Ph.D., Columbia University, 2022
J.D., Yale Law School, 2019
M.Phil., Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2012
A.B., Harvard College, 2011
Constitutional Law, Theory, and History
Political Philosophy
Election Law
Administrative Law
History of Political Thought
Professor Ahmed is on research leave for the fall 2025 semester.
Ashraf Ahmed is a legal theorist, with a particular interest in public law. He draws on political philosophy and intellectual history to study the nature and materials of legal argument in constitutional law, election law, and administrative law. Prior work has examined the nature of constitutional norms, the ideological origins of presidential administration, the conceptual foundations of election law and has appeared in or is forthcoming in Michigan Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Law & Contemporary Problems, and California Law Review. His 2024 co-authored article in the Harvard Law Review received the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section Annual Scholarship Award.
His current work comprises two projects. The first focuses on the character and tensions of “practice-based” constitutional theories. The second recovers the “invention” of interpretive constitutional theory.
Ahmed co-directs Columbia Law School’s Law & Philosophy Workshop. He holds a Ph.D. in political theory from Columbia University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
A scholar who draws on political science and intellectual history in studying democracy, Ahmed joins a growing cohort of legal and constitutional theorists on the faculty.