Publications

Ghahramani, Salar. (Forthcoming). “Wealth and Diplomacy: The Foreign Policy Dimensions of a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund.” Yale Journal of International Affairs.

Ghahramani, Salar. (Forthcoming). “Professors and Company Law: Implications for Academic Freedom.” American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2024). “Institutional Framework and Governance Structure of Sovereign Wealth Funds.” In H. Kent Baker, Jeffrey H. Harris, and Ghiyath Nakshbendi (Eds.) The Palgrave Handbook on Sovereign Wealth Funds, pp. 101-121. Available at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-50821-9.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2024). “Corporate Governance and Compelled Speech: Do State-imposed Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?.” DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal, Vol. 22(1), pp. 33-56. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=4652355.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2024). “Transparent Strategies for Sovereign Wealth Funds: Policy Recommendations on Private Equity.” Chief Investment Officer. Available at https://www.ai-cio.com/news/transparent-strategies-for-sovereign-wealth-funds-policy-recommendations-on-private-equity.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2024). “Do Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?” Columbia Law School Blue Sky on Corporations and Capital Markets. Available at https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2024/01/12/do-board-diversity-mandates-violate-free-speech.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2023). “Corporate Governance and Equal Protection: Legal Challenges to State-mandated Diversity in Corporate Boards.” Business Law Review, Vol.44(2), pp. 100-113. Available at https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Business+Law+Review/44.2/BULA2023011.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2020). “Sovereign Investors as Trustees of Environmental Intergenerational Equity.” European Business Law Review, Vol. 31(3), pp. 345-358. Available at https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/European+Business+Law+Review/31.3/EULR2020015.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2018). “Business Ethics, Contractarianism, and (Optional?) Fiduciary Duties in Corporate Law.” Business Law Review, Vol. 39(1), pp. 20-24. Available at https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Business+Law+Review/39.1/BULA2018005.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2017). “Sovereign Wealth and the Extraterritorial Manipulation of Corporate Conduct: A Multifaceted Paradigm in Transnational Law.” In Douglas Cumming, Igor Filatotchev, Julianne Reinecke and Geoffrey Wood (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds (pp. 208-227). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/27969/chapter-abstract/211593608?redirectedFrom=fulltext.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2016). “Professors as Corporate Fiduciaries: Implications for Law, Organizational Ethics, and Public Policy.” Law & Business Review, Vol. 10(2), pp. 237-271. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2588199.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2015). “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Human Rights Protection.” In Fabio Bassan (Ed.) Research Handbook on Sovereign Wealth Funds and International Investment Law (pp. 321-332). Camberley, UK: Elgar’s International Financial Law Series. Available at https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-sovereign-wealth-funds-and-international-investment-law-9781781955192.html.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2014). “Sovereigns, Socially Responsible Investing, and the Enforcement of International Law through Portfolio Investment and Shareholder Activism: The Three Models.” Journal of International Law, Vol. 35(4), pp. 1073-1083. Available at https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jil/vol35/iss4/5/.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2014). “Fiduciary Duty and the Ex Officio Conundrum in Corporate Governance: The Troublesome Murkiness of the Gubernatorial Trustee’s Obligations.” Hastings Business Law Journal, Vol. 10(1), pp.1-35. Available at https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_business_law_journal/vol10/iss1/1/.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2014). “Divestment Laws, Fiduciary Duty, and Pension Fund Management: An Empirical Examination.” International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 56(1), pp. 29-37. Available at https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJLMA-09-2011-0007/full/html.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2013). “Sovereign Wealth Funds, Transnational Law, and the New Paradigms of International Financial Relations.” Yale Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 8(2), pp. 52-64. Available at https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/sovereign-wealth-funds-transnational-law-and-the-new-paradigms-of-international-financial-relations.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2013). “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Shareholder Activism: Applying the Ryan-Schneider Antecedents to Determine Policy Implications.” Corporate Governance, Vol. 13(1), pp. 58-69. Available at https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14720701311302413/full/html?skipTracking=true.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2012). “Public Pensions, International Affairs, and Divestment Regulations: A Critical Analysis and Call for a Model Law.” Pensions: An International Journal, Vol. 17(2), pp. 80-87. Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/pm.2012.6.

Pacini, Carl, Jeffrey S. Paterson and Salar Ghahramani. (2011). “The Uncertain Liability of Accountants and Other Professionals in Securities Fraud Cases: The Shifting Sands of Central Bank.” Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, Vol. 3(3), pp. 46-67. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2239747.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2011). “Protecting Public Pension Funds from Divestment-related Lawsuits: Exploring the State Laws of the United States.” Pensions: An International Journal, Vol. 16(3), pp. 212-219. Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/pm.2011.17.

Ghahramani, Salar. (2011). “Governments, Financial Markets, and International Human Rights: The State’s Role as Shareholder.” Yale Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 6(1), pp. 85-95. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1782908.

International Experience

Invited Scholar & Fulbright Specialist, Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

•  Developed Cambodia’s first international and comparative labor law curriculum at the masters level and completed teaching and research duties for the program pursuant to a Fulbright Grant from the U.S. Department of State; devised and delivered two sections of the course to combined student groups of RULE, University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and Université libre de Bruxelles.

Invited Scholar, Independent Lawyers’ Association of Myanmar (ILAM), Yangon, Myanmar 

• Conducted research on rule of law and civil society in Myanmar and presented a lecture titled “Corporate Expression and Constitutionalism” to the members of ILAM, the country’s first independent bar association.

Invited Visiting Scholar, Singapore Management University School of Law, Singapore 

• Conducted a seminar on fiduciary duties under corporate law. Researched Temasek Holdings’ corporate governance and SRI initiatives through shareholder activism.

Member, Fulbright Specialist Roster, U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs 

• Admitted as an expert in Constitutional Law and Theory, Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Financial Law, and International Business & Trade Law.

Invited Visiting Scholar, University of Lucerne Faculty of Law, Lucerne, Switzerland 

• Conducted research on Swiss corporate governance and fiduciary law in employee-employer relations.

Invited Visiting Scholar, University of Oslo Faculty of Law, Oslo, Norway 

• Conducted research at the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, exploring the Norwegian legal system and the treatment of business and human rights under domestic laws. Findings resulted in a project titled “Sovereign Wealth and the Extraterritorial Manipulation of Corporate Conduct: A Multifaceted Paradigm in Transnational Law,” published in the Oxford Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds by Oxford University Press.

Visiting Scholar, European University Institute (EUI), Academy of European Law, Fiesole, Italy 

• Completed a program on the limits of European constitutional law and the intersection of fundamental rights and private law, received a Certificate in the Law of the European Union, and researched the impact of EU law on socially responsible investing in general and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in particular. The research conducted resulted in three conference presentations and an article in the Journal of International Law.

Lead Faculty & Program Director, Pennsylvania State University Embedded Study Abroad, The Netherlands & Belgium 

• Created and taught a course entitled “Globalization: The Intersection of Law, Politics, & the Financial Markets”; Led 12 undergraduate and graduate students to financial, legal, and political centers in Amsterdam, Brussels, Maastricht, and The Hague. Program’s visits included the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, and the European Commission

Invited Lecturer in International Law, Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies, Maastricht, the Netherlands 

• Co-taught a course entitled “Human Rights Law: An Experiential Perspective.” Organized attendance of proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague.