I am a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the School of Transnational Law of Peking University (Shenzhen), where I teach a course introducing our LLM students to Chinese law and the legal system in cooperation with faculty colleagues. For many years, I have taught a course on Chinese judicial reform in comparative perspective, in which students have been able to hear from participants in China’s complicated judicial reform process.  In the spring of 2025, I taught a class on comparative courts.  We were privileged to take field trips to the SPC’s First Circuit Court and the Hong Kong High Court.   I am one of the faculty advisers to the reinvigorated Peking University School of Transnational Law  Review.  I have maintained a connection with the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong for many years. I am currently a visiting fellow at the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and was previously a visiting fellow at the Centre for Chinese Law. In 2021, I was a Faculty Fellow of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong for a two-year term.

Why this blog? I have been observing China’s Supreme People’s Court for over 30 years, starting in the early 1990s, when most foreign observers I contacted doubted that it was worth researching.

Why research the Supreme People’s Court?  People who know me say it is my fate in life (缘分).  My interest in the institution was triggered when I purchased a set of judicial handbooks published by the Supreme People’s Court, as recommended by a then-junior SPC judge.  I wanted to understand the purpose of the documents published in those handbooks.

I started this blog in 2013. Although it should not be necessary to write this, unless others are credited in some way, all articles are researched and written by me. I am the person who has had discussions (or correspondence) with “knowledgeable persons” and “experienced judges.” Many people who cannot be credited for certain reasons have been helpful to me during the almost 12 years I have written this blog. Many others were helpful when I wrote about the Supreme People’s Court 30 years ago.

In August 2018, I was appointed a member of the international commercial expert committee of the China International Commercial Court (CICC) of the Supreme People’s Court and was reappointed in August 2022. I am also on the committee of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. All views expressed on this blog are my own and none should be attributed to the CICC, the Supreme People’s Court, or the Shanghai International Arbitration Center.

I  speak from time to time on Chinese legal issues in Hong Kong, mainland China (sometimes in English and sometimes in Chinese), the United States, Australia, and Europe.   Occasionally,  I write for The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and the Global Military Justice Reform blog. I occasionally publish articles in academic journals.  My writings have also been published in China, including in several prominent WeChat public accounts.   Major media that have asked me for comments on Chinese legal developments include: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Financial Times and Reuters.

Earlier in my career, I taught Chinese law and other subjects in what was then the Law Department of the City University of Hong Kong.  My research on the Supreme People’s Court dates back to that period. That early research resulted in the first close analysis of its operations.  I then put my knowledge of Chinese law to work in the China practice group of the international law firm Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer and several other law firms and institutions.

I had the good fortune to study with three of the early pioneers of Chinese legal studies (in the United States): Jerome Cohen, R. Randle Edwards, and Stanley Lubman and to have many leading practitioners and legal academics among my classmates at Harvard Law School (J.D.) and Columbia Law School (LL.M).

Please contact me through the comment function or at supremepeoplescourtmonitor@gmail.com. Please tell me if you come across broken links in blog posts.