Dr Enshen Li is an Associate Professor at CityUHK School of Law. His scholarly work is interdisciplinary, bridging the fields of comparative criminal law, criminal justice, theoretical criminology, terrorism, and socio-legal studies of punishment. Dr Li has published extensively in leading academic journals, including British Journal of Criminology, The China Journal, Punishment & Society, Theoretical Criminology, Journal of Law and Society, Law & Social Inquiry, Social & Legal Studis, New Criminal Law Review, Terrorism and Political Violence, Emory International Law Review and Columbia Journal of Asian Law among others. He is the author of Punishment in Contemporary China: Its Development, Evolution and Change and several resource books for university teachers. Over the past decades, Dr Li has taught multiple compulsory undergraduate and postgraduate courses (e.g., criminology, criminal law, evidence law, business and corporations law) in Melbourne, Brisbane and Hong Kong.  

Before joining CityUHK School of Law, Dr. Li was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. He also has extensive practical experience, having worked as a prison officer at Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai and practiced as a criminal defense lawyer in both China and Australia. He has received several prestigious research awards, including the University of Queensland’s Early Career Research Excellence in Research Award (2018) and the Joint Action Research Award from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2020). Dr Li has held visiting appointments at prestigious universities including The University of Melbourne, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing Normal University, and National Taiwan University. He is regularly consulted by major international media outlets—such as ABC, CNA, The Economist, and The Guardian—on matters related to criminal law, justice, and penal systems in Australia and China.

Dr Li has also acted as an expert witness in over a dozen criminal trials in Australia and the United States. Appearing before the Supreme Court of Victoria (Australia), the District Court for the District of Massachusetts (the US) and others, Dr Li provided testimony on the Chinese criminal justice system in various transnational criminal cases. Dr Li was the General Editor of The University of Queensland Law Journal and LawAsia Journal and now sits on several editorial boards of prominent law and criminology journals. He is an executive board member of the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States (ACCCJ) and the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the ACCCJ Research Bulletin. He is now the book review editor of Asian Journal of Criminology.

PUBLICATIONS LIST

Books
愛德華·J.拉特沙//波拉·史密斯, 譯者:張大維//江山河//李恩深 (2025), 社區矯正(第6版美國地方治理的新議題及其比較), 江蘇人民出版社
E Li, X Yuan, Y Zhang (2024), Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan).
E Li (2018), Punishment in Contemporary China: Its Development, Evolution and Change (Routledge)
E Li (2018) Business and Corporations Law Guidebook (English/Chinese) (Thomas Reuters)
E Li (2016) Business and Corporate Law (Thomas Reuters)

Book Chapters
E Li (2026), ‘Penal Policies and Practices in China’ in Alessandro Corda (ed.) Research Handbook on Penal Policy (Edward Elgar, forthcoming).
E Li, XY Yuan, Y Zhang (2024), ‘Introduction’ in E Li, XY Yuan, Y Zhang (eds.) Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan), 1-12.
E Li (2024), ‘The Many Cultural Manifestations of Convictions through Pleas in Greater China: An International Perspective’ in E Li, XY Yuan, Y Zhang (eds.) Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan), 253-277.
Y Lu, X Lin, E Li (2024), ‘Plea Leniency in Mainland China: Legislation, Characteristics and Effects’ in E Li, XY Yuan, Y Zhang (eds.) Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan), 13-36.
E Li (2023), ‘Bureaucratising Criminal Convictions in China’ in Ed Johnson and Anna Pivaty (eds.) Efficiency and Bureaucratisation of Criminal Justice (Routledge), 69-87.
E Li (2022), ‘Rehabilitation and Corrections in China’ in Maurice Vanstone and Philip Priestley (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Rehabilitation in Criminal Justice (Palgrave Macmillan), 89-106.
E Li (2016), ‘China’s Socialization of Administrative Offenders in the Community: An Unrealistic Agenda?’ in Susan Trevaskes, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Elisa Nesossi (eds) Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China (Routledge), 43-61.
S Bronitt and E Li (2015), ‘Counter-Terrorism Law in Australia: New Paradigms in Criminal Law’ in Zhao Binzhi (ed.) Toward Scientific Criminal Law Theories (Law Press), 610-630

Journal Articles
Y Liu, SY He and E Li (2025), Accessing Crime Data in Hong Kong: Haunted by Fragmentation. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862251387435.
Z Li, E Li, SY Liu and XF Ling (2025), The Predictors of Penal Exemption: Evidence from China. European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, 0(0), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-025-09618-z.
E Li (2025), Solid in Shape, Shattered in Practice? The ‘Sentencing Pyramid’ in China. Journal of Law and Society, 52(2): 292-314.
E Li (2025), Regulating Misdemeanours in China. Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 50(2): 122-160.
E Li (2024), Forward-leaning Policing and Stability Maintenance: The Politics of Penal Control in Xi’s China. Punishment & Society, 26(2): 368-393
E Li (2023), Risk, Political Security and Extra-Judicial Penality Under Xi. Theoretical Criminology, 27(4): 638-659.
E Li (2023), The Qianke System in China: Disorganisation, Discrimination and Dispersion. Criminology & Criminal Justice 23(4): 568-587.
E Li (2023), Legal Graft of Hong Kong National Security Law: A Turn against “One Country, Two Systems”? The Journal of Comparative Law 18(1): 339-363
E Li, XF Lin and SH Liu (2023), Radical Times Call for Radical Measures: China’s Regulation of Covid-19 through Criminal Justice Innovation. China: An International Journal 21(1): 1-23.
E Li (2023), Can “Nudge” Salvage Community Policing against Terrorism? Terrorism and Political Violence 35(1): 135-155.
E Li (2022), Chinese Courts' New Plea Leniency System: Scrutinizing the Efficacy of Mandatory Defence Counsels. The China Journal 88: 78-99.
E Li (2022), Haste Makes Waste: Why China’s New Plea Leniency System is Doomed to Fail. Asian Journal of Comparative Law 16(2): 71-105.
XF Lin, SH Liu, E Li and Y Ma (2022), Sentencing Disparity and Sentencing Guidelines: The Case of China. Asian Journal of Criminology 17: 127-155.
E Li (2022), Unravelling the Mystery of Parole in China. British Journal of Criminology 62(4): 896-913.
E Li (2022), Policing Terrorism in the Chinese Community: A Critical Analysis. Asian Journal of Law and Society 19(3): 466-499.
E Li and R Thomason (2020), The Right to Legal Representation in China – An Australian Perspective of Counsel Competence and the Right to a Fair Trial. Asia Pacific Law Review 28(1): 179-201.
E Li (2020), In the Name of Prevention? Policing “Social Dangerousness” through Arrest in China. Social &Legal Studies 30(4): 581-604.
E Li and MY Su (2020), From Punishment to Control: Assessing Juvenile Justice in China. Law & Social Inquiry 45(2): 372-397.
E Li (2019), Fighting the Three Evils: A Structural Analysis of Counter-terrorism Legal Architecture in China. Emory International Law Review 33(3): 311-365.
E Li and S Bronitt (2017) Combating Foreign Bribery in China: Rethinking Zero Tolerance with “Chinese Characteristics”. Chinese Journal of Comparative Law 5(2): 308-344.
E Li (2017), The Rhetoric and Practice of Community Corrections in China. Asian Journal of Criminology 12(2): 143-162.
E Li (2017), Penological Developments in Contemporary China: Populist Punitiveness vs. Penal Professionalism. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 51: 58-71.
E Li (2016), China’s New Counterterrorism Legal Framework in the Post-2001 Era: Legal Development, Penal Chang, and Political Legitimacy. New Criminal Law Review 19(3): 344-381.
E Li (2016), China's Urban Population and Penal Policy. Criminology & Criminal Justice 16(1): 80-98.
E Li (2015), Towards the Lenient Justice? A Rise of 'Harmonious' Penality in Contemporary China. Asian Journal of Criminology 19(4): 1-17.
E Li (2015), The Cultural Idiosyncrasy of Penal Populism: The Case of Contemporary China. British Journal of Criminology 55(1): 146-163.
E Li (2015), China’s Community Corrections: An Actuarial Model of Punishment. Crime, Law and Social Change 64(1): 1-22.
E Li (2014), ‘The Neoliberal Penality Thesis in China: When Western Theory Meets Chinese Reality’. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 25(3): 803-817.
E Li (2014), The New Drug Detoxification System in China: A Misused Tool for Drug Rehabilitation. The University of Pennsylvania East Asia Law Review 9(2): 168-212.
E Li, Crime Control in China's Pre-trial System: A Political Ideology? (2013) 8(1) National Taiwan University Law Review 141-203.
E Li (2012), Between Reality and Idea: Implementing the Rule of Law in China’s Pre-trial Process. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences 7(1): 398-415.
E Li (2012), Community Drug Treatment in China: A Promising Program or An Incomplete Project? LawAsia Journal 13: 27-52.
E Li (2012), Between Idea and Reality: Is the Socialization of Administrative Offenders Realizable? Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal 13(2): 164-209.
E Li (2011), The Abuse of Guaranteed Pending Trial in the Chinese Criminal Process: A Violation of International Human Rights Law. Indonesian Journal of International Law 9(1): 79-100.
E Li (2010), The Li Zhuang Case: Examining the Challenges Facing Criminal Defense Lawyers in China. Columbia Journal of Asian Law 24(1): 129-169.
E Li (2010), Prisonization or Socialization? Social Factors Associated with Chinese Administrative Offences. UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal 27(2): 302-347.
E Li (2010), Miscarriage of Justice in the Chinese Pre-trial Process. LawAsia Journal 11: 83-111.
E Li (2010), Chinese Administrative Justice System: Its Malpractice and Possible Reform. Frontiers of Law in China 5(4): 548-579.

Other Publications
E. Li (2024), ‘Crime and Control in China: The Myth of Harmony’ by Børge Bakken. Asia Pacific Law Review, 32(2): 553-337 (book review).
E Li (2024), ‘The Timing of Guilty Pleas: Lessons from Common Law Jurisdictions’ by Kevin Cheng. Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 19(1):183-184 (book review).
E Li (2023), ‘Governance, Social Control and Legal Reform in China: Community Sanctions and Measures’ by Qi Chen. Punishment & Society, 26(4): 755-758 (book review)
E Li (2022), ‘Policing China: Street-Level Cops in the Shadow of Protest’ by Suzanne E. Scoggins. The China Journal, 88: 164-165 (book review)
E Li (2022), ‘The Construction of Guilt in China: An Empirical Account of Routine Chinese Injustice’ by Grace Yu Mou, Asian Journal of Criminology, 17(1): 105-107 (book review)
E Li (2021), ‘China’s Move towards A Preventative State’, Social & Legal Studies Blog https://socialandlegalstudies.wordpress.com/2021/11/.
E Li (2019), ‘Criminal Defence in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work’ by Sida Liu and Terence C. Halliday, The China Journal, 79: 124-126 (book review)

RECENT MAJOR GRANTS
Co-Investigator, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), ‘Navigating Procedural Justice and Social Inclusion: A Qualitative Comparative Study Using Vignettes with Chinese and Ethnic Minority Youth and Police Officers’ (2026-2028) (project number: 15610825)
Co-Investigator, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), ‘From Strike-Hard Policy to Soft Control of Crime: An Empirical Assessment of Lenient Governance of Misdemeanours in China (Focusing on the Offence of Dangerous Driving)’ (2026-2028) (project number: 11601225)
Principal Investigator, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), ‘Extraterritoriality of Chinese Criminal Jurisdiction: A Socio-legal Study’ (2025-2027) (project number: 9043766)
Principal Investigator, The Academy of Social Science in Australia – Chinese Academy of Social Science Joint Action Research Fund (2020-2021)Principal Investigator, The University of Queensland Early Career Researcher Grant (2018)

COMMUNITY & SERVICES
Editor of the University of Queensland Law Journal (2021-2023)
Editor-in-chief of LAWASIA Journal (2018-2020)
Editorial Board Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (2017-present)
Editor-in-Chief of the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States Research Bulletin (2022-present)
The Executive Board Member of the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States (2024-present)
Book Review Editor of Asian Journal of Criminology (2025-present)