Congratulations to Professor Ying Xia and Professor Ying Zhu!

Congratulations to Prof. Ying Xia and Prof. Ying Zhu on their promotion to Associate Professor! 

Prof. Xia is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work focuses on environmental governance and developmental studies, taking a socio-legal approach. She is a leading contributor to the rapidly growing field of environmental governance in China. To read more about Prof. Xia's research and publications, click here.

Prof. Zhu is a distinguished legal scholar specialising in trade and investment, in particular sanctions, compliance, and other cutting-edge fields, working closely with policy-makers at both the national and international levels. To read more about Prof. Zhu's research and publications, click here.

Prof. Ying Xia and Prof. Ying Zhu are valuable members of our Faculty, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of their contributions.

Congratulations to Xin He, Chair Professor

Congratulations to Professor Xin He on his recent conferral of the title Chair Professor at The University of Hong Kong.  The title is a mark of distinction as the President wrote in his conferment letter to Professor He:

"At this University, a Chair Professor title is reserved for world-class scholars of distinction. It signifies due recognition of outstanding academic leadership and excellence. As a top-rated researcher and academic leader, you are held in high regard by your peers globally, and your significant contributions and accomplishments have received international acclaim."

Professor He is now only one of four Chair Professors in the Faculty of Law.  He was appointed to the Mok Sau-King Professorship in Law at the University of Hong Kong in 2024 and his latest monograph The Judicial System of China was published by Oxford University Press in November 2024.  For more information on Professor He's research outputs and impact, click here.

Congratulations to Professor Hui Jing!

Congratulations to Prof. Hui Jing on his promotion to Associate Professor! Prof. Jing is a prolific researcher with an excellent publication record. He is a rare scholar of comparative trust law who can effectively cover both the Chinese and common law jurisdictions. He is one of the few experts worldwide capable of engaging deeply with both legal traditions. Prof. Jing is a valuable member of our Faculty, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of his contributions. To read more about Prof. Jing's research and publications, click here.

Congratulations to Professor Cora Chan!

Congratulations to Professor Cora Chan on her promotion to full professorship! Professor Chan is a versatile scholar who excels in research, teaching, knowledge exchange, and service. She has contributed significantly by engaging in international debates on comparative constitutional law and constitutional theory, as well as providing unique expertise in China-Hong Kong constitutional relations. Her impressive international recognition is especially noteworthy. Cora is a valuable member of our faculty, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of her achievements.

Congratulations to Professor Michael Ng!

Congratulations to Professor Michael Ng on his promotion to full professorship! Professor Ng is a legal historian specialising in modern China and colonial Hong Kong history. He has an impressive publication record and has published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals both in the legal and history field. Professor Ng's work, which has been cited by renowned legal scholars and historians at top international universities, has earned him strong international recognition. This is a testament to the global impact of his research. He is a valuable member of our faculty, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of his achievements.

Congratulations to Dr Benjamin Chen!

Congratulations to Dr Benjamin Chen on his promotion to Associate Professor!  Dr Chen is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research is situated at the intersection of law and social sciences. He is also a highly productive scholar and has published in both law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the Harvard International Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and Columbia Journal of Asian Law. Dr Chen is a valuable member of our faculty, and this promotion is a well-deserved recognition of his contributions. To read more about Dr Chen's research and publications, click here.

Congratulations to Professor Eric Ip!

Congratulations to Professor Eric Ip on his promotion to full professorship!

Professor Ip is an outstanding scholar who excels in research, teaching, and service. He has published extensively in high impact journals and with top publishers in various areas, including public law theories, Hong Kong and Chinese constitutions, and more recently, public health and legal and medical issues. Professor Ip is a valuable member of the faculty, and this promotion is well-deserved recognition of his contributions.

Congratulations to Professor Haochen Sun !

Congratulations to Dr Haochen Sun on his promotion to full professorship! Professor Sun is an active member of our IP/IT law research team and has published widely in top journals in related fields. His most recent book entitled Technology and the Public Interest is published by Cambridge University Press. Professor Sun is a well known scholar in his field of expertise and speaks frequently at international conferences and events.  Click here to read more about his scholarship and achievements.

Professor Thomas Cheng Promoted to Full Professor (HKU Law)

Congratulations to Professor Thomas Cheng on his promotion to full Professor this year. Professor Cheng specialises in competition law. He 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 US 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. 

      Professor Cheng is a well-rounded colleague with strong research momentum and international recognition.  In 2020, he published Competition Law in Developing Countries, the first comprehensive monograph on the topic, with Oxford University Press. He also published The Patent-Competition Interface in Developing Countries, again the first comprehensive monograph on the topic, with Oxford University Press in 2021.  More recently, he published a co-authored book with Kelvin Kwok, Hong Kong Competition Law: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives, with Cambridge University Press, in 2021.   He is among one of the very few Asian competition law scholars who publishes and is cited regularly in the UK as well as US law journals.

      Professor Cheng's research has been recognised 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. 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.  

      Professor Cheng is also the Co-founder and Director of the Faculty's JD programme. He has served as Deputy Head of the Department of Law since 2014.

Professor Albert Chen Conferred the Title of Chair Professor (HKU)

Congratulations to Professor Albert Chen, Cheng Chan Lan Yue Professor in Constitutional Law, on being conferred the title of Chair Professor in Constitution Law by the University of Hong Kong (HKU), with effect from 1 July 2021. Chair Professorships at HKU are reserved for world-class scholars of distinction. Such title signifies due recognition of outstanding academic leadership and excellence. As a top-rated researcher and academic leader, Professor Chen is held in high regard by peers globally, and his significant contributions and accomplishments have received international acclaim.  His many academic achievements and contributions can be found recorded here on the HKU Legal Scholarship Blog.

Congratulations to HKU Law Scholars Awarded Tenure in 2020

Congratulations to Kelvin Kwok, Dr Peter Chau and Dr Shitong Qiao on being awarded tenure and the title of Associate Professor at HKU's Faculty of Law.

     The Faculty of Law is the longest established law school in Hong Kong. It adopts a rigorous process of external review for all tenure and promotion applications. The award of tenure is a recognition of the all-round excellence in research, teaching, service and knowledge exchange demonstrated by these individuals in their years as tenure-track assistant professors.

     Kelvin Kwok researches in the areas of competition law and consumer protection. He has been the principal investigator of two General Research Fund (GRF) grants awarded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. He was awarded the Faculty Research Output Prize 2015 and the King’s/HKU Fellowship Award 2018-19. He has served as an editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, Hong Kong Law Journal, and China Antitrust Law Journal. 

     Dr Peter Chau researches in the area of legal theory, initially on the topic of criminal punishment and now increasingly on private law areas such as tort law. He  received two GRF grants. From 2015 to 2017, his funded project was on “Proportionality in Criminal Punishment”. In 2018, he obtained a grant on “Examining Non-Instrumental Justifications for Tort Compensation”.

      Dr Shitong Qiao is well-known for doing research in  Chinese property law and theory.  He was the Ken Young-Gak Yun & Jinah Park Yun Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Duke University in Spring 2019 and the inaugural Jerome A. Cohen Visiting Professor of Law at NYU in Spring 2020. His monograph, Chinese Small Property: The Co-Evolution of Law and Social Norms, was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press and won the inaugural Masahiko Aoki Award for Economic Paper from Tsinghua University. In dissertation form, it won the Judge Ralph K. Winter Prize (awarded annually to the best student paper written in law and economics at Yale Law School).  All the very best to our three colleagues as they move on to the next phase of their academic careers.

Congratulations to Johannes Chan, Chair Professor

Congratulations to Professor Johannes Chan SC (Hon) on his recent conferral of the title Chair Professor at The University of Hong Kong.  The title is a mark of distinction as the President wrote in his conferment letter to Professor Chan:

"At this University, a Chair Professor title is reserved for world-class scholars of distinction. It signifies due recognition of outstanding academic leadership and excellence. As a top-rated researcher and academic leader, you are held in high regard by your peers globally, and your significant contributions and accomplishments have received international acclaim."

Professor Chan is now only one of two Chair Professors in the Faculty of Law.  He was recently the recipient of the RGC Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Award and his latest work on the role of the judiciary in Hong Kong was published in Current Legal Problems.  For more information on Professor Chan's research outputs and impact, click here.

Congratulations to Professor Shahla Ali

Congratulations to Shahla Ali on her promotion to full professorship! Professor Ali is Associate Dean (International Affairs) and Deputy Director of the LLM (Arbitration and Dispute Resolution).  Her books include Court Mediation Reform: Efficiency, Confidence and Perceptions of Justice (Edward Elgar 2018), Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief (CUP 2016), and Consumer Financial Dispute Resolution in a Comparative Context (CUP 2013).  Her latest co-authored work which is a commentary on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration will be published by CUP later this year.  Professor Ali is a bilingual arbitrator with FINRA, HKIAC (ADNDRC), SCIA, a conciliator with WTC Macau and a mediator with teh HKMC, HKMAAL and Hong Kong Building and Lands Tribunal.

Dr Po Jen Yap Promoted to Full Professor (HKU Law)

(Belated) Congratulations to Dr Po Jen Yap on his promotion to full Professor earlier this year.  Professor Yap's specialises in  constitutional and administrative law. A LLB graduate of National University of Singapore,  he received  a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, apart from obtaining LLM qualifications from both Harvard Law School and University College London.  He is the recipient of HKU's 2016 Outstanding Young Researcher Award.  He joined HKU in 2006.

  He is a prolific researcher and has made important contributions to the literature on constitutional law in Asia. His first sole-authored monograph, Constitutional Dialogue in Common Law Asia, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015, for which he was awarded HKU's University Research Output Prize in 2016.
    His second sole-authored monograph, Courts and Democracies in Asia, was published by Cambridge University Press in October 2017.​ He has been the Principal Investigator of two RGC General Research Fund (GRF)​ projects.  He is currently editing a special issue of Hong Kong Law Journal to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's Basic Law.  He is also organising a collaborative project on proportionality in Asian jurisdictions. Leading scholars in this area will convene at HKU in December 2018 to present and discuss papers which are to be published in an edited volume by an international publisher.  This project will complement a similar project led by Professor Yap on the judicial review of elections in Asia which led to the publication of an edited volume published by Routledge in 2016.