Raj Bhala: From Lawrence to the World Stage, One Trade Law Textbook at a Time

When you walk into Raj Bhala's classroom at the University of Kansas School of Law, you might expect dense lectures on tariffs and trade agreements. Instead, you're just as likely to hear him connect WTO law to the power struggles in *Macbeth*—or explain how Shakespeare's negotiation scenes illuminate modern commerce.

That ability to make the complex feel alive is part of why the University of Kansas named him a University Distinguished Professor in 2025—a first in KU Law School history. The appointment took effect that fall, and he delivered his inaugural lecture that September.

"These individuals have proven themselves to be accomplished educators and impactful scholars in their respective disciplines," KU Provost Barbara A. Bichelmeyer said when announcing the honor.

For Bhala, the recognition caps a career that has taken him from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—where he earned the President's Award for Excellence twice, serving as a U.S. delegate to UNCITRAL—to advisory roles with governments, multinational corporations, and NGOs navigating the treacherous waters of WTO law and trade policy.

But his influence has never been limited to boardrooms and legal offices. Bhala has authored 13 books and more than 100 law review articles. His most ambitious work—an eight-volume *International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook*—now in its sixth edition—is widely regarded as foundational reading for legal practitioners, scholars, and students worldwide. Remarkably, he made it free to access, earning him the 2024 Shulenburger Award for Innovation & Advocacy in Scholarly Communication.

"He helps boards and senior teams anticipate how tariffs, industrial policy, supply chain realignment and geopolitical fragmentation will reshape growth plans," one speaker bureau notes—a skill increasingly vital in our fractured world.

At KU, Bhala has held the inaugural Leo S. Brenneisen Distinguished Professorship and previously the Raymond F. Rice Distinguished Professorship. Before Lawrence, he taught at William & Mary Law School and George Washington University Law School; beyond the classroom, he is a Fulbright Specialist and a speaker for the U.S. Department of State.

His credentials reflect intellectual breadth: a J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude), master's degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford University (as a Marshall Scholar), and an undergraduate degree from Duke University (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). He remains active in the Indian Society of International Law, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

What makes Bhala distinctive is his refusal to let international trade remain abstract. Whether advising on tariff policy, teaching Islamic law, or delivering what he calls "Big Idea" keynotes that link Shakespeare to global economics, he insists that commerce and culture cannot be separated—that behind every agreement and dispute sits human judgment, ethics, and the timeless patterns of power.

For the Kansas City Indian community, Bhala represents something familiar: a scholar who has bridged continents, honored rigorous education, and refused to let expertise become cold. He is among Ingram's "50 Kansans You Should Know."

In naming him University Distinguished Professor, the University of Kansas recognized not just a legal mind, but a teacher who has spent decades making the world—its rules, its economics, its Shakespeare—a little easier to understand.