Law
Current Research
Law shapes the ways in which societies grow and operate and consequently, a thorough understanding of law is key to nearly any avenue of inquiry. As a result, the Fairbank Center has long considered legal scholarship to be a natural extension of much of the work its affiliated faculty and scholars are producing. Recently, this has manifested in the work of Dr. Maura Dykstra who was an An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center 2014-2015.
Expertise
William Alford 安守廉
Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of Law; Director, East Asian Legal Studies Program
William P. Alford is a scholar of Chinese law and legal history. His books include To Steal a Book is an Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization (Stanford University Press 1995)
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Ya-wen Lei 雷雅雯
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ya-wen Lei is Assistant Professor of Sociology, having previously been a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Professor Lei grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, graduating from her undergraduate studies at the National Taiwan University.
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Mark Wu 伍人英
Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law
Mark Wu is Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches international trade and international economic law. Previously, he served as the Director for Intellectual Property in the Office of the U.S. Trade RepresentativeRead More
Research Projects
Legalizing Space Workshop (2014-2015)
This project, proposed and carried out by Dr. Maura Dykstra, now an Assistant Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology, combined the research on late imperial Chinese law being undertaken by a cohort of scholars working at Harvard together with the experience and objectives of the Legalizing Space in China group to organize a series of translation, research, and conference activities in Cambridge over the 2014-2015 academic year. These activities revolved around the question of how to situate translation of late imperial law into a larger historical, intellectual, and analytical context. In order to give priority to examining the depth and richness of the late imperial legal world, the entire year of activities focused on the 15 laws and 47 sub-statutes occupying the single huyi (戶役) or “Households and Obligations” sub-section of the hulü (戶律) or “Household Law” division of the Ming and Qing Codes.
People's Republic of China Legal Research Guide, Harvard Law School Library
This guide gathers some of the best sources for background on Chinese legal research as well as the best Chinese legal research materials available through the Harvard Law School Library. Read more on the Harvard Law School Library’s website.
Latest News
Spring 2019 Courses on China
COURSES PRIMARILY FOR UNDERGRADUATES History HIST 13U: Asian Diasporas in Global History Michael Szonyi and Sunil Amrith The goal of this seminar is to help you appreciate the ways in which our world has been shaped by mass migration, and in particular two great...
Summer Reading List 2018
New from Harvard University Asia Center Press: Legal Lessons: Popularizing Laws in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1989, by Jennifer Altehenger The popularization of basic legal knowledge is an important and contested technique of state governance in China...
Resources at Harvard
- East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School
- Harvard Law School Project on Disability
- Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession: “The Chinese Legal Profession” in The Practice publication (additional articles require online registration)
- Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems, China Symposia
- Harvard Law School: Semester Abroad in Shanghai, China
- Harvard Law School China Law Association
- Harvard Asia Law Society
