The new assertiveness of China in international law and global governance has triggered a mixture of apprehension and positive expectations in the West and the Global South. ‘Is China a dangerous authoritarian threat to the rules-based international liberal order? Or is China a defender of international law and a champion of genuine and inclusive multilateralism?’. The Cambridge Handbook of China and International Law (CUP, 2024) provides a timely response to these questions as a comprehensive road map to China's engagement with international law and an upgraded bridge between Chinese and Western approaches in times of turmoil.
Written by a leading group of Chinese and Western specialists, it examines how China is assimilating into, and putting its stamp on, the global legal order by providing thoughtful and up-to-date analytical appraisals of China’s evolving engagement with, and contribution to the United Nations and global institutions, human rights law, international trade law, the law of the sea, the laws of peace and war, international criminal law, global health law, international investment law, international environmental law, climate change, international terrorism law, outer-space law, intellectual property law, cyber-space warfare, international financial law, international dispute settlement, territorial disputes, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Community of Shared Future for Mankind, China's constitutional law, the judicial application of international law, state immunity, the international rule of law, China's treaty practices and the extraterritorial application of Chinese laws.
The workshop comes with the book launch of the Cambridge Handbook of China and International Law aims at presenting not a map but perhaps a compass to China’s revamped approaches to, and increasing influence on international law by inviting presentations from the following panelists:
9.30 Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Josephine van Zeben Chair of Transnational Law at the Florence School of Transnational Governance (in person)
- Ignacio de la Rasilla, Han Depei Chair and One Thousand Talents Plan Professor of International Law, Wuhan University (in person)
9.45- 10.45 Panel 1: China and the Future of the International Legal Order
- Chair: Ignacio de la Rasilla, Han Depei Chair and One Thousand Talents Plan Professor of International Law, Wuhan University (in person)
- Anne Peters, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (online)
- Yongping Xiao, Director of the Wuhan University Institute of International Law and Wuhan Academy of International Law and Global Governance (in person)
- Jose Maria Beneyto, Professor of International Law and Director of the Royal Institute for European Studies, University San Pablo CEU (online or in person) (TBC)
- Congyan Cai, Professor of International Law, Fudan University (online)
10.45 Coffee Break
11.00-11.45 Panel 1 China and the Future of International Economic Law
- Chair: Sergio Puig Joint Chair in International Economic Law at the Department of Law and the Robert Schuman Centre (in person)
- Freya Baetens, Professor of International Law, Oxford University (online)
- Wang Jiangyu, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Comparative and Chinese Law, Hong Kong City University (online)
- Valentina Vadi (Adjunct Professor, University of Florence (in person)
- Shen Shang, Professor of International Law, Xi'an Jiaotong University (online)
11.45- 12.30 Panel 2: International Law as a Bridge between China and the West in Times of Turmoil
- Chair: Arnulf Becker Lorca, Chair in International Law EUI. (in person)
- Giulio Bartolini, Professor of International Law, Università Roma Tre (in person)
- Wei Shen KoGuan Distinguished Professor of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Law School, Shanghai (online)
- Zhixiong Huang, Luojia Chair in International Law, Wuhan University (online)
- Chao Wang, Professor of Law and vice-dean for international affairs, Macau University.
The event will take place in hybrid format at the STG premises in Palazzo Buontalenti. All are welcome to attend. Please register, indicating whether you intend to attend online or in person.