Teaching
Courses
Education
- Ph.D., International Studies (2015), Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
- Master of Laws in Public Service Law (2005), New York University School of Law, New York
- BA LLB (Hons) (2000), NLSIU, Bengaluru
Profile
Dr. Priya Pillai is an international lawyer with over two decades of experience, and is globally recognised for deep legal expertise in international law and advocacy to effect change. Pillai leads the Asia Justice Coalition, focused on international justice and accountability, helming it since inception. The coalition has been key to efforts to hold the Burmese military accountable by supporting legal proceedings in international and domestic courts. Under her leadership, a multi-year program to enhance leadership of women in international law across Asian jurisdictions has commenced, intended to dismantle systemic barriers. Previously, she worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on trials in the Balkans, and on global humanitarian issues at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva.
Dr. Pillai has contributed expertise to the UN Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response; as a judge at an international peoples’ tribunal for Ukraine; a keynote at the Ljubljana-The Hague treaty negotiations, and has been actively working towards a new crimes against humanity treaty. She is a contributing editor at the leading international law blog Opinio Juris and has been quoted by the Washington Post, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
Pillai is a gold medallist from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She is a Yale World Fellow from 2024, and is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London as well as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.