Biography
Shucheng (Peter) Wang is an Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong (CityU). His research interests include comparative public law, human rights, legal theory, law and religion, and international law, as well as Chinese law and society. He 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. 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), Modern China (US), 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, entitled “Presumption of Constitutionality”, investigates the relationship between the legislature and judiciary in the process of constitutional review from a comparative perspective. It was awarded the “National Outstanding PhD Dissertation Prize” by the Ministry of Education (Wang was the only recipient of this award in the field of law nationwide in 2011). In addition, he holds a Master of International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, where he was both a Clarendon Scholar and the first graduate of the program from Greater China.
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 publications (law/interdisciplinary):
1. Shucheng Wang, Law as an Instrument: Sources of Chinese Law for Authoritarian Legality, New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, July 2022.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
Research Interests/Areas
- Comparative Public Law
- Human Rights
- Legal Theory
- International Law
- Law and Religion
- Chinese Law and Society
