Short presentation

I joined the faculty in 2012 after a career in government consulting, mainly in the Middle East and Central Asia. My areas of interest are public international law, especially the law of armed conflict; public law, especially administrative and constitutional law in post-conflict settings; and Islamic law, again especially its (underdeveloped) public law.

I have been trained at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Trinity College Dublin, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute for International Law in Heidelberg. In the past, I have been a fellow at the European University Institute in Florence (Fernand Braudel), the Norwegian Academy of Science (Nordic Civil Wars), Harvard Law School (Islamic Legal Studies Program), and the National University of Singapore (Centre for Asian Legal Studies).

From 2018–2022, I served as University Professor of Islamic Law at the Faculties of Law and Humanities at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Primary fields of research

My research interests are broad, perhaps overly so, across public international law, public law and legal history, as well as political science and history. Due to both temperament, curiosity and professional experience, I am particularly fascinated by the manner in which regulatory systems operate in dysfunctional settings, a set of problems often subsumed under the rubric of state-building.

My interest in Islamic law derives from professional experience in conducting legal and administrative reform in Muslim nations.

Current research

During my time in Vienna and since my return to Copenhagen, I have focused on Islamic law, especially its importation into European legal orders as a result of mass migration. I am particularly interested, and consult regularly on, the challenges deriving from contrasting notions of family law and, especially, alternative constitutional visions of political Islam and possible counter-measures of liberal constitutionalism.

Teaching

• Islamic Law and Ethics, Masters Level, taught in Danish and English
• Legal Philosophy and Legal Sociology, Bachelor level, taught in Danish
• Institutional Danish and European Constitutional Law, Bachelor level, taught in Danish
• European Law – Free Movement, Bachelor level, taught in Danish
• Comparative Public Law in an Islamic Context, Masters level
• Comparative Emergency Laws, Masters level
• Introduction to Islamic Law, Masters level
• Public International Law, Bachelor and Masters level
• States of Emergency, Masters level
• Advanced European Law, Bachelor level, taught in Danish
• Scientific Methods for Doctoral Students

• Law of Armed Conflict, MA level
• Comparative Emergency Laws, MA level
• Law & Security, MA level
• Law & Development, MA level
• State-Building, MA level
• Human Rights, LLM course
• Comparative Emergency Measures against the Pandemic, Seminar MA
• The Security Council and the Prohibition against the Use of Force, Seminar MA, with A. Reinisch
• The Rule of Law and its Discontents, Seminar MA, with H. Tretter
• Public Law, Institutional Transfer and Political Thought in Islam, MA level
• Comparative Constitutional Law in Muslim States, MA level
• Introduction to Islamic Law, MA level
• Law & Politics of International Conflict Management, MA level
• European Cultural History, MA level
• Contemporary Political Discourses, BA level
• Muslims in Europe: Migration, Integration and Security, BA level
• Fundamentals of Scientific Methods, BA level
• Socratics (Methods) for Doctoral Students at the Law School, Vienna Doctoral Academy

• Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World, https://www.coursera.org/learn/muslim-world
• After the Arab Spring: Democratic Aspiration & State Failure, https://www.coursera.org/learn/after-the-arab-spring

• International Relations Theory, Masters level
• International Negotiations, Masters level 

• “Altruism – An Alien Element of Private and Commercial Law?,” German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), 22–28 August 2021, St. Johan, South Tyrol.
• “Law & International Security,” Harry Radzyner Law School, IDC Herzliya, Tel Aviv, 28 December – 8 January 2021, Tel Aviv, Israel (moved online due to pandemic).
• “Privatissimum on the Afghanistan Conflict: Origin, Management and Outlook,” Law Faculty, University of Vienna, 12 October 2019, Vienna, Austria.
• “State-Building and Legal Reform after Violent Conflict,” Law Faculty, University of Vienna, 11–13 July 2019, Strobl am Wolfgangsee, Austria.
• “Development Cooperation through Private Actors?,” German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), 25–28 April 2019, Vienna, Austria.
• “Identity, Context and Comparison in Constitutional Law,” German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), 19–31 August 2018, St. Johan, South Tyrol.
• “Doctoral Colloquium: Institutional Preconditions for Effective and Inclusive Governance in the Arab World,” Faculté des Sciences Juridiques, Politiques et Sociales de Tunis, Université de Carthage, 24–26 April 2017, Tunisia.
• “Constitutional Conflicts in the Muslim World,” German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), 12–24 August 2013, Rot am Rot, Germany.

CV

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Knowledge of languages

I am fluent in German, Persian, English, French and Danish (and thus, rather obviously, also in Norwegian and Swedish), and accept, after arrangement, student submissions in these languages.