Prof. Peter WANG (王書成)

Shucheng (Peter) Wang has authored four books – including, most recently, Law as an Instrument (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022) – and over fifty articles published in journals including Human Rights Quarterly (US), Modern China (US), Politics Religion & Ideology (UK), and Public Law Review (Australia), along with a number of prestigious Chinese law journals such as the Chinese Journal of Law [法学研究], among others. He once served as an expert witness for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, as well as a leading examiner in constitutional law on the PCLL Conversion Examination of the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training in Hong Kong. His research has been cited by the Justice of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Singapore, among others. His publications were also featured on the reading list of several interdisciplinary courses offered by universities in the UK, Germany, and Sweden, among others. He received the University's Recognition of Outstanding Teaching Performance in 2024. In addition, he has been awarded various competitive research grants by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council in support of his interdisciplinary legal studies. He has acted as a peer reviewer for leading journals and publishers, including Health and Human Rights Journal (US), China Quarterly (UK), and Cambridge University Press. 

Prior to joining CityU, Wang began his academic career at the Peking University School of Government in 2009 after completing his PhD through the Fulbright Chinese PhD Dissertation Research Program at Renmin University in Beijing and Emory University in the US (US supervisor: Michael J. Perry). His dissertation, focusing on US and comparative constitutional law, is entitled “Presumption of Constitutionality” and investigates the relationship between the legislature and judiciary. It was awarded the “National Outstanding PhD Dissertation Prize” (Ministry of Education, 2011), and the revised version was published by Tsinghua University Press in 2011. Moreover, he holds a Master of International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, where he was a Clarendon Scholar.

In addition, Wang is an affiliated researcher of the Law and Religion in Asia Pacific program at the School of Law, University of Queensland in Australia. He has held various visiting appointments at Harvard Law School (US), State University of New York at Albany (US), National University of Singapore (Singapore), Seoul National University (South Korea), Academia Sinica (Taiwan), Waseda University (Japan), etc. Beyond his academic performance, he also specialises in Chinese calligraphy and has received many national calligraphy awards, particularly during his time as a law undergraduate. He held his own Chinese calligraphy exhibition in Wuhan City in 2003.

Selected English publications (law/interdisciplinary):

1. Shucheng Wang, Law as an Instrument: Sources of Chinese Law for Authoritarian Legality (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022).

• The Book Symposium, featuring contributions by Kwai Hang Ng (UC San Diego), Teemu Ruskola (UPenn), and Taisu Zhang (Yale), is published in the Asia Pacific Law Review (Volume 32, Issue 2, 2024).
• Selected as one of the Books of the Year 2022 by The Leaflet – The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism (26 December 2022), , which is edited by Professor Richard Albert (UT Austin).
• Featured and discussed in the French review article titled ‘En finir avec l'État de droit?’ (Put an end to the rule of law?) by Alexis Blouët (UAM, France). The article was published in the French law and society journal Droit et société (2023/2-3, No. 114-115, pages 361-377).
• Book reviews published in Asia Journal of Comparative Law by Donald Clarke (George Washington University, US), The China Journal by Pitman B. Potter (University of British Columbia, Canada), China Quarterly by Björn Ahl (University of Cologne, Germany), and Hong Kong Law Journal by Samuli Seppänen (Chinese University of Hong Kong), among others.

2. Shucheng Wang, “Varieties of Authoritarian Legality,” Asia Pacific Law Review, 32 (2), 2024, pp. 293-310.

• Featured in the discussion of the opinion essay “In the Name of the Rule of Law: A Closer Look at India’s Bulldozer Actions” by Md Zeeshan Ahmad (SOAS, London), published on The Wire, 27 September 2024.
• Featured on Legal Theory Blog by Lawrence B. Solum (Professor of Law, University of Virginia, US), 23 February 2024.
• Featured on the Chinese Law Blog, 19 February 2024.

3. Shucheng Wang, “The Chinese Communist Party’s Atheistic Approach to Religious Freedom in China,” Politics, Religion and Ideology, 23 (2), 2022, pp. 204-225.

• Featured on the blog of Religion Clause (posted by Professor Howard Friedman from The University of Toledo in Canada), 27 June 2022.

4. Shucheng Wang, “The Judicial Document as Informal State Law: Judicial Lawmaking in China’s Courts,” Modern China, 48 (3), 2022, pp. 617–649.

• Featured in the post of I-CONnect by Eman Muhammad Rashwan on the Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law, 15 February 2022.
• Featured on Legal Theory Blog by Lawrence B. Solum (Professor of Law, University of Virginia, US), 27 May 2020.

5. Shucheng Wang, “Judicial Review of the Legislative Process in Hong Kong: A Comparative Perspective,” Statute Law Review, 42 (3), 2021, pp. 291–304.

• A response article by Gonen Ilan (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel), entitled “Response: Recent Development regarding Judicial Review of Legislative Process in Israel,” was published in Statute Law Review (Oxford University Press), 42 (2), 2021, pp. 176–182.
• Featured on Legal Theory Blog by Lawrence B. Solum (Professor of Law, University of Virginia, US), 3 September 2020.

6. Shucheng Wang, “Hong Kong’s Civil Disobedience under China’s Authoritarianism,” Emory International Law Review, 35 (1), 2021, pp. 21-61.

• Featured on the reading list of the course Sociology offered by Laikipia University, Kenya.

7. Shucheng Wang, “Tripartite Freedom of Religion in China: An Illiberal Perspective,” Human Rights Quarterly, 39 (4), 2017, pp. 783-810. (lead article)

• Translated into Chinese by Dr. Wu Yuanlin and published in 中国基督教研究 (Journal of Research for Christianity in China), No. 12, 2019, pp. 166-188.
• Featured on the module reading list of the course Religion and Human Rights (last updated on 10 August 2020) by Rachel Muers (Professor of Theology, University of Leeds, UK)
• Featured on the reading list of the course Law, Culture and Society in Asia (SV9002) - valid from Autumn 2021, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Selected Chinese publiccations: 

1. Shucheng Wang, “论合宪性解释方法” (Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine Revisited), 法学研究 (Chinese Journal of Law), 2012 (5), pp. 20-38. (lead article, in Chinese)

• Featured as a representative work on this topic in a reputable Chinese law journal in Shanghai – 政治与法律 (Political Science and Law), 2015 (8), p 111.

2. Shucheng Wang, “立宪共和之民初启蒙及反思”(The Practice of the Constitutional Republic at the beginning of the Republic of China), 法学研究 (Chinese Journal of Law), 2011 (5), pp. 164-180.

• Reprinted in Mo Jihong and Zhai Guoqiang (eds.) 宪法研究 (Constitutional Studies), Vol. 13, Beijing: Social Science Academic Press, 2012, pp. 239-267.

3. Shucheng Wang, “合宪性推定的正当性”(The Grounds for the Presumption of Constitutionality), 法学研究 (Chinese Journal of Law), 2010 (2), pp. 23-35.

• Awarded the Excellent Research Paper Prize by China Law Society in 2010.

• Comparative Public Law
• Human Rights
• Legal Theory
• International Law
• Law and Religion
• Chinese Law and Society