Yash Pal Ghai was born in 1938 in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a scholar in constitutional law. He has been the head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal. Until 2008, he was a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cambodia on human rights. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2005.

He was the Sir YK Pao Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong Kong starting in 1989. He has been an Honorary Professor there since his retirement in 1995. Prior to that, Ghai taught and did research in law at the University of Warwick, Uppsala University in Sweden, the International Legal Center in New York, and Yale Law School. He has also taught courses at the University of Wisconsin Law School, as part of an exchange program. He was the Chairman of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission which was tasked with coming up with a new constitution for Kenya from 2000 to 2004.

Ghai has also advised and assisted NGOs on human rights law-related work. He drafted the Asian Human Rights Charter. Ghai has also written several books on law in Africa, the Pacific islands, and elsewhere.

He was awarded the jurist of the year award for 2001 jointly with Dr. Ooko Ombaka.