International Studies

Phone:

(812) 856-7238

Email:

ranas@iu.edu

Department:

International Studies

Campus:

IU Bloomington

Research Summary

My research interests focus on international and comparative law, specifically in the areas of corporate governance and social responsibility, gender, and human rights, business and technology policy, and immigration and refugee law. I have also been involved in advocacy and legal reform efforts in these areas, including testifying before the Indiana legislature and filing Supreme Court and other federal court amicus briefs. Before coming to Indiana University, I served as Of Counsel at Brooks Pierce LLP, helping grow the international law practice. Previously, I was also an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Law School and was a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley Law School. Prior to entering academia, I was a Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations, working for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women during the Committee’s 38th and 39th Sessions. I also worked at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC, and Quinn Emanuel LLP in San Francisco, CA, where I focused primarily on international, corporate, and administrative law. I clerked for the Hon. James R. Browning at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. I have lived and worked in Japan, the U.K., Finland, Malaysia, and China.

Educational Background

• J.D., Columbia Law School
• M.Sc., London School of Economics and Political Science
• B.A., University of California, Berkeley

Representative Publications

Recent Amicus Briefs

• Brief of Seven Immigration/Administrative Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, U.S. Supreme Court, Nielsen v. Preap, August 13, 2018
• Brief of Administrative Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, O.L.B.D. v. Sessions/Whittaker/Barr, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, March 11, 2019
• Brief of Administrative Law Professors as Amici Curiae In support of Plaintiffs, Grace v. Sessions, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, September 28, 2018

Journal Articles, Book Chapters, and Other Works

• The Global Battle over Copyright Reform: Developing the Rule of Law in the Chinese Business Context, 53 Stanford Journal of International Law 89 (2017). 
• The Emergence of New Corporate Responsibility Regimes in India and China, 14 U.C. DAVIS BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL 175 (2014) (Invited article) (with Afra Afsharipour);
• Philanthropic Innovation and Creative Capitalism: A Historical and Comparative Perspective on Social Entrepreneurship, 64 ALABAMA LAW REVIEW 1121(2013).
• Chevron Without the Courts? The Supreme Court’s Recent Chevron Jurisprudence Through an Immigration Lens, 26 GEORGETOWN IMMIGRATION LAW JOURNAL 313 (2012).
• “Streamlining” the Rule of Law: How the Department of Justice Is Undermining Judicial Review of Agency Action, 2009 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LAW REVIEW 829 (2009).
• Fulfilling Technology’s Promise: Enforcing the Rights of Women Caught in the Global High-Tech Underclass, 15 BERKELEY WOMEN’S LAW JOURNAL 272 (2000).
• Restricting the Rights of Poor Mothers: An International Human Rights Critique of “Workfare”, 33 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF LAW & SOCIAL PROBLEMS 393 (2000).
• Pro Bono Legal Services for Human Rights, Iangel Pro Bono Whitepaper (with Nancy Newman and Mary Maloney) (1st ed. 2015; 2nd ed. 2016); available at: http://www.iangel.org/pro-bono-legal-services-for-human-rights-2016/.
• Taxation and Incentives in the Business Enterprise, in ENTERPRISE LAW: CONTRACTS, MARKETS, AND LAWS IN THE US AND JAPAN (Edward Elgar Press, 2014) (with David Gamage) (Book Chapter).
• Immigration Law’s New Frontiers, 75 OHIO STATE LAW JOURNAL FURTHERMORE 19 (2014).
• Corporate Social Responsibility In India, CONFERENCE BOARD DIRECTOR NOTES (2014) (with Afra Afsharipour).
• Teaching Amidst Transformation: Integrating Global Perspectives on the Financial Crisis in the Classroom, 8 JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY LAW 197 (2013).
• The Emergence of the New Chinese Banking System: Implications for Global Politics and the Future of Financial Reform, 27 MARYLAND JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 215 (2012).
• Touched by Greatness, 73 Montana Law Review 21 (2012).
• Citizenship Under Fire: The Forging of the New Americans, 47 TULSA LAW REVIEW 31 (2011). 
• From Making Money Without Doing Evil to Doing Good Without Handouts: The Google.org Experiment in Philanthropy, 3 JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY LAW 87 (2008).
• America’s Forgotten Families: Voices of Welfare Reform,2000 NATIONAL REPORT OF THE WELFARE & HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING PROJECT (Publication of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee,2000). ​