Dr. Dahlan completed his Civil Law and Jurisprudential Studies in Jordan, first at Aal Al-Bayt University, where he studied Law and Jurisprudence and then at the Faculty of Law at The University of Jordan where he obtained his LL.B. in 1998. He then earned a Master’s degree in Government and another Master’s degree in Middle East Studies from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, in addition to receiving his LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and his Habilitation Doctorate in Public Policy (LL.D.) from Al-Azhar University.
He is a UN Constitutional Expert (and one of ten Regional Experts in Constitutional Affairs, Oil and Gas selected by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq). He has previously practised at White & Case LLP in New York and Washington DC. He spearheaded the establishment of the Brookings Center in Doha as well as the three-year Arab Governance Project. He was also the founding Director of the Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law and has been Special Adviser to The Rt. Hon. the Lord Woolf of Barnes, Former Chief Justice of England and Wales.
As an international trade lawyer by training, he advised the United States Trade Representative as well as provided policy advice to the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office. He collaborated with the US State Department and the Aspen Institute on the Judicial Engagement Project in 2011. Additionally, in 2013, he mobilized the establishment of Innovation Platform "iPlatform", an independent platform focused on post- Arab Spring generational dialogue through incubation of innovative young leadership aimed at finding practical solutions to pressing Rule of Law and governance challenges.
Dr. Dahlan is a Board Director of the International Mediation Institute at the Hague and CEDR Accredited Mediator. He has initiated the Transnational Negotiation Workshop at Harvard Law School. He is Chairman of GreenGulf Inc. He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Middle East and is a member of the Editorial Board of the UCLA Journal of Middle East Development, the Advisory Board of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law’s Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, and the University of Toronto-Yale Middle East Law and Governance Interdisciplinary Journal. He is an Aspen Institute Fellow, a Member of Chatham House and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and a member of the Institute of International Strategic Studies.