Helyeh Doutaghi is the Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project and an Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School. Her research explores the intersections of the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), encompassing Marxian and postcolonial critiques of law, sanctions, and international political economy. Helyeh’s doctoral dissertation draws on the mechanisms, harms, and beneficiaries of the sanctions regime imposed on Iran, centering questions of value transfer and wealth drain. Additionally, she is interested in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), having written about its history, practice, and the production of knowledge (and ignorance), particularly in the context of the US military. 

During her doctoral studies, Helyeh taught topics including social justice and international human rights at Carleton University. She has contributed to a variety of scholarly and popular journals, such as the Leiden Journal of International Law, Middle East Critique, Articles of War, Geopolitical Economy Report, The Conversation, The Hill Times, and Rabble.ca, among others. Before completing her doctoral studies in law and legal studies, Helyeh obtained her LLM in Transnational Law from King’s College London and her BA Honors in Law, with a minor in Political Science, at Carleton University.

Over the past decade, Helyeh has been actively engaged in the Canadian student movement on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. She has been a dedicated organizer in international anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and anti-capitalist campaigns and has taken on leadership roles within prominent grassroot organizations and initiatives.