Sahar Khan

S.J.D. Candidate
skhan at sjd.law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

Sovereignty, Property, and Citizenship: Trade, Art, and Spirituality in the Indian Ocean Economy and Arab-Persianate World

My research interrogates how the consolidation of modern international law and the colonial encounter marginalized alternative, non-Western legal systems by reclassifying them as “religion,” “custom,” or “primitive practice.” Rather than treating territorial sovereignty, exclusive property ownership, and nationality as universal defaults, this project uses a “Connected Histories” framework to reconstruct historical governance models that operated through mobile, relational, and trans-local networks, structured through flows and circulation, rather than just territoriality. Specifically, the study shifts the analytical task from critique to doctrinal reconstruction by investigating how non-territorial logics—such as practice, allegiance, and relational use—historically structured authority, resource allocation, and political belonging across regional spheres.

Within this framework, law appears not as a centralized system but as a distributed practice embedded in relationships. Authority is negotiated across networks; property is structured through exchange and obligation; belonging is constituted through affiliation rather than nationality. These formations are juridical not because they necessarily resemble doctrine, but because they perform legal functions: structuring authority, regulating exchange, and constituting communities. Ultimately, this project aims to expand the epistemic horizons of international legal theory, offering a set of conceptual resources for the modern multicultural jurist tasked with balancing globality with local particularities.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

  • Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, and Law and Development with Professor David Kennedy, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
  • International Law and Legal History with Professor Idriss Fofana, Harvard Law School
  • Law and Religion and Islamic Law with Professor Intisar A. Rabb, Harvard Law School
  • Comparative Law and Interdisciplinary Methods with Professor Nathaniel Berman, Columbia Law School

Additional Research Interests

  • Intellectual Property, Cultural Heritage, and Art Law
  • Legal Pluralism
  • Rehabilitative and Restorative Justice
  • Energy and Climate Law
  • Law and Technology
  • Disability Law
  • Intersection of Public and Private Law

Education

  • Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2026 – Present
  • Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2026 – Present Harvard Law School, LL.M. 2026 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
  • University of Oxford, U.K., Magdalen College, BCL 2022
  • Called to the Bar of England & Wales at the Honorable Society of Gray’s Inn 2021
  • City Law School, U.K., BVS 2020
  • University of Law, U.K., GDL with Distinction 2019
  • University of Cambridge, U.K., Wolfson College, MPhil 2015
  • Stanford University, BA with Honors and Distinction 2013

Academic Appointments and Fellowships

  • Harvard Law School, 2025-2026, Research Assistant to Professor Idriss Fofana and Professor Michael Ashley Stein

Representative Publications

  • Sahar Khan, What, If Anything Is The Relevance of Unincorporated Treaties, International Agreements and Conventions in English Law? XIII GRAY’S INN STUDENT JOURNAL 1-11 (2021). Winner of Beloff Essay Prize.
  • Kaamil Ansar & Sahar Khan, Chapter 4D – Financing of Solar Renewable Energy (Vol I, pp. 101-132); Chapter 5 – Global Trends in Renewable Energy (Vol I, pp. 151-174); Chapter 17 – California (Vol I, pp. 829-856); and Chapter 57 – Pakistan (Vol III, pp. 2315-2382) in Kaamil Ansar (ed.) FINANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS AND REVIEW OF RELATED POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS (AM. BAR ASS’N, BUS. L. SEC. 2019).

Additional Information

Last Updated: June 12, 2026