Biography:
Faraz Shahlaei is a JSD Candidate at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. His research and teaching interests are public international law, international sports law, international human rights and dispute resolution.
Shahlaei holds a Bachelor of Law from the Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran; an LLM in International Law from the University of Judicial Studies, Tehran; and an LLM in dispute resolution from the Strauss Institute, Pepperdine School of Law.
Before moving to the United States, Shahlaei worked for ten years in Iran as notary and as legal counsel for Iranian athletes in their relations with their clubs and in proceedings before the disciplinary committees of sport governing bodies.
Shahlaei is a former professional volleyball player, and has worked with volleyball teams as a coach on grassroots levels in Iran. He is also a certified volleyball coach and a swimming instructor. He is currently a volleyball referee of both the Southern California Volleyball Association and the Southern California Interscholastic Federation.
At Pepperdine, he worked with an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sports, on a number of cases, mostly related to doping, and had an externship with the United States Olympic Committee Athlete Ombudsman. He also worked as a volunteer mediator with the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Center for Conflict Resolution.
Shahlaei has published both in English and Farsi and was a speaker in 2019 Play the Game conference in Colorado Springs. Publications include:
- When Sport Stands Against Human Rights: Regulating Restrictions on Athlete Speech in the Global Sports Arena, 39 Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review 95 (2017).
- Soccer Stadiums, Where International Law, Racism and Cultures Collide, 7 Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, Arizona State University 291 (2018).
- International State Responsibility and Victims of State Sponsored Doping, 27 Michigan State International Law Review, 339 (2019).
Dissertation:
Mr. Shahlaei's research focuses on public international law, international sports law, international human rights and dispute resolution.
Faculty Advisor: Cesare Romano