Muhammad Asif Khan

Dr. Muhammad Asif Khan

Research Fellow

Lehrstuhl für Human Rights Law

Schillerstr. 29
91054 Erlangen

 

 

Dr. Muhammad Asif Khan earned his doctorate in Public International Law from the University of Salzburg in Austria. He has over 15 years of academic, administrative, and research experience and has held positions in both South Asia and Europe. His recent research has focused on business and human Rights, the regulation of cyber warfare, and rightsholder remedies in international economic law.

Dr. Khan has studied and conducted research at leading institutions, including the University of Liverpool, the University of Michigan (as an International and Comparative Law Fellow in 2023), and Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (as the Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nuremberg – CHREN).

Dr. Khan also served as Head of Department at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). He has been actively involved in building legal education infrastructure, mentoring students, and introducing new interdisciplinary courses, including Business and Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, and Law & Technology.

In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Khan has worked as a research consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), contributing to policy development in areas such as cyber warfare law and the implementation of Pakistan’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.

Dr. Khan’s current research explores the effects of authoritarian legal structures on the Business and Human Rights discourse, with a focus on participatory governance, accountability, and legal empowerment of affected communities. Dr. Khan is particularly interested in how international legal regimes respond to the increasing complexity of global business, technology, and armed conflict in context of the right to development. His research seeks to bridge doctrinal legal analysis with real-world policy implications, particularly in the Global South.

Journal Articles

Khan M.A. and Hayat F. (2015) Pakistan’s Vulnerable Minorities and the Anti-Blasphemy Laws: Is there a way out? 1 Europa Ethnica 49-54.

Khan M.A. and Khan P. (2015): Granting Immunity to Global Public Private Partnerships and the Right to a Fair Trial Under Article 6 of ECHR and Article 14 of the ICCPR, 67 Journal of Law and Society 37-46.

Khan M.A. and Khan P. (2016): Defining Terrorism in National Laws: An Overview of the Definition of Terrorism in the Anti-Terrorism Act of Pakistan 1997, 69 Journal of Law and Society 115-126.

Khan M.A. and Khan I. (2017): Making Transnational Corporations more Responsible: A Human Rights Approach, 70 Journal of Law and Society 73-90.

Khan M.A. and Khan P. (2017): Liabilities of Transnational Corporations: Empowering the State Courts against Extraterritorial Wrongs by TNCs, 71 Journal of Law and Society 23-38.

Khan M.A. and Khan P. (2018): The Status of Non-State Armed Groups in Armed Conflicts, 73 Journal of Law and Society 1-12.

Khan M.A. (2019): Protecting Child Soldiers through Realizing the Rights of Children, 75 Journal of Law and Society 1-13.

Khan M.A. * (2020): Reducing the Threat of Cyber Warfare through a Suitable Dispute Resolution Mechanism, 13 Journal of the University of Latvia Law 97-120.

Khan M.A. (2021): The Right to a Fair Competition and Due Process of Law: An Uncommon Perspective, 5 Islamabad Law Review 1-23.

Khan M.A. and Ali B. (2021): Electronic Court System and Speedy Justice: A Comparative Critical Analysis of Legal Systems in Pakistan, Malaysia, and India, 3 Journal of Law and Social Policy 26-50.

Khan M.A. Khan U. Jamali A.K. and Jamshed J. * (2022): The Factors Contributing to a Corporation’s Demise: An Analysis of Enron, 6 (2) Journal of Management Practices, Humanities and Social Sciences 15-21.

Khan M.A.* (2022) Muhammad Fayaz and Umar Niaz, Liability of the Private Military Companies for Violations of International Humanitarian Law, 4(2) Journal of Law and Social Studies (2022), 247-261.

Khan M. A.* (2022). Proposing a Relative Enforcement Mechanism for the Treaty on Business and Human Rights, Review of Human Rights, 8(1), 21-45.

Khan M.A.* (2023) Legal Analysis of the Pakistan’s National Cyber Security Policy in the Context of Cyber Warfare, Journal of Law and Social Studies 5(1), 12-20.

Khan M.A., Imperialism in Law: Bridging the Divide Between Human Rights and Investment Treaties, (2025) Forthcoming in Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge).

Book Reviews
Miriam Saage-Maaß, Peer Zumbansen, Michael Bader and Palvasha Shahab (editors), Transnational Legal Activism in Global Value Chains: Ali Enterprises Factory Fire and the Struggle for Justice, (2023) 8(3) Business and Human Rights Journal.

Books
Khan M.A., A Textbook on International Humanitarian Law (forthcoming 2025), will be published by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Pakistan.

Book Chapters (Peer Reviewed)
Khan M.A. (2024) Access to an Effective Remedy through an Online Dispute Resolution in Context of Business and Human Rights, in Marianne Roth and Michael Geistlinger (eds.) Yearbook of International Arbitration and ADR (Volume VIII), Dike Verlag, Vienna/Zurich.

Blog Posts
“Legalising Authoritarianism Through Pakistan’s Supreme Court”, Verfassungsblog, 12 July 2025. https://verfassungsblog.de/legalising-authoritarianism-through-pakistans-supreme-court/

A critical analysis of recent jurisprudence by Pakistan’s Supreme Court and its role in legitimising hybrid authoritarianism.
“More Than a Verdict: Local Perspectives on the Pakistan–Reko Diq Dispute”, Business and Human Rights Journal Blog (BHRJ Blog), 1 May 2025.
https://bhrj.blog/2025/05/01/more-than-a-verdict-local-perspectives-on-the-pakistan-reko-diq-dispute/

An exploration of community narratives surrounding a major investment arbitration case in Pakistan, highlighting rightsholder perspectives.