::Acharya, Upendra D.

Biographical Information

Dr. Upendra D. Acharya is a professor of law at Gonzaga University Law School. He holds an S.J.D. from the University of Wisconsin law School, Madison, an LL. M. from the University of Utah, College of Law, an M.C. L. (Master of Comparative Law) from the University of Delhi, India, and an LL.B. from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Professor Acharya:

• Taught at Tribhuvan University law School in Kathmandu, Nepal for 5 years.
• Served as a legal counsel to a tribal government in the United States.
• Consulted to various NGOs in Nepal and ITC/UNCTAD/GATT.
• Has written numerous articles on Constitutional law, administrative law, comparative law and international law and presented papers and delivered lectures in national and international conferences in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Professor Acharya has represented landmark cases in the Supreme Court of Nepal, including Daughters’ right to inherent property, Godabary Marble Case that translated into the enactment of Environmental Protection Act in Nepal. He also has worked toward eradicating bonded labor systems in far western areas of Nepal.

Teaching areas

• International Law
• Human Rights
• International Environmental Law
• Law of International Organizations
• Contracts
• Comparative law

Publications and presentations

• Is Development a Lost Paradise? Trade, Environment and Development: A Triadic Dream of International Law, scheduled to be published in the Alberta Law Review. (2007) 
• Completed solicited review of a draft of the casebook, International Criminal Law, authored by David Stewart, David Luban, and Julie O'Sullivan.
• Locus Standi in Administrative Law: A Study Of Nepal and India, published in Justice: Collection of Research Articles on Law, Justice and Legal System (Shesh Raj Shiwakoti ed.), 2007
• Indigenous People, Biotechnology and Human Rights, presentation at conference on human rights and development organized by the International Law Society of Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, OR, April 2007.
• Trade, Environment, and Development: A Triadic Dream of International Law, presentation at symposium organized by University of Idaho School of Law, the University of Alberta Law School and the CUNY-Queens College of Law, March 1-3, 2007.
• Constitutionalism and Democracy in Nepal: What Went Wrong 189 (Constitutionalism and Democratic Transitions: Lessons from South Africa, Veronica Federico and Carlo Fusaro eds., 2006.)
• The US, China and Nepal: Challenges to WTO Obligations on Trade and Agriculture, presentation at international conference on WTO Dislocations and Solutions in Chongquin and Beijing, China, December 2006.
• Paper on Constitutionalism and Democratic Transition: Nepal and South African Perspective, International Conference, Florence, Italy, December 5, 2005.

Awards and Memberships

• Appointed as one of the Board of Directors of the International Trade Alliance (ITA), greater Spokane's primary source for expertise in doing business in the global marketplace, February 2008.

Presentations

• Presented a paper titled WTO and Least Developed Countries at the Symposium on International Trade: Law or Politics? that was hosted by the Gonzaga Journal of International Law, February 28-29 2008.
• Participated in a panel discussion at the University of Montana School of Law, Can the U.N., or Anyone Else, Stop Genocide & Crimes Against Humanity?, 2006.
• Special Speaker on, Right to Health Care as a Human Right, Benefits Hospital, Great Falls, Montana, December 20, 2005.
• Guest Speaker on, Democracy, Terrorism and Failed State, International Affairs Program, University of Montana, Missoula, March 2005.

Top of Page