Hassan M. Ahmad

Administrative law resonates deeply with Professor Hassan Ahmad because of what it reveals about how societies function in everyday life. At its core, he explains, the field “is about how people relate to their government, how government functions, how decisions are made about people and what decisions are made.” Its reach is extensive, touching matters such as immigration, human rights, property, and professional regulation, but often invisible when systems operate smoothly. As he puts it, “You don’t notice it when it’s good. You only notice it when there’s cracks in it.”

Professor Ahmad’s international experience – across Canada, the United States, and Europe – has strengthened his sense of how essential those systems are. Working in jurisdictions where institutional frameworks differ or are less robust has reinforced for him that administrative structures shape the very conditions of public life. In a “complex interdisciplinary world,” he notes, “you need guardrails on how we live our lives.”

In OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM in Administrative Law, Professor Ahmad teaches the required course, Administrative Law: Overview and Current Developments. He begins by grounding students in the doctrines that anchor the field, emphasizing “the history of and the current doctrine around procedural fairness,” followed by substantive and judicial review and the remedies available in administrative proceedings. Establishing this foundation allows students to understand not only what the law is, but why it developed the way it did.

The latter part of the course looks outward to issues currently before courts and tribunals – questions involving post-Vavilov jurisprudence, statutory appeal clauses, the relationship between administrative and Charter processes, and the interaction of Indigenous legal traditions with administrative decision-making. Students also explore early cases on artificial intelligence in administrative processes. As Professor Ahmad observes, “one issue that is becoming increasingly pertinent is the use of AI in administrative decision-making,” and courts are only beginning to address the implications.

As Academic Director of the Administrative Law LLM, Professor Hassan Ahmad is particularly motivated by the range of student experiences the program attracts. Many students have been applying administrative law concepts throughout their careers without a precise doctrinal framework; some, he notes, “have been working for decades” in regulatory, tribunal, or oversight roles. Supporting professionals in deepening that understanding, and ensuring the program reflects both foundational doctrine and contemporary developments, is central to his vision. His goal is to maintain “the foundational knowledge and grounding” students need while ensuring the program remains “in line and even on the cutting edge of where the world is going.”

A central scholarly question also informs his teaching: the evolving relationship between courts and the executive branch. For Professor Ahmad, the core tension on judicial review (“When can the courts step in?” and “when do courts take a deferential approach?”) speaks to a larger structural issue about how power is distributed. Administrative law, he notes, is ultimately connected to “how we order the three branches of government and the extent of power that we provide to these three branches of government.”

For students entering the LLM, studying with Professor Hassan Ahmad means engaging with both the historical foundations and the live, ongoing conversations that continue to shape the administrative state. Whether they come from ministries, tribunals, regulatory bodies, or legal practice, he hopes they finish the program with a stronger grasp of the institutional frameworks underlying public decision-making, and a deeper understanding of the role administrative law plays in supporting a functioning society.