President's Award for Excellence. At the New York Fed, he represented the United States in international wire transfer negotiations at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), dealt with legal issues in the largest financial market in the world (foreign exchange) and was actively involved in international banking law enforcement, including the infamous scandal involving the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). His UNCITRAL work earned him a Letter of Commendation from the State Department.

Bhala is a Senior Advisor to Dentons U.S. LLP. Working from the Dentons Kansas City office with the Public Policy and Regulation team, Bhala consults on International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), Law of India, and related matters. Dentons is the largest law firm in the world.

Before joining Dentons, Bhala was an International Legal Consultant for The Al Ammari Law Firm, in association with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LL.P., Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Blakes is one of Canada's famed "Bay Street" (or "Seven Sisters") law firms, and Dr. Saud Al Ammari offices are renowned throughout the Gulf.​

A world-renowned media columnist, Bhala wrote “On Point,” a regular analysis of international law and economics for BQ Prime / BloombergQuint, based in Mumbai, India. This column, which appeared monthly, 65 times between January 2017 and October 2022, was distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers around the globe.

Bhala joined KU from George Washington, where he held the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professorship, before which he began his teaching career at William & Mary. He has been a Visiting Professor at Duke, Michigan, La Trobe (Melbourne), Tel Aviv University, and the University of Auckland (where he held New Zealand's prestigious Legal Research Foundation fellowship).

Bhala is a summa cum laude graduate of Duke, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar. The British government awarded him a Marshall Scholarship, and he earned master's degrees from both the London School of Economics and Oxford in economics and management, respectively. He obtained his law degree with cum laude honors from Harvard.

Extended bio

Introduction:

Raj Bhala, who is an Indian American, joined the KU Law faculty in 2003 as the Rice Distinguished Professor. Bhala has worked in 29 countries and played in another 21 countries. A prolific scholar, he is one of the most recognized voices in international trade law in the world, plus is well known in Islamic Law and Law and Literature. Since 2017, Bhala has held the Leo. S. Brenneisen Distinguished Professorship (A DP is the highest university-level professorships in the State of Kansas.) In 2011, he received the George and Eleanor Woodyard International Educator Award, a university-wide award granted to one faculty member for outstanding contributions to internationalization efforts.

Bhala joined KU from George Washington, where he held the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professorship, before which he began his teaching career at William & Mary, where he was voted tenure. He has been a Visiting Professor at Duke, Michigan, La Trobe (Melbourne), Tel Aviv University, and the University of Auckland (where he held New Zealand’s prestigious Legal Research Foundation fellowship).

Bhala has testified to the United Kingdom Parliament, International Trade Committee, on free trade agreements and human rights. He has lectured around the world, including at many law schools across India, the Arab Thought Foundation Annual Conference (Beirut), University of Auckland (New Zealand), Bahcesehir University (Istanbul), College of Shari'a and Law (Muscat, Oman), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mining (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia), University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), LaTrobe University (Melbourne), University of London, University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur), National University of Singapore and Pakistan College of Law (Lahore). He has been a visiting fellow at the Bank of Japan (Tokyo) and the University of Hong Kong. Bhala has won university-wide teaching awards at both KU and William & Mary.

KU ICL Team:

Along with Professors Andrew Torrance and John Head, Bhala is part of an outstanding International and Comparative Law (ICL) Team, and continues the nearly 150-year long tradition of excellence in ICL at KU Law that includes Francis Heller, Robert Casad and John Murphy.

The KU Law School ICL Team is unique. The faculty on it include two Marshall Scholars (Bhala and Head). All of the faculty on the Team have published leading works in international business law and comparative law, boast extensive, high-level practical experience, and enthusiastically engage with students, in person and/or online, anytime.

Similarly, Bhala, Torrance, and Head are a unique triumvirate in another respect: Torrance and Head are experts in Intellectual Property Law and Civil Law, respectively, and Bhala is a student of Islamic Law and Law and Literature. Their collective work thus spans much of the world’s legal systems from many different perspectives. At Kansas, Bhala and his colleagues built the S.J.D. and Two-Year J.D. Degree Programs, and the Certificate in International Trade and Finance, plus revamped the Oversease Visiting Scholar (OVS) Program, yielding in the American Heartland an exceptional International and Comparative Law line up at an affordable price.

Scholarship in International Trade Law:

Bhala's scholarly reputation in international trade is global, based in part on a sustained, prolific publication record. That record includes a treatise, “Modern GATT Law,” and a leading textbook, “International Trade Law,” both of which are widely acclaimed for their substance and style. The two-volume treatise is in its 2nd edition. The textbook has been used at roughly 100 countries around the world, and now is in its eight-volume 6th edition. All eight volumes, 188 chapters and 6,650 pages are freely available and quickly downloadable on KU ScholarWorks

• Volume One - Interdisciplinary Foundations (25 chapters, 753 pages)
• Volume Two - Fundamental Multilateral Obligations (28 chapters, 885 pages)
• Volume Three - Customs Law (16 chapters, 440 pages)
• Volume Four - National Security (25 chapters, 1,088 pages)
• Volume Five - Remedies (33 chapters, 1,070 pages)
• Volume Six - Special Sectors (16 chapters, 628 pages)
• Volume Seven - Free Trade Agreements, Labor, and Environment (30 chapters, 1,196 pages)
• Volume Eight - Growth, Development, and Poverty (15 chapters, 590 pages)

Bhala's newest international trade books are on U.S.-China trade relations, Trade War: Causes, Conduct, and Consequences of Sino-American Confrontation  (2024), and the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP Objectively: Legal, Economic, and National Security Dimensions of CPTPP  (2nd edition, 2019). 

That record also includes more than 90 law review articles. Among them are eight major pieces on the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations: “Poverty, Islamist Extremism, and the Debacle of Doha Round Counter-Terrorism: Part One of a Trilogy – Agricultural Tariffs and Subsidies,” 9 University of Saint Thomas Law Journal 5 (2011); “Poverty, Islamist Extremism, and the Debacle of Doha Round Counter-Terrorism: Part Two of a Trilogy – Non-Agricultural Market Access and Services Trade,” 44 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 1 (2011); “Poverty, Islamist Extremism, and the Debacle of Doha Round Counter-Terrorism: Part Three of a Trilogy – Trade Remedies and Facilitation,” 40 Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 237 (2012); "Doha Round Betrayals," 24 Emory International Law Review 147 (Summer 2010); “Resurrecting the Doha Round: Devilish Details, Grand Themes, and China Too,” 45 Texas International Law Journal (2009); “Doha Round Schisms – Numerous, Technical, and Deep,” 6 Loyola University Chicago International Law Review 5 (Fall/Winter 2008); “Empathizing with France and Pakistan on Agricultural Subsidy Issues in the Doha Round,” 40 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 949 (October 2007); and “Poverty, Islam, and Doha,” 36 The International Lawyer 159 (2002).

Bhala’s articles have appeared in The International Lawyer, the most widely circulated international law review in the world (with a subscription base of approximately 20,000), six times. His Doha Round Trilogy (cited above) is a classic, as is his Stare Decisis Trilogy: “The Myth About Stare Decisis and International Trade Law (Part One of a Trilogy),” 14 American University International Law Review 845-956 (1999); “The Precedent Setters: De Facto Stare Decisis in WTO Adjudication (Part Two of a Trilogy),” 9 Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law and Policy 1-151 (Fall 1999); “The Power of the Past: Towards De Jure Stare Decisis in WTO Adjudication (Part Three of a Trilogy),” 33 George Washington International Law Review 873-978 (2001).

Bhala’s “A Trilogy on India’s Contemporary International Trade Policy,” published in the prestigious, peer-reviewed Manchester Journal of International Economic Law (MJIEL), is a critique of India’s inconstant opening of its import-export and investment regime to the world: Part One – 1991 First Generation Reforms and Aftermath, 20 MJIEL issue 2 (September 2023); Part Two – FTAs?, 20 MJIEL issue 3 (December 2023); Part Three – Promise versus Reality, 20 MJIEL issue 3 (December 2023).

Bhala's scholarship in international trade law embodies five signature themes: (1) International Trade Law can be an effective instrument of counter-terrorism, and enhanced peace and security are possible through trade, but the Doha Round has failed in these respects; (2) amidst the Sino-American Trade War, international trade law is about supply chain management for national security purposes; (3) protectionist devices are embedded in the details of trade law, such as in trade remedies like anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD); (4) generosity and social justice ought to play a prominent role in the trade law; (5) precedent operates as a de facto source of multilateral trade rules. These themes are the product of a synthesis of traditional doctrinal legal analysis with development economics and social justice theory.

Scholarship in Islamic Law and Law and Literature:

The boundaries of Bhala’s scholarship extend beyond international trade law to two other fields, Islamic Law, and Law and Literature.

Bhala's recent book, “Understanding Islamic Law (Shari’a)” (3rd ed., LexisNexis, 2023), is a critically-acclaimed text widely used by law schools and practitioners. It is the first comprehensive work on the law, history and religion of Islam designed for these markets written for the English-speaking world by a non-Muslim American law professor. The text provides systematic comparisons to U.S. law and Catholic Christianity. Bhala is honored and humbled to have taught for 10 years Islamic Law to United States Special Operations Forces at the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Bhala’s forthcoming book, “Principles of Law, Literature, and Rhetoric: A Shakespearean Approach” (Carolina Academic Press), aims to explain, elaborate, apply, and critique the timeless principles associated with law "as" literature (i.e., legal interpretative methodologies), law "in" literature (i.e., legal themes), and public speaking (particularly in non-litigation venues), drawing especially on the works of Shakespeare.

Bhala’s scholarship is intra- and inter-disciplinary, and his methodology is eclectic. For instance, his article “Diversity within Unity: Import Laws of Islamic Countries on Ḥarām (Forbidden) Products,” 47 The International Lawyer 343 (2014) synthesizes ideas from International Trade Law and Islamic Law, and from philosophy and religion. The article relies on both doctrinal interpretation of GATT and exhaustive empirical analysis of the tariff schedules of every Muslim country. Likewise, “Shakespeare And The Law of War: Spotting Issues In The Second Henriad,” XVI University of Saint Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy number 2, 1-76 (Symposium on War and the Contemporary World, brings together four of Shakespeare’s famed history plays with principles of the law of war and human rights.

Bhala is the editor of two book series, "Studies in Globalization and Society" (Carolina Academic Press) and "International Law and Development" (Martinus Nijoff Publishers).

A world-renowned media columnist, Bhala wrote “On Point,” a regular analysis of international law and economics for BQ Prime / BloombergQuint, based in Mumbai, India. This column, which appeared monthly, 65 times between January 2017 and October 2022, was distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers around the globe.

Practical Experience:

Bhala practiced international banking law at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which twice granted him the President's Award for Excellence. At the New York Fed, he represented the United States in international wire transfer negotiations at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), dealt with legal issues in the largest financial market in the world (foreign exchange) and was actively involved in international banking law enforcement, including the infamous scandal involving the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). His service as an American delegate to UNCITRAL earned him a Letter of Commendation from the State Department.

Bhala is a member of the London-based International Bar Association (IBA), Tokyo-based Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), England's Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, American Law Institute, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and All India Law Teacher's Congress. The Indian Society of International Law has conferred on him Life Membership.

Bhala is a Senior Advisor to Dentons U.S. LLP. Working from the Dentons Kansas City office with the Public Policy and Regulation team, Bhala consults on International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), Law of India, and related matters. Dentons is the largest law firm in the world, with offices across approximately 81 countries, and over 10,000 lawyers. Other Special Advisors include Howard Dean, Former Democratic National Party Chairman and New Hampshire Governor, and James Jones, Former National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama and Four-Star U.S. Marine Corps General (Retired).

Before joining Dentons, Bhala was an International Legal Consultant for The Al Ammari Law Firm, in association with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LL.P., Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He also has served as a legal consultant to international organizations, the U.S. and foreign governments, and private sector entities, including Cheniere Energy, particularly on trade-related projects.

Education:

Bhala is a summa cum laude graduate of Duke, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar. The British government awarded him a Marshall Scholarship, and he earned master's degrees from both the London School of Economics and Oxford in economics and management (industrial relations), respectively. He obtained his law degree with cum laude honors from Harvard.

Service and Research Assistant Family:

The hallmark of Bhala’s service at KU Law School, above and beyond his work as Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law and customary committee participation, is speaking the truth to power. As a faculty member, he has been forthright about the need to enhance (1) diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and thereby (for example) ending the exclusionary practice (since 2003) of hiring Distinguished Professors from only an internal pool of non-diverse candidates, (2) the interests of women and LGBTQ+ law students (including as against domestic violence), and (3) the security of law students (including as against concealed weapons).

Bhala service extends far beyond KU Law School. Locally, he serves on the Executive Board of Directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City (including as its Treasurer). Regionally, he is on the Alumni Association Board of University School Milwaukee (his alma mater). Nationally, he is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Internationally, he is a prominent member, and frequent speaker, of the London-based International Bar Association (IBA) and Tokyo-based Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).

Ever loyal to his former students and Research Assistants (RAs), and proud of all of them, Bhala co-authored “Diversity within Unity” with one of them, Shannon B. Keating, who practiced trade and development law with New Markets Lab in Washington, D.C. and thereafter joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). He co-authored “WTO Case Reviews” with her and two other former students and RAs, Bruno Simões, a trade lawyer formerly with FratiniVergano European Lawyers (Brussels), and Eric Witmer, a lawyer with the Kansas Court of Appeals. With Eric, Bhala also has co-authored “Interpreting Interpretation: Textual, Contextual, and Pragmatic Interpretative Methods for International Trade Law,” and Eric regularly is a Guest Professor in Bhala’s KU Law School classes. Further, Bhala enjoys the “role reversal,” that is, learning from the exceptional work of former students and RAs such as Devin Sikes, Akin Gump (Houston), Cody Wood, Dentons (Kansas City), and Jacob Barefield, Miller & Company (Kansas City).

Wellness:

Bhala loves fitness cross-training and has completed 115 marathons (as well as many half-marathons), including the Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Jerusalem, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha, and Richmond marathons. He also loves reading Shakespeare and brushing up on French.