CPAL Labs

The Centre will feature a number of labs. These labs will focus on areas of strength at CityU in the broader area of public affairs and law.

Contentious Politics and Public Law

The lab will focus on contentious politics and the rule of law through public law under uncertainty and change. It will:

Investigate the sources, trends and consequences of the global wave of uncertainty and change associated with contentious politics,
Examine how the rule of law can be strengthened to provide guidance for the future governance in the face of contentious politics, and
Adopt a comparative focus and interdisciplinary methodology to produce evidence-led research to inform institutional responses and law-based solutions to the challenges of contentious politics.

Research will be conducted across three themes:

Build knowledge using evidence-based approaches (observational survey and interview data, lab and survey experimental data) to understand contentious politics,
Use big data to map changes in public sentiments and opinion and collate a systematic and comprehensive picture of attitudes and behaviours, and
Devise law-based solutions to contentious politics to promote accountability, good governance and the rule of law.

Develop evidence-based interdisciplinary collaborative solutions to policy, public service challenges and law to develop a better society. It will:

Investigate policy areas related to CityU’s strategic research themes of one health, digital society, smart city, matter and brain,
Examine the effectiveness of policy tools, policy formulation techniques, decision-making techniques, policy implementation and evaluation, and
Adopt a comparative focus and interdisciplinary methodology to produce evidence-led research to inform the development of public policy.

Research will be conducted across three themes:

Synthesize existing knowledge through integration studies (systematic reviews, meta-analysis) in the search for evidence-based policy solutions,
Conduct field, laboratory and survey experiments to develop robust evidence on policy challenges, and
Analyzing big data to identify trends across policy challenges