He has served as the Principal State Law Adviser for International Law for the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation and Legal Counsellor to the South Africa Mission to the United Nations.

[4][3] Dire Tladi earned his BLC and LLB degree cum laude from the University of Pretoria, (South Africa), an LL.M.

He has served on the editorial board for the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) journal Constitutional Court Review.

In addition to more than 50 scholarly publications, Dire Tladi has also published a novel, Blood in the Sand of Justice, based on a fictional account of the assassination of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Since his appointment at the end of May 2015, Professor Tladi is leading the United Nations International Law Commission, as Special Rapporteur, to give content to Jus Cogens, by identifying how rules and norms are elevated to the status of Jus Cogens and determining the impact of these norms.