Professor Hassan M. Ahmad is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where he researches and teaches on topics related to corporate governance, business and human rights, transnational law, tort law, international law and climate change litigation. Prior to joining Osgoode Hall, Professor Ahmad was an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. He also served as a full-time Replacement Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). He holds an SJD from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from Osgoode Hall. During his doctorate, he was a visiting scholar at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. Prior to entering academia, Professor Ahmad worked at the International Criminal Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and as a private practice civil and class actions litigator in Toronto.
Professor Ahmad’s research has been recognized by a number of prestigious scholarly organizations, including the American Society of International Law and the American Society of Comparative Law. He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Litigating Business and Human Rights Violations: Themes, Perspectives, and Prospects (Cambridge, University Press, forthcoming). His work has also appeared in leading Canadian and foreign journals such as the American Journal of International Law, The American Journal of Comparative Law, Berkeley Journal of International Law, UBC Law Review, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, and Transnational Legal Theory, among several others. He has also published several book chapters in edited volumes. His research has been funded by, among others, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Law Foundation of British Columbia, the Hampton Fund at UBC, and the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research.
At the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Professor Ahmad won teaching awards for in-person and online teaching as well as for his mentorship of JD and graduate students. Outside of his academic work, he has continued to be involved in public interest litigation, representing clients at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Otherwise, Professor Ahmad lends his expertise regularly to media outlets. His commentary on high profile civil cases, issues of corporate accountability, and climate change has appeared in, for instance, The Globe and Mail, CBC News, CTV News, The Toronto Star, the Vancouver Sun, and the Winnipeg Free Press, among others.
Research Interests: Torts, Corporate Governance, Business and Human Rights, Climate Change Litigation, Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, International Law, Transnational Law, Class Actions, Colonial Legal History, Islamic Law
Graduate Research Supervision (LLM): Professor Ahmad is interested in supervising topics related to business and human rights, transnational law, social justice and climate change litigation, corporate accountability, civil and administrative procedure, access to justice, class actions, colonial corporations, and international human rights.