Ying Xia on Guerrilla Lawyering: Mobile Resistance in China’s Environmental Public Interest Litigation (LSR)

"Guerrilla Lawyering: Mobile Resistance in China’s Environmental Public Interest Litigation"
Ying Xia
Law & Society Review, First View, pp. 1 - 27
Published online: September 2025

Abstract: This study examines the transformation of environmental public interest lawyering in China within an ever-tightening legal order, where activists confront both state suppression and co-optation. Utilizing qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with 49 environmental lawyers and activists, participant observations, and online ethnography, the research delineates two divergent models of legal mobilization. The conventional model prioritizes compliance with state regulations, employing impact litigation and consensus-building with state institutions to drive incremental environmental reforms, often at the cost of aligning with state priorities. In contrast, guerrilla lawyering emerges as an innovative strategy, leveraging decentralized networks, experimentalist litigation, flexible funding, and diffused media tactics to sustain activism while preserving autonomy. By transforming courts into platforms for generating critical information and exposing systemic vulnerabilities, guerrilla lawyering resists assimilation into state-controlled schemes. This approach not only ensures movement survival amidst repression but also enriches theoretical understandings of legal mobilization under authoritarianism by addressing the understudied risk of co-optation. These findings illuminate the resilience and ingenuity of activists in China’s constrained environmental advocacy landscape and offer a transferable framework for resistance for social movements in other authoritarian contexts, amid the global rise of authoritarian legality.

Hualing Fu interviewed on Innovating Legal Education at HKU (Hong Kong Lawyer)

"Innovating Legal Education at HKU"
Doris Yu
Hong Kong Lawyer
October 2023

As Dean of the Faculty of Law at The University of Hong Kong, Fu Hualing is keenly aware of the importance of innovation in legal education. His job is important in guiding and shaping the next generation of legal professionals. Effectively doing this requries hiring high quality professors, restructuring curricula and incorporating technology into course work that allows both faculty and students to keep up with new emerging practice areas and the changing demands on the legal profession. The past few years have been marked by change, and those that lead the education of legal professionals have to adapt to the new environments, the confluence of Chinese law and common law, new technologies and new ways of working for the legal profession...Click here to read the full interview.

Welcome the new Global Academic Fellow Dr Jiahui Duan!

Welcome to Dr Jiahui Duan who joined the Faculty of Law as a Global Academic Fellow. Dr Jiahui Duan is an interdisciplinary legal researcher with an interest in feminist jurisprudence, legal consciousness, labor rights, power, and resistance. She has previously researched the land rights of rural Chinese married-out women. The current research she conducts focuses on workplace sexual harassment issues in China, with the aim of understanding the development of workplace sexual harassment issues in Chinese society, as well as exploring potential anti-sexual harassment strategies within an emerging economic and political context such as China’s. A common intellectual thread of her work is: examining how individuals’ legal consciousness is formed, reshaped, or even disintegrated in their interactions with other socio-legal actors, and investigating the dynamics of legal rules, social norms, and human agency, as well as the Internet and other technologies.

    Dr Duan received her J.S.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She was also a Lloyd M. Robbins Fellow and a BELS Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, she was a certified lawyer in mainland China.    

      Research Areas:

• Law and society
• Gender and Law
• Employment Law

Albert Chen on The Evolution of Modern Chinese Nationality Law: A Historical Perspective (China Review)

"The Evolution of Modern Chinese Nationality Law: A Historical Perspective"
Albert Chen
China Review

Published online: 19 May 2023

Abstract: The legal concept of nationality was a Western import into China in the 19th century. The modern notion of nationality was a product of modern public international law and the domestic constitutional laws of Western states. In 1909, China under the Qing Dynasty enacted its first nationality law. After the Republic of China was founded, it enacted in 1912 a nationality law which was largely the same as the 1909 law. This law was slightly amended in 1914. After the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) came into power, a new nationality law was enacted in 1929. This law is still largely in force in Taiwan today. The People's Republic of China only adopted its first nationality law in 1980. This law is still in force today. This article will trace the evolution of modern Chinese nationality law by examining the laws mentioned above. It will seek to understand the evolving Chinese nationality law in the light of its changing political and social contexts and the international environment in which China found itself.

HKU Law Welcomes Dr Taorui Guan, Research Assistant Professor

Welcome to Dr Taorui Guan, Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Law. His research work is primarily concentrated on the development of technology markets, legal reforms in response to emerging technologies, the interplay between intellectual property and finance, and China’s innovation system. He publishes his findings in both Chinese and English. From 2019-2020, he held the Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship at the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy of George Mason University. He won the John M. Olin Prize in Law and Economics in 2021.

In the classroom, Dr. Guan instructs students on intellectual property and information technology, copyright law, and Chinese intellectual property law. He also acts as a tutor in a course that provides an introduction to Chinese law.

His academic credentials include an S.J.D. and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law. During his doctoral studies, he received the Chinese Government Doctoral Scholarship. He also earned an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from Renmin University of China, where he was named a Distinguished Graduate and was awarded a National Scholarship for Graduate Students. His initial degrees, a BA in Business English and an LL.B., were obtained from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, where he was the recipient of the National Scholarship for Undergraduate Students and the First Class Scholarship for two years running.

Having successfully passed the Chinese Judicial Examination, Dr. Guan is also a member of the New York State Bar. His professional affiliations include membership in the Chinese Law Society.

His Research areas include:

• Intellectual Property Law
• Law and Technology
• Chinese Law

HKU Research Awards in the Law Faculty in 2021-2022

Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner Awarded Outstanding Researcher Award

Congratulations to Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Outstanding Researcher Award (ORA), in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong.  He is also  the recipient of  RGC Senior Research Fellow in 2020, Finalist for edX Prize in 2020, and Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2007.   Currently, he is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, as well as the Director of LLM in Compliance and Regulation, and LLM in Corporate and Financial Law, and Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (LITE) Programmes, and is the former Director of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law at the University of Hong Kong, . He served as Head of the HKU Department of Law from 2011 to 2014 and as Co-Director of the Duke University-HKU Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law from 2005 to 2016. Douglas has published eighteen books, including most recently The RegTech Book (Wiley 2019), and Reconceptualising Global Finance and its Regulation (Cambridge 2016); Financial Markets in Hong Kong: Law and Practice (Oxford, 2d ed., 2016), Finance in Asia: Institutions, Regulation and Policy (Routledge 2013), From Crisis to Crisis: The Global Financial Crisis and Regulatory Failure (Kluwer 2011) and Financial Stability, Economic Growth and the Role of Law (Cambridge 2007), and more than 200 articles, chapters and reports on international financial law and regulation. His recent papers are available on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=524849, where he is among the top 75 authors in the world by total downloads. Douglas led the development of Introduction to FinTech – launched with edX in May 2018 and now with over 80,000 learners spanning every country in the world. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, and an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE). Douglas was an inaugural member of the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council (2013-2019) and has served as a consultant with, among others, the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, APEC, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has lectured, co-organised conferences and seminars and been involved with financial sector reform projects around the world. He is currently leading a major 5 year Hong Kong Research Grants Council Senior Research Fellowship project on the role of FinTech and RegTech in financial inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as a 4 year RGC Research Impact Fund project focusing on FinTech policy and regulation. From 2012-2018, Douglas served as Project Coordinator of a major five-year project funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Theme-based Research Scheme on “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre”. He is currently one of the core team of another TRS project focusing on digital finance, financial stability and financial inclusion.  He has been a visiting professor or fellow at Duke, Harvard, the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research, IDC Herzliya, McGill, Melbourne, National University of Singapore, University of New South Wales, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Zurich, among others. 

     Click here to view more on  Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner's work.

Dr Angela Zhang Awarded Outstanding Young Researcher Award

Congratulations to Dr Angela Zhang who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (OYRA) in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong. She won the Research Output Prize in 2019, in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong, for her scholarly work entitled “The Role of Media in Antirust: Evidence from China,” (2018) 41 Fordham International Law Journal 473-530.

     Currently, she serves as Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong, which promotes legal scholarship with the aims of developing a deeper understanding of China and facilitating dialogue between East and West.  She is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law in the University of Hong Kong. An expert in Chinese law, Angela has written extensively on Chinese regulatory issues. Her first book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism garnered significant attention during Beijing’s crackdown on Chinese Big Tech and was named a Best Political Economy Book of the Year by ProMarket in 2021. Angela is now working on her second book about China’s model of regulatory governance, which is expected to be released in 2023.

            With a broad research interests in the areas of law and economics, particularly in transnational legal issues bearing on businesses, she as a young researcher has massive research outputs appearing in leading international law reviews such as Harvard International Law Journal, Yale International Law Journal, Stanford International Law Journal, as well as top peer-reviewed journals from other disciplines such as Management Science and China Quarterly.

          She is a four-time recipient of the Concurrence Antitrust Writing Award, which selects the best articles published globally in the field of antitrust law each year. She received a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (£10,000) in 2014 and two Hong Kong GRF grants, one (HK$637,440) in 2018 and the other (HK$ 656,825) in 2021.

      She is a highly sought-after commentator on Chinese regulatory issues. She often speaks at prestigious antitrust conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is also frequently interviewed by major international media outlets and regularly contributes commentaries to the popular press.

     Click here to view more on Dr Angela Zhang's work.

Thomas Cheng Awarded Research Output Prize

Congratulations to Thomas Cheng who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Research Output Prize  (ROP) in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong. The research output prize was for his book, The Patent-Competition Interface in Developing Countries, published by Oxford University Press, in 2021 (544pp). 

     Currently, he is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, who has written extensively on competition law in developing countries and on the competition law of a number of Asian jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, China, and Japan. His research has appeared in respected specialist U.S. journals, including Chicago Journal of International Law, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Virginia Law & Business Review, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, and in leading competition law journals such as Journal of Antitrust Enforcement and World Competition. In 2020, he published Competition Law in Developing Countries, with Oxford University Press. 

     His research has been recognized internationally. He has been twice awarded the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award in the vertical restraints and antitrust and IP categories. Apart from awards, his stature as a scholar has been recognized through appointments to the executive and advisory boards of a number of leading international competition law organizations such as the American Antitrust Institute and the Academic Society for Competition Law (“ASCOLA”). He has made critical contributions to the development of competition law in Hong Kong. He advised the government extensively during the drafting of the city’s first competition law. He was a member of the inaugural Competition Commission and played a pivotal role in staff recruitment and setting up the Commission.

HKU Law Welcomes Professor Daniel A Bell, Chair of Political Theory

Welcome to Professor Daniel A Bell who joined the Faculty of Law!  Daniel A Bell (貝淡寧) is Professor, Chair of Political Theory with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He served as Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University (Qingdao) from 2017 to 2022. 

     His books include The Dean of Shandong (2023), Just Hierarchy (co-authored with Wang Pei, 2020), The China Model (2015), The Spirit of Cities (co-authored with Avner de-Shalit, 2012), China's New Confucianism (2008), Beyond Liberal Democracy (2007), and East Meets West (2000), all published by Princeton University Press.  He is also the author of Communitarianism and Its Critics (Oxford University Press, 1993).
     He is founding editor of the Princeton-China series (Princeton University Press) which translates and publishes original and influential academic works from China. His works have been translated in 23 languages. He has been interviewed in English, Chinese, and French. In 2018, he was awarded the Huilin Prize and was honored as a “Cultural Leader” by the World Economic Forum.

HKU Law Call for Papers: The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research: Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions (due: 30 Nov 2022)

The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research:

Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions

CALL FOR PAPERS

Empirical studies of the Chinese legal system have proliferated in recent decades. This trend has only been accelerated by greater generation of data on the one hand and methodological innovations in the social sciences on the other. Empirical legal research promises to enrich our understanding of legal phenomenon and to furnish a knowledge base for debating legal doctrine and theory. But the apparent objectivity of numbers can also mislead those unfamiliar with the assumptions and extrapolations underlying many of the conclusions drawn from quantitative research. To foster critical and constructive discussion about this emerging field, the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law will host a conference on " The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research: Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions" to be held in-person at the University’s Centennial Campus on 9 and 10 January 2023. The conference organizer will cover the lodging and travel expenses of all invited speakers.

Submissions may address one or more of the following topics:

• Data generation and collection
• Methodological choices and trade-offs
• The generalizability or representativeness of small or local samples
• The relationship between empirical and theoretical or doctrinal research

Submission requirements:

The submission must address the topic of the call for papers, including but not limited to the topics listed above.  Proposals may be submitted as drafts or abstracts of approximately 500 words.

Submissions should be made through the following form on or before 30 November 2022: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5mr7O0rwf7l6JLw

Acceptances will be communicated by 7 December 2022. In addition, a special issue of the Hong Kong Law Journal will be dedicated to the proceedings of the conference. Submissions may be revised before publication. Final manuscripts are due 30 April 2023. All enquiries should be addressed to Ms. Yin Xiaohan at yxh0222@connect.hku.hk.

AJLS Book Discussion: Non-Governmental Orphan Relief in China: Law, Policy and Practice, by Anna High (Zheng Xu and Shahla Ali)

"Book Discussion: Non-Governmental Orphan Relief in China: Law, Policy and Practice, by Anna High: Comments by Zheng Xu and Shahla Ali"
Zheng Xu & Shahla Ali

Asian Journal of Law and Society
Published on 13 July 2022

Abstract: Anna High's masterful and thoughtful book, Non-Governmental Orphan Relief in China: Law, Policy and Practice, examines the interplay between non-governmental and governmental orphan relief efforts in Mainland China. Both specialist and non-specialist readers will appreciate the humanitarian value of this work, focusing as it does on issues of child rights in the context of China's most disadvantaged children — gu'er, otherwise known as "the lonely orphans."

     High's book is the result of in-depth socio-legal case-based research published by the Routledge Contemporary China Series focusing on the legal grey zone of non-state orga­nized gu'er relief in contemporary China. It draws on a multi-year process participant observation and semi-structured interviews with non-governmental organizations (NG0s) and private caregivers across rural and urban China to shed light on the ambiguous role of law in child welfare. The author's nearly decade-long longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork reflects recent developments in Chinese charity law, with particular reference to the silent, and at times invisible, uphill struggle of non-governmental gu'er welfare pro­viders in China.

     In the opening chapters of the book, High provides background on the condition of Chinese gu'er. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, High systematically depicts the causes of abandonment, the vulnerability of the orphan, and, importantly, the contri­bution of private caregivers. She illustrates individual stories through in-depth case-studies to provide context for the rapidly changing laws and policies in the private relief sector. Importantly, she highlights the political and ideological context sur­rounding the sensitive question of "who looks after our children" in the Chinese context ... 

Shiling Xiao on Chinese Special Confiscation Procedure: Rules, Implementation and Problems (HKLJ)

"Chinese Special Confiscation Procedure: Rules, Implementation and Problems"

Shiling Xiao (PhD candidate)
Hong Kong Law Journal, 

2021, Vol. 51, Part 3 of 2021, pp. 1041-1074

Abstract: China adopted a special confiscation procedure as an alternative measure for confiscating crime-tainted properties in 2013 and significantly amended this procedure in 2017. This article examines the substantive rules of this special confiscation regime and its implementation between 2013 and 2019. The examination reveals three problems of this regime with regard to its law-making and law-enforcement. First, the law-making process is unconstitutional. This regime comprises mainly judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. These interpretations fundamentally amended the law promulgated by the legislature in excess of judicial interpretation power. Second, the prosecutors and courts have abused the special confiscation procedure. They applied it to property involved in offences falling outside the statutory scope of applicable offences. Third, some confiscations appear grossly disproportionate. The courts have neither acknowledged nor established an approach to proportionality in the confiscation procedure. They neglect the relationship between property and offences and confiscate property once they ascertain that the property belongs to or is under the control of the suspect.

"Want a Divorce? In China, Try, Try Again" (Frank He's Interview on Sixth Tone)

Want a Divorce? In China, Try, Try Again
by 
Cai Yineng
Published at Sixth Tone
26 November 2021

In 2004, while conducting fieldwork at a local court in southern China, legal scholar He Xin struck up a casual conversation with a judge. On the subject of challenges he faced in the job, the judge grumbled about his law school education, which he characterized as focused more on teaching how the law was written in books, rather than the “law in action.” “Why did no professor mention that, in divorce cases for instance, Chinese courts had made a habit of rejecting almost all first attempts to file?” the judge asked. “It’s not until they file again that the petition will be processed.”
     The conversation started He on a decade-long journey through the weeds of Chinese divorce law. The product of these efforts, Divorce in China: Institutional Constraints and Gendered Outcomes, was published by New York University Press this year. In the book, He draws on a wide range of empirical evidence from court audits and judge interviews to demonstrate how the enforcement of China’s Marriage Law — the first law passed after the Communist Party of China founded the People’s Republic in 1949 — has diverged from its original intention of protecting women’s rights to marry and divorce. Responsible for handling cases efficiently and maintaining social stability, judges often choose to broker a deal that can be accepted by both parties, rather than issue a ruling that holds one or the other responsible. In practice, this has led to drawn-out legal proceedings, the trivialization of serious problems like domestic violence, and an inability or unwillingness to protect women’s custody rights. ...Click here to read the full article.

Benjamin Chen & Zhiyu Li on Judicial Legitimation in China (Cornell International Law Journal)

"Judicial Legitimation in China"
 Benjamin Minhao Chen & Zhiyu Li
Cornell International Law Journal, Volume 53, Issue 2, pp. 169 - 206

Published in April 2021

Abstract: China’s judiciary is becoming increasingly professionalized, and its courts are enjoying a degree of autonomy they have not enjoyed since the Revolution. By promulgating abstract interpretations of the code and through the selective publication of cases, Chinese judicial institutions today function as policymaking bodies on both national and local scales. But are they able to legitimize social policy? This question has received little attention from legal scholars, but its answer is important for our understanding of the judicial role in the governance of modern China.

     We field a survey experiment that seeks to measure the persuasiveness of courts vis-à-vis administrative and non-regulatory actors. We find that courts are sometimes able to induce support for the policies they endorse. We also find, however, that this ability is not unique to courts and is at least equaled by administrative bodies.

     Our results have profound implications for the future of judicialization in China. They illuminate the potential of litigation as a tool for fostering social change. But they also explain why the regime does not rely on judicial institutions to convince the public of the rightness of government policy: other governmental entities are as persuasive as courts, if not more so. More broadly, the empirical findings presented here suggest that while the Chinese party-state might find it advantageous to operate through law, it does not necessarily have to govern through courts.

New Book by Albert Chen: The Changing Legal Orders In Hong Kong and Mainland China: Essays on "One Country, Two Systems" (CityU Press)

The Changing Legal Orders In Hong Kong and Mainland China: Essays on "One Country, Two Systems"

Albert Chen

City University of Hong Kong Press

Published in February 2021, 440 pp. 

Book Description: This collection of selected works by Professor Albert H.Y. Chen shows the contours of the author’s scholarship as it developed over 35 years of his academic career, from 1984 to the present. The essays are divided into three sections which cover the three major domains of Professor Chen’s research. Part I covers the legal developments and controversies of “One Country, Two Systems” since the Hong Kong interpretation on “the right of abode” in 1999 to the anti-extradition movement of 2019. Part II shifts to focus on tradition and modernity in Chinese Law, including China’s Confucian and Legalist traditions and how the socialist legal system in China evolved and modernized in the era of “reform and opening”. Part III examines the transplantation of Western thinking and constitutionalism to East Asia in modern times and discusses the achievements and failures of these efforts. In conjunction with an introductory chapter that sets out the basic orientation and paradigm of these legal and constitutional studies and an epilogue that reflects on the main themes, this collection exemplifies the author’s important contributions to the field and provides insight into how the legal orders in Hong Kong and mainland China have changed over the course of Professor Chen’s academic career.  To view the event launching book held at HKU on 2 March 2021, click here. The book was reviewed by Professor Jaakko Husa in the Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (15 November 2021):  "Constitutional Biography of Hong Kong and Ambiguities of One Country, Two Systems Policy"

New Book by Weixia Gu: Dispute Resolution in China: Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation and their Interactions (Routledge)

Dispute Resolution in China:Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation and their Interactions
Weixia Gu

Routledge

Published in February 2021, 288 pp.

Description: China's ever-expanding commercial influence has attracted global attention on how its civil and commercial disputes are resolved. This compelling new book, Dispute Resolution in China, offers a detailed examination of the elements in the Chinese legal system and the relevant reforms to the multiplicity of approaches to civil and commercial disputes in China today. This book reveals how civil litigation, commercial arbitration, mediation, and their hybrid dispute resolution have distinctly responded to, reformed, and developed in the context of China’s transformational economic growth, societal development, and international interaction in the last two decades. It situates these developments and continued experimentation within a unique hybrid of empirical, contextual, and comparative analytical framework, while paving productive pathways towards the future.

    This book argues that, rather than being a legal project, China’s civil and commercial dispute resolution system is essentially a social development project, which distinguishes the Chinese approach to civil justice reform from contemporary civil justice movements elsewhere. Among the primary methods of dispute resolution, commercial arbitration in China today uniquely transcending the traditional socio-political constraints, its reform has developed in favor of market-oriented considerations and shaped by China’s socio-economic dynamics and internationalization needs. By contrast, civil litigation and mediation being more instrumentalist in nature, their reform is socio-politically embedded and continues to prioritize social stability. This book also shines a fresh light on comparative assessments of top-down and bottom-up changes in China’s dispute resolution discourse, as well as on how China speaks to international dispute resolution systems. Original and rich in its analysis, this book will be essential reading and invaluable reference tool for scholars with a focus on Chinese law, comparative and international dispute resolution, and on broader legal, institutional, economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of dispute resolution development.

Praise: 

"One of the best works on dispute resolution in China, this timely and insightful study offers an unrivalled account of the changing landscape of commercial dispute resolution in China. Against the background of China's ever-expanding commercial influence, it offers an invaluable and impressively informed guide to the multiplicity of approaches to civil disputes in China, formal and informal, and shines a fresh light on topics which often seem mysterious, and are often misunderstood. Original and rich in its analysis, it is stimulating reading for anyone interested in comparative law, civil procedure, and in how legal institutions are shaped by their social, political and economic context. The author deserves congratulations on a fascinating work, which is scholarly and absorbing and assured of its place in the literature."

    -Richard Fentiman QC (Cambridge Law Faculty) – Professor of Private International Law and Former Dean

"This is an impressive study of dispute resolution in China covering litigation, arbitration, mediation and mixed processes. A particular strength is its extensive research and its academic contribution and impact on the topic of civil and commercial dispute resolution in China from a comparative, empirical and contextual perspective. There are also law and society and law and economics assessments. This is most certainly now the most comprehensive and definitive analysis on the topic."

  -Loukas Mistelis (Queen Mary University of London School of Law) – Clive M Schmitthoff Professor of Transnational Commercial Law and Arbitration

"Professor Gu has produced the state-of the-art study of civil dispute resolution in China. Covering the entire dynamic landscape, it chronicles changing developments and continued experimentation, while providing an intelligent roadmap for productive reforms. The book will be essential reading for China law scholars, but also for practitioners and business leaders who work with Chinese partners."

  -Tom Ginsburg (Chicago Law School) – Leo Spitz Professor of International Law and Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

"Gu’s book is a must for scholars and practitioners who really want to understand the development on commercial dispute resolution in China: insightful, resourceful, exhaustive. One of the best works on dispute resolution in China."

  -Franco Ferrari (NYU Law School) – Professor of Law and Director, Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law

"One of the finest works on dispute resolution in China, this book is essential reading for everyone interested in the evolution of civil and commercial dispute resolution in China. The　book blends　empirical analysis with a thorough understanding of the economic and social transformation of dispute resolution　in China. It highlights China’s salient divergence from international dispute resolution systems. Gu’s outstanding book is both a　compelling manifesto and an　indispensable　pathway into the future."

  -Leon Trakman (UNSW Law School) – Professor of Law and Former Dean

"Dr Weixia Gu has produced a highly valuable work that examines the current regime for resolution of civil commercial disputes in China. Dr Gu goes well beyond the existing English language treatments of the subject to fully examine the legal principles, literature and practice relating to dispute resolution in China. The book also considers the topic through the prism of law and development and the immense recent changes in Chinese society.　 It is an impressive book."

   -Richard Garnett (Melbourne Law School) – Professor of Law

"Professor Gu’s Dispute Resolution in China: Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation and their Cross-Interactions is an outstanding study of how civil litigation, commercial arbitration, and mediation have responded to, reformed, and developed in the context of China’s transformational economic growth and societal development of the last two decades. Gu analyzes the different degrees to which mediation and litigation remain politicized and continue to prioritize social stability, often at the expense of rights; the extent to which civil litigation has evolved to address public interest objectives, especially with respect to environmental and consumer issues; and the way in which commercial arbitration, uniquely among the three principal methods of dispute resolution, has transcended traditional socio-political constraints in favor of market-driven international standards, with the support of the Chinese judiciary. Gu offers invaluable comparative assessments of "top down" versus "bottom up" changes in China’s dispute resolution discourse, along with compelling empirical analyses in support of her arguments. An indispensable comprehensive study, Gu’s book makes an exceptional contribution to the literature on contemporary dispute resolution　in China. It is a "must read" for legal scholars, social scientists, lawyers, policymakers and business leaders alike who focus on Chinese law and dispute resolution."

  -Philip J. McConnaughay (Peking University School of Transnational Law) – Dean and Professor of Law

"Professor Gu’s wonderful study of dispute resolution processes in China explores important issues of procedural law, including the substantial reforms attempted in recent years in response to the economic transformation and social changes that have been taking place in China. The insightful analysis offered by Professor Gu locates developments in the legal and institutional framework of civil litigation, arbitration, mediation and mixed dispute resolution in their social and cultural contexts. Among other key themes, this important book argues that the system which has emerged is more a project of social transformation than it is of legal development, especially in areas of dispute resolution that are less directly linked to the functioning of the economic system."

  -Michael Palmer (University of London School of Oriental and African Studies) – Emeritus Professor of Law and Former Head

Weixia Gu on China’s Approach to the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Civil and Commercial Judgments (Journal of Comp Law)

“China’s Approach to the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Civil and Commercial Judgments and International Litigation Capacity Building” 

Weixia Gu
The Journal of Comparative Law
2020, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp. 264-291

Introduction: The unparalleled economic growth of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China, or the PRC) has resulted in a paradigm shift in its legal regime. Once a comparatively closed market to the world, China now faces an unprecedented surge of international business and movement of global capital into its domestic market in light of its immense economic growth in the past forty years. As a result of this growth, the internationalisation of business in China requires the domestic courts to accommodate private international law practices such as allowing foreign judgments to be recognised and enforced in the domestic courts: a clear indicator of globalization1 and the development of China’s economy.

      An important step China has taken in the past few years is to improve efficiency in recognising and enforcing foreign judgments. Specifically, the salient shift to a more liberal application of the reciprocity principle, the signing of the 2005 Hague Choice of Court Convention (2005 Hague Convention) and the growing number of bilateral treaties on judicial assistance are clear indicators of China’s recent willingness to improve commercial certainty for the parties involved, to promote fairness for both domestic and foreign litigants, and to ensure the global movement of judgments, resulting in increased investor confidence and further economic growth in China.

      This article analyses current theory and practice with respect to the recognition and enforcement of foreign civil and commercial judgments in China. There are three regimes that will be analysed: (1) the existing Sino-bilateral judicial assistance treaties on civil and commercial matters; (2) in the absence of a bilateral treaty, the application by the Chinese courts of the principle of ‘reciprocity’ while taking account of procedural and substantive concerns specific to China; and (3) the potential impact of the 2005 Hague Convention signed by the Chinese government in September 2017.

      This article argues that while China’s recent reforms in the judicial recognition and enforcement of foreign civil and commercial judgments (hereafter, JRE) are encouraging, due to the growing demand of international litigation in context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Chinese JRE regime should be comprehensively reformed to build legal capacity. For that purpose, the author has put forward three proposals: (1) the ratification of the 2005 Hague Convention; (2) the Model Law on JRE to be adopted by China’s Supreme People’s Court; and (3) potential reference to the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention. Finally, this article examines the extent to which such proposals can actually help China promote the legitimacy and competence of the Chinese international litigation system in light of her ambitious BRI development.

Shitong Qiao & Wenzheng Mao on Legal Doctrine and Judicial Review of Eminent Domain in China (Law & Social Inquiry)

"Legal Doctrine and Judicial Review of Eminent Domain in China"

Wenzheng Mao and Shitong Qiao
Law & Social Inquiry
Published online: 22 February 2021

Abstract: Which of the three legal doctrines of public use, just compensation, and due process is the most effective in constraining abuses of eminent domain power? This paper addresses this question for the first time and presents the first-ever systematic investigation of the judicial review of eminent domain in China. Our empirical study reveals that Chinese courts focus on eminent domain procedures while rarely supporting claims based on public interest or just compensation. Procedural rules are determinate and therefore easier to enforce than substantial standards of public interest and just compensation. Chinese courts also choose to focus on eminent domain procedures to confine their own judicial review power for the purpose of self-preservation in an authoritarian state that empowers the courts to monitor and control local governments but does not want them to become too powerful. The study calls for a “due process revolution” in eminent domain law and introduces the “judicial politics of legal doctrine” approach to the study of Chinese law, an approach that takes both political institutions and legal doctrines seriously.  Click here to download from SSRN.

New Book by Han Peng (PhD 2015): Law and Social Solidarity in Contemporary China: A Durkheimian Analysis (Routledge)

Law and Social Solidarity in Contemporary China: A Durkheimian Analysis
Han Peng (PhD 2015)

Routledge

Published in December 2020, 290 pp.

Description: This book adopts Durkheim’s legal perspective to treat law as a symbol of social solidarities to examine Chinese society. The work analyzes changes in the nature of social solidarity from observing changes in laws, thus drawing together western socio-legal theory and distinctive Chinese conditions. It draws on Durkheim’s theoretical framework and methodology to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the role of law using theories of others such as Habermas and by taking into account the discussion of power and the conflicts of interests in analyzing key social features during transition. The analysis of social anomie in terms of the changes of juridical rules as well as the changes in the nature of social solidarity provides an inspiring perspective to look into contemporary social problems. The book will be essential reading for researchers and academics working in the areas of socio-legal studies, legal theory and law and society in China.

New Book by Angela Zhang: Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Will Challenge Global Regulation (OUP)

Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Will Challenge Global Regulation
Angela Zhang
Oxford University Press
Published on 11 March 2021
Overview: 

• Analyses Chinese antitrust law in the broader context of China's developing global economic presence
• Explores the ways in which bureaucratic missions, cultures, and structures of administrative agencies can play a crucial role in shaping the enforcement agenda, investigative approach, and final regulatory outcomes in China
• Describes how Chinese antitrust law can be transformed into a powerful economic weapon to counter aggressive U.S. sanctions
• Examines the new difficulties that Chinese firms will encounter as the U.S. and E.U. regulators tighten scrutiny over investment and trade from China

Description: China’s rise as an economic superpower has caused growing anxieties in the West. Europe is now applying stricter scrutiny over takeovers by Chinese state-owned giants, while the United States is imposing sanctions on leading Chinese technology firms such as Huawei, TikTok and WeChat. Given the escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the West, are there any hopeful prospects for economic globalization?  In her compelling new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism, Angela Zhang examines the most important and least understood tactic that China can deploy to counter western sanctions: antitrust law. Zhang reveals how China has transformed antitrust law into a powerful economic weapon, supplying theory and case studies to explain its strategic application over the course of the Sino-US tech war. Zhang also exposes the vast administrative discretion possessed by the Chinese government, showing how agencies can leverage the media to push forward aggressive enforcement. She further dives into the bureaucratic politics that spurred China’s antitrust regulation, providing an incisive analysis of how divergent missions, cultures and structures of agencies have shaped regulatory outcomes.  More than a legal analysis, Zhang offers a political and economic study of our contemporary moment. She demonstrates that Chinese exceptionalism—as manifested in the way China regulates and is regulated, is reshaping global regulation and that future cooperation relies on the West comprehending Chinese idiosyncrasies and China achieving greater transparency through integration with its western rivals.

Praises & Endorsements:

"Informed by legal analysis, game theory, and deep knowledge of both Chinese and Western legal practices, this valuable book provides a guide both to present-day controversies and to a more hopeful way forward."
  -Dani Rodrik

​"This is an excellent book on a hugely important issue... I recommend the book highly to anyone who has an interest in Chinese political economy."
  -Yasheng Huang

"The book is astute, engaging, and highly compelling."
  -Anu Bradford

"Required reading for anyone interested in China-West relations through the lens of law and real-world politics."
  - Noah Feldman
​
"Angela Zhang's new book ... fills a big gap in understanding the mystery of China."
  -Eleanor Fox

The launch of the new book: HKU's Centre for Chinese Law is pleased to announce the launch of a new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation by Dr Angela Huyue Zhang, published by Oxford University Press this week. This book explores the unique ways in which China regulates and is regulated by foreign countries, revealing a ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ that is reshaping the global antitrust regime. In this book, Dr Zhang dives deep into the unique Chinese political and economic institutions, examining bureaucratic politics, the power imbalances between businesses and the government, the highly decentralized economic system, and state-led governance. This allows her to explain the dilemmas foreign multinationals have faced in complying with Chinese antitrust law, as well as the difficulties Chinese firms have encountered overseas as US. and EU antitrust regulators tighten their scrutiny over Chinese businesses. Dr Zhang’s book has proven to be incredibly timely. In the past few months, China has taken unprecedented action to enforce antitrust regulations against its leading firms, such as the fintech conglomerate Ant Group and its affiliate Alibaba. Dr Zhang’s responses to these events have been quoted by numerous media outlets including the WSJ, Financial Times and the Economist, and her commentaries have appeared in Project Syndicate, Nikkei Asia, Fortune and Bloomberg. Recently, Dr Zhang was featured on CNBC, as well as the Economist’s virtual event on balancing innovation and regulation. Dr Zhang is an associate professor of law and the director of the Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong. An award-winning legal scholar, Zhang is a highly sought-after commentator on Chinese antitrust issues. Before joining the University of Hong Kong, Dr Zhang taught at King’s College London and practiced law for six years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She received her LLB from Peking University, and her LLM, JD and JSD from the University of Chicago Law School. Dr Zhang will be giving virtual book talks on April 16 at UPenn, April 19 at Harvard, and April 30 at Oxford. These events are free to attend and open to the public. Dr Zhang’s book is now available on Amazon, Book Depository, and OUP (30% discount with promotion code ALAUTHC4). More details on the book are available on a dedicated website.

Angela Zhang: China is Leaning into Antitrust Regulation to Stay Competitive with the US (Fortune)

"China is leaning into antitrust regulation to stay competitive with the U.S."

Angela Zhang

Fortune

Published on 9 Feb 2021

Introduction: The Ant Group is planning a major revamp in response to pressure from Chinese financial regulators, just three months after Jack Ma’s outspoken remarks against them. New antitrust rules concerning tech firms went into effect on Sunday. While Ma’s critical speech may have been the tipping point for the government to rein in Big Tech, there have been long-standing economic, social, and industrial policy issues that merit the government’s action. In fact, Beijing’s recent efforts to strengthen antitrust regulation in the tech sector are motivated by a larger goal: to become a technology superpower and achieve self-sufficiency so that China no longer needs to rely on the West... Click here to read the full text.

In the News: Director of HKU's Centre for Chinese Law, Dr Angela Zhang, Comments on Recent China Anti-trust Law Developments

Dr Angela Zhang, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Chinese Law, has been sharing her knowledge on Chinese anti-trust law and her views on the US-China relations.  A collection of her recent articles, interviews, and comments reported in the international media is found below:

· China is Leaning into Antitrust Regulation to Stay Competitive with the U.S., Fortune, 9 February 2021

· Why Is China Cracking Down on Alibaba?, Project Syndicate, 2 February 2021

· The Dangerous Legal War Posing a New Threat to China-US Relations, Nikkei Asia, 1 February 2021

· China's Alibaba Probe Is Not All Bad News , Nikkei Asia, 8 January 2021

· In China, Behave or Face a Campaign, Bloomberg, 7 January 2021

· Should China Wield Antitrust Laws to Counter US Attacks on Huawei Amid Global Tech Competition? South China Morning Post, May 26, 2020

· ByteDance’s Douyin Sues Tencent, Claiming Antitrust Violations, krASIA, 3 February, 2021

· China Antitrust: ByteDance and Tencent Legal Battle Seen as Potential Landmark Case, South China Morning Post, 3 February, 2021

· ByteDance Files Lawsuit Against Tencent in Tit-for-tat Battle, Financial Times, 3 February, 2021

· China’s Big Tech Clampdown: Why Some Businesses Stand to Benefit, Aljazeera, 26 January, 2021

· China is Joining the Global Push to Rein in Tech Giants, The Wall Street Journal, 24 January, 2021

· Why China’s Central Bank Leads Antitrust Drive and How this May Affect Alipay, WeChat Pay, South China Morning Post, 22 January  2021

· China’s Approval of Cisco-Acacia Deal Conditional on Fair Competition but also an Olive Branch to Joe Biden, South China Morning Post, 22 January, 2021

· China’s Startups Hope Tech Crackdown Creates New Opportunities, Bloomberg, 21 January , 2021

· Crackdown on Jack Ma’s Empire Gathers Pace Despite Reappearance, Financial Times, 21 January, 2021

· Do Fintech Giants Alipay and WeChat Pay have Monopoly Power? China’s New Regulation Leaves Experts Guessing, South China Morning Post, 21 January, 2021

· China’s Central Bank Proposes Antitrust Rules for Country’s Booming Online Payments Sector, Pandaily, 21 January, 2021

· China's Crackdown on Alibaba Goes Beyond Teaching Jack Ma a Lesson, S&P Global Market Intelligence, 19 January , 2021

· Trump’s Final Days Bring New Turmoil to U.S.-China Relations​, Bloomberg, 12 January, 2021

· China Brings in New Law to Fight Trump's Sanctions, BBC, 11 January, 2021

· China Launches Measures to Protect Companies from US Sanctions, Financial Times, 10 January, 2021

· Jack Ma's Absence Raises More Questions than it Answers Amid Ant and Alibaba Probe, The Straits Times, 9 January, 2021

· "Alibaba Antitrust Probe Presents New Challenges for China’s Regulators 12 Years after Implementation of Anti-monopoly Law", South China Morning Post, 7 January, 2021

· "Jack Ma was Almost Bigger than China. That's What Got Him into Trouble", CNN Business, 6 January, 2021

· "China’s Mighty State Monopolies Cast a Big Shadow over Private Enterprise, but will Antitrust Law and Vows of Reform Level the Playing Field?", South China Morning Post, 5 January , 2021

· "Mo money, Ma problems - Chinese Trustbusters’ Pursuit of Alibaba is only the Start", The Economist, 2 Jan 2021

· "Alibaba: a Chinese Success Story comes under Scrutiny", TRT World, 25 December, 2020

· "全球掀起反壟斷風潮　何時輪到香港？", 香港01, 21 December, 2020

· "Don't Expect an 'Explosion of Cases' from China's Antitrust Push: Professor", cnbc.com, 23 November , 2020