Naz K. Modirzadeh

Naz K. Modirzadeh is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School. She writes and teaches primarily in the field of public international law, with a focus on non-use of force, armed conflict, the U.N. Security Council, and counterterrorism issues. In the Fall 2022 term, Modirzadeh is teaching Laws of War and Public International Law, as well as a reading group on International Lawyering.

Modirzadeh is the founding Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC). She is responsible for overall direction of the program, contributing to its cutting-edge research initiatives, briefing senior decision-makers, and advising governments, United Nations agencies, international humanitarian organizations, and NGOs.

Modirzadeh is on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and has served on a number of advisory boards for high-level U.N. and other initiatives. She is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

For the first decade of her career, Modirzadeh engaged in applied research and policy work with conflict actors, humanitarian organizations, and affected communities on the interpretation and implementation of international law in relation to situations of armed conflict and other humanitarian crises and emergencies with a focus on Afghanistan, the Middle East, and North Africa. She has extensive experience leading trainings and facilitating discussions on international law and policy for diplomats as well as human-rights and humanitarian actors at headquarters and in conflict-affected areas.

Modirzadeh received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.