Adnan A. Zulfiqar, an interdisciplinary scholar in the fields of law, history, and religion, is an associate professor at BC Law with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Theology at the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, as well as with the university’s interdisciplinary program in Islamic Civilization and Societies. His research focuses on critically examining frameworks underlying legal discourse in both domestic and global contexts, with a special interest in the concept of duty and the idea of discretion in the law.
His primary fields of inquiry have been criminal law and procedure, Islamic law and its legal history, human rights, and law in the Global South. Zulfiqar’s most recent scholarship critiques aspects of international human rights and offers new ways to approach the diffusion of human rights norms. His forthcoming book, Duties to the Collective, studies how medieval Muslim jurists utilized collective duties to promote social and political cohesion in a time of existential crisis for the Abbasid caliphate. Zulfiqar conducts his research in multiple languages and has spent over a decade in the Middle East, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. He has held numerous fellowships, including at the University of Pennsylvania (Sharswood), Stanford Humanities Center, Damascus University in Syria (CASA), and the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation. A number of journals have published his work, among them the Yale Journal of International Law, the American Journal of Legal History and Harvard’s Journal of Islamic Law.
Prior to joining BC Law, Zulfiqar taught at Rutgers Law School. He is a former international legal consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, where he assisted with the drafting and implementation of a new criminal code and commentary for the Republic of the Maldives. He also advised on the new criminal code and commentary for Somalia under the auspices of the International Development Law Organization.
Zulfiqar’s past experiences extend to private practice at Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC; to Congress as a legislative staffer to US Senator Max Cleland; and to the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission as a commissioner appointed by the mayor. From the University of Pennsylvania, he earned three degrees: his J.D. and his M.A./Ph.D. in near eastern languages and civilizations. He received his M.L.S. in international affairs from Georgetown University, and his B.A. from Emory University.
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