News and Activities
Oxford University Professor of Chinese Modern Studies, Dr. Matthew Erie, to Give Public Lecture at RULE on Chinese Law Diffusion in the Global South on November 30th – Hall G
RULE is honored to host Pr. Matthew Erie, professor of Modern Chinese studies at Oxford University, for a public guest lecture on ”Chinese Law and Policy Diffusion in the Global South”, to be held in Hall G on Wednesday November 30th, from 2 to 4pm.
The guest lecture will focus on the extent to which China engage in legal development assistance in developing countries? While this question may seem technical, it potentially has broad implications for economic modernization, access to justice, human rights, security, and geo-economics. As with other capital-exporting countries, China is incentivized to shape the rules of the international economic system and, to the extent possible, influence legal development in host states. From trade law and international investment agreements to data governance and international law enforcement, China actively seeks to affect international law. At the level of host states, China has in recent years engaged in “legal cooperation” across a range of issues including commercial risk mitigation and dispute resolution. Yet, China encounters multiple challenges in doing so, some external (e.g., the US-China trade war) and some internal (e.g., China’s preference for “non-interference” as a foreign policy and the nature of the legal goods it supplies). This talk will provide an analytical frame to understand these developments and offer some examples.
Matthew S. Erie (J.D., Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies and Associate Research Fellow of the Socio-Legal Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Professor Erie’s interdisciplinary work combines law and anthropology to expand the theoretical bases and empirical borders of comparative law, with a particular focus on Chinese law, Islamic law, and Asian law, more generally. Specifically, he has written on Chinese domestic law (e.g., property law, constitutional law, and ethnic and religious policy) and international law (e.g., dispute resolution, conflict of laws, anti-corruption law, and investment law). His work has either appeared in or is forthcoming in such journals as the Harvard International Law Journal, Virginia Journal of International Law, American Journal of Comparative Law, Law and Social Inquiry, and American Ethnologist. His first book, China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016), is the first ethnographic study of the relationship between sharia and state law in China. His current research project “China, Law and Development,” funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant (€1.5 million), examines China’s approach to building cross-border order through international economic law and the regulatory regimes of developing host states.
Professor Erie previously held academic positions at Princeton University and New York University Law School, and he was a visiting scholar at the National University Singapore Law Faculty. He practiced law at Paul Hastings LLP in New York and Beijing, and is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law’s Asia-Pacific Interest Group.
-1.45-2pm.: Participants’ arrival and Registration;
-2-2.10pm.: Opening Speech and Guest Presentation by Mr. Paul Mornet, Director, Dual Degree Programs in International Law, RULE;
-2.10-3pm.: Presentation on ‘’Chinese Law and Policy Diffusion in the Global South’’ by Pr. Matthew Erie, Oxford University;
-3-3.40pm.: Q & A with audience members;
-3.40-3.50pm.: Closing remarks by Mr. Paul Mornet.
Please note that due limited seats capacity, we encourage early participants arrival. We apply a ‘’first arrived/first seated principle’’.