Professor Sanaa Ahmed

Dr. Sanaa Ahmed

PhD

Positions

Associate Professor

Faculty of Law

Contact information

Email

sanaa.ahmed@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Twitter

Phone number

Office: 403.220.3864

Location

Office: MFH4336

Background

Educational Background

PhD York University,

LLM University of Warwick,

LLB S.M. Law College, University of Karachi,

BA University of Karachi,

Biography

Prior to joining UCalgary Law in 2021, Sanaa was a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University. Her research explored the money laundering industry in Canada. While at York University, she worked as a research assistant on a variety of projects including a policy paper for an SSHRC-funded symposium on Revisiting Crimes of the Powerful, corruption in public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects in Canada, anti-money laundering regulatory power structures, and a UN Human Rights Advisory Committee report on the impact of non-repatriation of illicit funds on the countries of origin on the enjoyment of human rights. 

Prior to her career in academia, Sanaa was an editor, writer, producer and reporter for several media outlets in Pakistan, including The News, BBC Urdu Service, Express Tribune, Samaa Television, Dawn News, Herald Magazine and Pakistan Business Update.

Research

Areas of Research

Money Laundering, Financial Crime, Financial Regulation, Criminal Law, Human Rights and Surveillance

Awards

  • Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dalhousie University. 2019
  • Harley D. Hallet Graduate Scholarship, Osgoode Hall Law School. 2018
  • Peter W. Hogg Graduate Award, 2016

Publications

  • "Re-reading power inside the AML-CTF regime". Sanaa Ahmed. Dalhousie Law Journal. 48:1. (2025)
  • "The fatal flaw of glocal ‘solutions’ to Illicit Financial Flows". Sanaa Ahmed. Special issue on Economic and Financial Crimes Across Disciplines (eds Louis de Koker, Joy Malala, Nkechikwu Azinge-Egbiri, Chukwuemeka Nwabuzor & Folashade Adeyemo) in the Journal of Economic Criminology 7. (2025)
  • “Presence through absence? Understanding the role of capital in the African Human Rights Action Plan”. Obiora C. Okafor, Sanaa Ahmed, Sylvia Bawa & Ibironke Odumusu-Ayanu. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Volume 58, Issue 4. (2020)
  • “Money Laundering”. Sanaa Ahmed & Margaret E. Beare. Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology. (2018)
  • “Supremely fallible: a debate on judicial restraint and activism in Pakistan”. Sanaa Ahmed. Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law, ICL Journal, Vol 9, 2/2015. (2015)
  • “The politics of financial regulation”. Sanaa Ahmed. Socio-Legal Review, Volume 11(1). (2015)
  • "Surveilling the Citizen: Constitutional Tensions within the Canadian AML Regime". Sanaa Ahmed. in (eds) Doron Goldbarsht, Louis de Koker & Jamie Ferrill Combatting Financial Crime: Intended and Unintended Consequences. (Cham, Springer Cham). 217-215. (2025)
  • “Locating the centre: state, capital and the political economy of money laundering in Canada” in Tonita Murray, ed, Big Policing and Big Crime: Is it all about the money. Sanaa Ahmed. University of Toronto Press. (2023)
  • “Running with the Hares, Hunting with the Hounds: the Canadian State and Money Laundering” in Christian Leuprecht, ed, State of the Federation 2020. Sanaa Ahmed. Queen’s University Press. (2023)
  • “Harmonious coexistence: law and laundering in Canada” in Robert Currie, ed, Transnational and Cross-Border Crime: Canadian Perspectives. Sanaa Ahmed. Irwin Law. (2023)
  • "Law in a World of Change: Selected Essays in Memory of Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed". Kazim Hasan, Nausheen Ahmad, Sanaa Ahmed & Salahuddin Ahmed, eds. Pakistan Law House. (2012)
  • "A Structured Ambivalence? A Multidisciplinary International Conference on Third World Approaches to International Law and Governance in a Time of Global Crises". Sanaa Ahmed. York University. (2025)
  • "Double Standards in International Economic Law". Sanaa Ahmed. Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. (2024)
  • "Purdy Crawford Workshop on International Business Law". Sanaa Ahmed. Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. (2024)
  • "Financial intelligence and the strategy of disruption". Sanaa Ahmed. Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. (2024)
  • "Not so radical: glocal solutions to the IFFs problem". Sanaa Ahmed. Transnational Criminal Law Review conference. (2024)
  • "Glocal Governance of Illicit Financial Flows". Sanaa Ahmed. Global South Dialogue on Economic Crime conference. (2023)
  • "Running with the hare, hunting with the hounds: The Canadian State and Money Laundering". Sanaa Ahmed. Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. (2023)
  • "Women in financial crime". Sanaa Ahmed. Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. (2023)
  • Sanaa Ahmed. 2021 Global Scholars Academy. (2021)
  • “The political economy of money laundering in Canada”. Sanaa Ahmed. Law and Society Association 2020 conference. (2020)
  • “Presence through absence? Understanding the role of capital in the African Human Rights Action Plan”. Sanaa Ahmed. Canadian Association of African Studies conference. (2019)
  • “Regulatory transgression? Drivers, aims and effects of money laundering and terrorism financing regulation in Pakistan”. Sanaa Ahmed. SOAS/ Durham Postgraduate Colloquium on Critical International Law. (2018)
  • “Regulatory transgression? Drivers, aims and effects of money laundering and terrorism financing regulation in Pakistan” . Sanaa Ahmed. Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Conference . (2018)
  • “Fighting organized crime and corruption: globalized responses, unequal costs” . Sanaa Ahmed. Revisiting Crimes of the Powerful: A Global Conversation on Capitalism, Corporations, and Crime symposium. (2017)
  • “At what cost? Money laundering and terrorism financing regulation in Pakistan”. Sanaa Ahmed. Graduate Law Students Association conference. (2016)
  • “Judicialising national security”. Sanaa Ahmed. Graduate Law Students Association conference. (2016)

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