Zohra Ahmed

Zohra Ahmed

Associate Professor


BA, University of Pennsylvania
MPhil, University of Cambridge
JD, Fordham Law School


Biography

Zohra Ahmed writes and teaches about the US carceral state and US militarism. She examines how law and political economy shape the distribution of state violence, and studies the social movements that have risen up to challenge criminalization and militarization. Her scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Yale Journal of International Law, Fordham Law Review, and Michigan Law Review.

She started her legal career as public defender at the Legal Aid Society in New York City. While working in criminal court, she also founded a community court watching project. She entered the academy as a clinical teaching fellow at Cornell Law School, in its International Human Rights Clinic. With her colleagues and students, she represented individuals on death row in Tanzania and the United States and collaborated with groups in both countries challenging life and death sentences, focusing on the cases of incarcerated survivors of gender based violence. She also oversaw United Nations advocacy on behalf of the only human rights organization in the Occupied Syrian Golan. After Cornell, she joined the faculty at University of Georgia School of Law in the fall of 2021, where she taught Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law and a seminar titled Crime and Punishment.

She also serves as an advisor to the Community Justice Exchange, the home of the National Bail Fund Network, where she supports grassroots social movements challenging criminalization. She also regularly consults with criminal defense teams.

She earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, her MPhil from the University of Cambridge and her JD from Fordham Law School.

She speaks French and Urdu, and has studied Mandarin.

Publications

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  • Zohra Ahmed, The Price of Consent 49 Yale Journal of International Law (2024)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Zohra Ahmed, Bargaining for Abolition 90 Fordham Law Review (2022)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Zohra Ahmed, The Right to Counsel in a Neoliberal Age 69 UCLA Law Review (2022)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Petition Alleging Violations of the Human Rights of Lisa Montgomery by the United States of America and Urgent Request for Precautionary Measures
    Scholarly Commons
  • Zohra Ahmed, The Sanctuary of Prosecutorial Nullification 83 Albany Law Review (2019)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Brief of the Legal Aid Society, Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Community Service Society of New York, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University School of Law, Center on Race, Law and Justice at Fordham University Law School, Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice, and Brooklyn Community Bail Fund in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant
    Scholarly Commons
  • Zohra Ahmed, Pressing Charges: Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America’s Largest Criminal Court 26 New Labor Forum (2017) (book review)
    Scholarly Commons

In the Media

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  • The Daily Free Press April 25, 2025

    Cambridge Brothel Bust: A Fight for Anonymity, City Councilor Implicated

    Zorah Ahmed and Shira Diner are quoted.
    read more

  • Clauses & Controversies August 26, 2024

    EP 140 ft. Zohra Ahmed

    Zohra Ahmed is interviewed.
    read more

  • New York Magazine May 31, 2024

    How to Criminalize a Protest

    Zohra Ahmed is quoted.
    read more

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Stories from The Record

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Activities & Engagements

No upcoming activities or engagements.

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Courses

Criminal Procedure A: Investigation: LAW JD 848

3 credits

Criminal Procedure is divided into two parts: investigation and adjudication. Students may take separate courses in investigation and adjudication or may take a one-semester course that covers both, although less intensively. Criminal Procedure A and B each stand on their own and may be taken in either order. One may be taken without the other. Criminal Procedure A focuses on the investigation part, that is, focuses on police investigation and the rights of defendants. This course covers search and seizure, the privilege against self-incrimination, confessions and the rights to counsel during custodial police interrogation. In general the course will examine the constitutional law in cases arising out of the conflict between police practices and the Bill of Rights. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in this section and Criminal Procedure AB.

FALL 2025: LAW JD 848 A1 , Sep 2nd to Dec 19th 2025
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Mon,Wed 2:15 pm 3:40 pm 3 Zohra AhmedHaefner

Law and Capitalism: LAW JD 884

3 credits

This seminar will examine the relationship between law and capitalism. How do legal institutions, legal concepts and rules establish the essential social relations for capitalism? How does capitalism shape black letter law and the structure of our legal institutions? We will tackle these questions theoretically and through a series of doctrinal case studies. That is, first we will delve into theories of capitalism to better understand how a range of scholars have described the relationship between state regulation and the capitalist mode of production. Second, we will also study capitalism in more concrete terms in the late 20th and early 21st century, through the rise of neoliberalism. Specifically, we will situate particular areas of law, like tax law, criminal law, environmental law, family law, money regulation, corporate law, constitutional law, sovereign lending– in scholarly debates and historical context to better understand how these enable, constrain and shape capitalist social relations. Throughout this course, we will examine the reproduction of group hierarchies, asymmetries, and antagonisms, and as expressed through class, race, gender, disability, and empire. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the requirement. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

FALL 2025: LAW JD 884 A1 , Sep 2nd to Dec 19th 2025
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Mon 10:40 am 12:40 pm 3 Zohra AhmedMadison Condon