Phone: (206) 616-8441
Email: arama@uw.edu
B.A. 1988, J.D. 1992, Harvard University M.A. 1990, University of Sydney
Banking Law — Comparative Law — Human Rights — International Business and Trade Law — International Law
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Anita Ramasastry is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law and the Director of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program at the University of Washington School of Law. She is an expert in the fields of anti-corruption, commercial law, sustainable development, and business and human rights. She is one of the leading academics and a pioneer in the field of business and human rights and responsible business conduct.
Ramasastry is currently a commissioner on the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, chaired by the former UK Prime Minister, Baroness Theresa May. Ramasastry is one of five legal experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to advise the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group drafting a business and human rights treaty. She also serves as a legal advisor to a second international negotiation concerning an international regulatory framework for private and military security companies, also at the UN Human Rights Council.
From 2016–2022, she served as a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, having been appointed as a rapporteur by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2016. She previously served as its chair in 2020. From 2020–2024, Ramasastry was appointed as the Special Representative on Combatting Corruption at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Ramasastry is a founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal, published by Cambridge University Press. She is a board member and founder of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association and launched its annual research scholars forum.
From 2017–2019, Ramasastry served as President of the Uniform Law Commission, the 127-year-old organization comprised of lawyers from the 50 states that work to harmonize laws where uniformity is desirable. She was previously Chair of its Executive Committee and is an appointed Commissioner from Washington State.
In the past, she has advised and worked with development organizations including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Commission, the Commercial Law Development Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and USAID. In 2019, she served as a commissioner on the Liechtenstein Initiative Commission on Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking.
From 2009 to 2012, Ramasastry served as a senior advisor in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, working under the leadership of then-Secretary Gary Locke. She directed the ITA's anti-corruption and trade efforts and helped to launch new initiatives with the G20, APEC, and the OSCE. She developed a new anti-corruption and business and human rights curriculum for U.S. trade officers in embassies worldwide.
In 1998–99, she served as a special attorney and advisor to a special claims resolution tribunal in Zurich, Switzerland, established to resolve claims to World War II-era bank accounts. She has been a visiting professor and Atlantic Fellow in Public Policy at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, and has been a recurrent visiting professor at the National University of Ireland in Galway and the Central European University in Budapest.
She has served as a staff attorney at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an associate attorney at the international law firm of White & Case in Budapest, Hungary, and assistant professor of law at the Central European University in Budapest. She was the symposium editor for the Harvard International Law Journal and has clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Ramasastry has been recognized by students as the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year on numerous occasions. In 1998, she received the UW Distinguished Teaching Award during her second year of teaching, and in 2002, she received the UW Outstanding Public Service Award for her work focused on domestic violence.
Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law Anita Ramasastry was a featured guest on GBI Conversations, the podcast of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights.
The University of Washington School of Law celebrates strategic growth, welcoming 10 new faculty members and four new deans into the 2024–25 academic year.
Anita Ramasastry applies law, policy and politics to fight corruption and defend human rights around the world. (Source: The Whole U)
Professor Ramasastry is now ambassador of a global advisory body advancing the rule of law.
Anita Ramasastry has been appointed to The Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, which launched this month to address one of the greatest human rights issues of our time.
In three minutes, Anita Ramasastry, Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law at UW Law, explains why a debt ceiling is necessary, how it is raised and the ruinous effects that may occur if the United States is ever unable to pay its financial obligations.