Zahra Takhshid
Assistant Professor of Law
Specialization(s)
Privacy Law, technology, Torts
Professional Biography
Zahra Takhshid joined the University of Denver Sturm College of Law as an Assistant Professor in July 2021. Before joining DU, she was the Lewis Fellow for Law Teaching and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School where she taught “Common Law and Privacy Torts.” She teaches and writes about torts, contracts, privacy, social media, technology and the law. Part of her scholarship explores how to use tools from torts and contracts in resolving challenges with emerging technological developments. A second strand of her interest is Islamic and comparative law. Zahra is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She is also an affiliate with the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. She has been selected as the 2021 Quantum Fellow at the Center for Quantum Networks of University of Arizona in partnership with Yale Law School’s Information Society Project (ISP).
Zahra’s research has been published or is forthcoming in Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, Minnesota Law Review Online, Buffalo Law Review, UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, among others. She has contributed to the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology Digest and Harvard Islamic Law Blog.
Zahra holds a doctorate (S.J.D.) from Fordham Law School. She earned an LL.M. from the George Washington University Law School where she was the recipient of full tuition Thomas Buergenthal Scholarship. She also has an LL.M. (Summa Cum Laude) and an LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude) from University of Tehran School of Law and Political Science.
She is a native speaker of Farsi and proficient in French and Arabic. Zahra also has basic knowledge of the programming languages Swift and Python. She is licensed to practice law in the State of New York and Iran.
View CV
Degree(s)
The Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), Fordham University School of Law
Master of Laws (LL.M.), George Washington University Law School
Master of Laws (LL.M.) (Private and Islamic Law), University of Tehran, School of Law and Political Science
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), University of Tehran, School of Law and Political Science
Featured Publications
- Consumer Protection and the Illusory Promise of the Unconscionability Defense, (with Benjamin Zipursky), 103 Texas L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025).
- Wearable AI, Bystander Notice, and the Question of Privacy Frictions, 104 Boston L. Rev. (2024) (invited symposium).
- Data as Likeness, Georgetown L. J. (forthcoming 2024).
- Quantum Privacy, Cambridge Handbook of Emerging Issues at the Intersection of Commercial Law and Technology (forthcoming 2024).
- Children’s Digital Privacy and the Case Against Parental Consent, 101 Texas L. Rev., 2023.
- Assumption of Risk in Consumer Contracts and the Distraction of Unconscionability, 42 Cardozo L. Rev., 2021.
- Regulating Social Media in the Global South, 24 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L., 2022.
- Retrievable Images on Social Media Platforms: A Call for a New Privacy Tort, 68 Buffalo L. Rev. 1 2020.
- Nonessential Businesses and Liability Waivers in the Time of COVID-19, 105 Minnesota. L. Rev. Headnotes 42-53, 2020.
- Kidney, Money, and the Shī‘ah Implementation of the Rule of Necessity, UCLA J. of Islamic & N. E. Law, 2021.
- An Introductory Study on the Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in Tort Law, U. of Tehran, J. of Private L., Spring-Summer 2021 [in Farsi].
- Lessons from Regulating E-Cigarettes: A Case of Coercive Paternalism, Nudging, or Behaviorally Informed Boosting? J. of Biomedical L. & Ethics [Peer-Reviewed] (symposium essay) Spring-Summer 2020.
- Defenses to the Tort of Negligence: A Comparative Study of the Iranian and the American Legal Systems (With Dr. Laya Joneydi) Legal Research Quarterly, Shahid Beheshti U. L. Rev. [Peer-Reviewed] [in Farsi] (Forthcoming 2021).
- Denied Boarding and Overbooked Flights: A Comparative Study of Contracts of Carriage (with Dr. Izanloo and Mr. Shahin) Shiraz U. J. of Legal Studies [Peer-Reviewed] [in Farsi], 2021.
- Defamation and the Concept of Public Figure in the Iranian Legal System, 23 Comparative Law Research Tarbiat Modares U. L. Rev., No. 4, Winter 2020, 1-35. [Peer-Reviewed] [in Farsi].
- A Critical Study of the Methodology of Comparative U.S. Tort Law Research (with Dr. Hassan Badini), 49 Private Law Studies Quarterly, U. of Tehran L. Rev., No. 2, Summer 2019, 217-237. [Peer-Reviewed] [in Farsi].
- International Protection of Child, A Case Study of Girl Child Labor in Bangladesh and Nigeria, (with Dr. Nassrin Mossafa), 6 Women, Law and Development Journal of Women’s Studies, No. 2, Fall 2014 [in Farsi].
Other Writings
- New Mexico v. Google LLC: Children’s Privacy and the Promises of Big Tech, Harvard J.L. & Tech. Digest, Mar. 2020.
- Organic Labeling: Reconciling Religious Freedom and Animal Welfare in the European Union, Harvard Program in Islamic Law Blog, Nov. 13, 2019.
