Surakiart Sathirathai - Family and Early Career

Family and Early Career

Surakiart grew up in Bangkok. His father was a Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Finance and mother was a Professor in French literature at Chulalongkorn University. He graduated with a First Class (Valedictorian) degree in law from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. He earned two masters degrees, a Masters in Law (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School with a thesis on human rights and another in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Surakiart was the first Thai to earn a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. His doctoral thesis, “An Understanding of the Relationship Among International Legal Discourse About Development, Third World Countries, and International Peace,” (1985) explored the global trade law regime from the perspective of the third world. He later co-edited Third World Attitudes Toward International Law: An Introduction (1987) and authored various articles on law and development including "Peace and Security: The Challenge and the Promise", 41 Texas International Law Journal 513 (2006). From the late 1980s until the late 1990s, Surakiart taught in the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn University and ultimately became Dean.