Peter C.H. CHAN is an Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong Law School. His main research areas are law and society, empirical legal studies, comparative civil procedure, Chinese law.  His work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in Hastings Law Journal, Tulane Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Washington International Law Journal, UC Law SF International Law Review, Legal History Review (Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis), Asian Journal of Law and Society, Judicature, Hong Kong Law Journal, Journal of Comparative Law, International Journal of Procedural Law, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, King’s Law Journal, Peking University Law Journal and a number of leading comparative civil procedure volumes.

Peter is a fellow of the European Law Institute, a member of the International Association of Procedural Law, an Invited Fellow of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute, a core Member of the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (CCCL) at City University of Hong Kong, a Core Member of the Centre for Public Affairs and Law at City University of Hong Kong and a member of the Research School Ius Commune.  Peter is the Team Co-ordinator for Segment 6 of the Comparative Procedural Law and Justice Project (CPLJ), a Scientific Guest (April-May 2015) at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law and a Visiting Professor (in 2013) at the Law Faculty, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University. 

Peter was the Programme Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws programme (PCLL) in the 2015-2016 academic year.  He is currently the Associate Programme Director of PCLL and the course leader of “Financial Regulatory Practice”, a PCLL elective course.

Peter received his degrees of LLB, LLM and PCLL at the University of Hong Kong.  Prior to joining CityU, Peter worked at a leading international firm, specializing in commercial litigation and contentious financial regulatory practice.  Peter received his doctorate from Maastricht University.

Research Grants

• 2023/24, Principal Investigator, General Research Fund (GRF), “Has the Plea Leniency Procedure Reshaped China’s Criminal Justice System? – An Empirical Enquiry” HK $490,000, Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Jan 2024 – December 2026 (Project No. CityU 11602523).
• An Empirical Assessment of Legal Mobilization by Criminal Defence Weiquan Lawyers in China (GRF), Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC), Amount: HKD $478,700, Jan 2022 – December 2024, Peter C.H. Chan (PI) (Project No. CityU 11604221). (PI)
• Protecting Employees from Unfair Dismissal in Chinese Courts: An Empirical Study on Serious Breach Dismissal Cases (GRF), Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC), Amount: HKD 424,000, Jan 2020 – December 2022, Peter C.H. Chan (PI), (Project No. CityU 11602719). (PI)
• Gender Inequality in Chinese Courts: the Case of Married-Out Women and Their Rural Land Rights, Early Career Scheme (ECS), Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC), Amount: HKD 458,000, Jan 2018 – Dec 2019, Peter C.H. Chan (PI).
• The Evolving Perception of the Rule of Law in Hong Kong since the Umbrella Movement, Research Grant, Centre for Public Affairs and Law, City University of Hong Kong (2020), $100,000 (Co-PI).
• How are Defendants with Diminished Capacity Sentenced in China? – Cases of Intentionally Causing Bodily Harm to Others, School Strategic Research Grant, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, HKD 99,550, 1 September 2020 – 31 August 2022, Peter C.H. Chan (PI).
• Why Do Chinese Judges Quit? An Empirical Study on the Evolving Vocation of the Chinese Judge as a Social Process, School Matching Fund, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, HKD198,521, 1 October 2019 – 30 September 2021, Peter C.H. Chan (PI).
• Does the Lifelong Accountability System Enhance Judge Accountability in China?  Empirical Evidence from Frontline Judges, School Matching Fund, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, HKD199,421, 1 July 2019 – 30 June 2021, Peter C.H. Chan (PI).
• Judicial Reform in Contemporary China: Proceduralist and Empirical Perspectives, Start-up Grant, City University of Hong Kong, HKD 189,995, 1 July 2018 - 31 Dec 2019, Peter C.H. Chan (PI).
• The Role of the Judge and the Parties in Civil Litigation: Towards an Efficient Procedure under the Rule of Law in China and the EU, EU-China Research Grant, China-EU School of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law (CESL), Amount: EUR 63,000, 2011-2012, Peter C.H. Chan (Co-I) [C.H. van Rhee (PI)].

Publication

SSRN page
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1769895 

A.  MONOGRAPHS

• Mediation in Contemporary Chinese Civil Justice: A Proceduralist Diachronic Perspective. Leiden & Boston: Brill Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 328 pages. Aug 2017.
  Reviewed by: Masood Ahmed (University of Leicester), in International Journal of Procedural Law II(01), 2021.
  Reviewed by: Mohamed Paleker (University of Cape Town), in Asia Pacific Law Review 29(1), 215-219, 2021

B.  EDITED BOOKS

• Peter C.H. Chan and C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, Civil Case Management in the Twenty-First Century: Court Structures Still Matter. Singapore: Springer, 2021.

C.  JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Peter C.H. Chan and Wu Wanqiang, “From ‘Line Appraisal’ to ‘Case-Process Ratio’: Will the New Case Quality Assessment System Facilitate the Changing Role of the Chinese Prosecutor?”, Hong Kong Law Journal, forthcoming 2024.
• “Old Wine in a New Bottle? – An Empirical Evaluation of the Judicial Reforms in China in the 2010s”, UC Law SF International Law Review (formerly Hastings International and Comparative Law Review), forthcoming 2024.
• “Does Black-Letter Law Matter in Labor Rights Protection in China? - A Tale of Two Cities”, Washington International Law Journal, forthcoming 2023.
• “Judicial Reform in China: What Do Judges Think?”, International Journal of Procedural Law, forthcoming 2023.
• “The Regulation of Dismissal in China: Diverging Standards of Serious Breach Dismissal and the Need for Reform”, King’s Law Journal 33(2), 208-227, 2022.
• Hao Jiang and Peter C.H. Chan, “The Rule Against Recovery of Pure Economic Loss in China: A Misconceived Doctrine”, Tulane Law Review 96, 261-292, 2022.
• “Are Chinese Courts Pro-Labor or Pro-Employer?”, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 43(2), 281-371, 2022.
• “Balancing the Duties of the Court and the Parties in Promoting Settlement:  Can Mainland China and Hong Kong Borrow from the Model European Rules of Civil Procedure?”, International Journal of Procedural Law II(01), 41-63, 2021.
• Peter C.H. Chan and Huina Xiao, “A Typology of Judicial Liability for Error in Chinese Courts,” Hong Kong Law Journal 51(1), 309-337, 2021.
• Kwai Ng and Peter C.H. Chan, “‘What Gets Measured Gets Done’: Metric Fixation and China’s Experiment of Quantified Judging,” Asian Journal of Law and Society, 1-27, 2021.
• Peter C.H. Chan and Huina Xiao, “Weak Criminalization of Domestic Violence in China: Two Key Weaknesses,” Journal of Comparative Law 15(2), 88-111, 2020.
• “Do the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead in Chinese Grassroots Courts? – Rural Land Disputes Between Married-Out Women and Village Collectives,” Hastings Law Journal 71(1), 1-78, 2019 (Lead Article).
• “Framing the Structure of the Court System in the Perspective of Case Management,” Peking University Law Journal 6(1), 55-79, 2018.
• Peter C.H. Chan and Viviana Ponce de León, “LA BÚSQUEDA DE LA DEMOCRACIA EN HONG KONG: ¿UN CASO DE REALPOLITIK O UN CONFLICTO DE DOCTRINA CONSTITUCIONAL?” [The Pursuit of Democracy in Hong Kong: A Case of Realpolitik or Conflict of Constitutional Jurisprudence?], Estudios Constitucionales 16(2), 403-448, 2018 (in Spanish).
• Peter C.H. Chan and Ubaid Rehman, “Interim Relief: National Report for Hong Kong (China),” Flinders Law Journal 20(1), 125-145, 2018. 
• “Dispute Resolution under the Belt and Road Initiative: Constructing an Effective Mediation Regime in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area,” Asian Dispute Review, 125-130, July 2018.
• “Civil Mediation in Imperial, Republican and Modern-day China: Historical and Cultural Norms under the Traditional Chinese Legal Order,” The Legal History Review (Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis) 85, 577-602, 2017.
• “China’s Grand Mediation Strategy for Social Stability: A Study on Out-of-Court Mediation Procedures,” Revista de Processo Comparado 6(3), 81-111, 2017.
• “A Distorted Mediation Landscape: Judicial Mediation in the Chinese Civil Courts,” Nederlands-vlaams Tijdschrift voor Mediation en Conflictmanagement (TMD) [Dutch-Flemish Journal for Mediation and Conflict Management] 20(3), 6-18, 2016.
• “An Uphill Battle: How China’s Obsession with Social Stability is Blocking Judicial Reform,” Judicature 100(3), 14-23, 2016.
• “OPCIONES DE MEDIACIÓN PARA RESOLVER DISPUTAS COMERCIALES EN CHINA” [Mediation Options for Resolving Commercial Disputes in China: A Guide for Foreign Enterprises], Revista Chilena de Derecho 41(1), 153-170, 2014 (in Spanish). Also published in Tijdschrift voor Civiele Rechtspleging 2, 49-56, 2012 (in English).
• “The Enigma of Civil Justice in Imperial China: A Legal Historical Enquiry,” Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 19(2), 317-337, 2012.
• “Three Years of Civil Justice Reform: Constructing a Cost-Effective and Efficient Civil Procedure in Hong Kong,” Acta Universitatis Lucian Blaga 2, 181-202, 2011.

D.  BOOK CHAPTERS

• Feng Lin, David Holloway, Linda Chelan Li, Peter C.H. Chan, Man Tak Kwok, Jennifer Sin Yu Hung, and Kin On Li, “Hong Kong as Belt-Road Dispute Resolution Hub,” in    Linda Chelan Li, Phyllis Lai Lan Mo and Iris Chui Ping Kam eds., Hong Kong Professional Services and the Belt-Road Initiative: Challenges for Co-evolving Sustainability, Routledge, 2021 forthcoming.
• Peter C.H. Chan and C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, “Introduction,” in Peter C.H. Chan and C.H. (Remco) van Rhee eds., Civil Case Management in the Twenty-First Century: Court Structures Still Matter. Singapore: Springer, 2021.
• Peter C.H. Chan and Ubaid Rehman, “Curbing Adversarial Excesses: An Evaluation of the Expert Evidence Regime in Hong Kong After the Civil Justice Reform (with a Focused Study on Personal Injury Litigation),” in C.H. van Rhee & Alan Uzelac eds., Evidence in Contemporary Civil Procedure: Fundamental Issues in a Comparative Perspective, Antwerp: Intersentia, 193-222, 2015.
• “Civil Appeals and Other Means of Recourse Against Judgments in China: A Critical Review of the Procedural Issues,” in C.H. van Rhee & Alan Uzelac eds., Nobody’s Perfect: Comparative Essays on Appeals and other Means of Recourse against Judicial Decisions in Civil Matters, Antwerp: Intersentia, 161-210, 2014.  
• Peter C.H. Chan and David Chan, “Civil Justice with Multiple Objectives: The Unique Path of Hong Kong’s Civil Justice Reform,” in Alan Uzelac ed., Goals of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure in Contemporary Judicial Systems, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer, 143-165, 2014.
• “Efficiency and Truth in Civil Fact-finding: The Evolving Role of the Judge in Mainland China and Hong Kong and the Effect of the Policy Preference for Court Mediation on Fact-finding in the People’s Courts,” in C.H. van Rhee & Alan Uzelac eds., Truth and Efficiency in Civil Litigation: Fundamental Aspects of Fact-finding and Evidence-taking in a Comparative Context, Antwerp: Intersentia, p. 231-260, 2012.
• Peter C.H. Chan, David Chan and Lei Chen, “China: Hong Kong. Selective Adoption of the English Woolf Reforms,” in C.H. van Rhee and Yulin Fu eds., Civil Litigation in China and Europe: Essays on the Role of the Judge and the Parties, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer, 71-125, 2012.

E.  PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES/ COMMISSIONED REPORTS

• Zvonimir Jelinić and Peter C.H. Chan, “Resolving Commercial Disputes with an International Element – Solutions from the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Croatia with Special emphasis on court mediation proceedings,” Croatian Arbitration Yearbook 19, 209-238, 2012.
• “Legal Representation for Arrestees at a Police Station: An Overview of the Legal Aid Schemes in Five Jurisdictions,” commissioned by the Interest Group on Scope of Legal Aid, Legal Aid Services Council, Hong Kong, 2011.

F.  BOOK REVIEWS

• Review of Hong Kong Administrative Law (by Swati Jhaveri, Michael Ramsden and Anne Scully-Hill) (Hong Kong: LexisNexis, 2010), City University of Hong Kong Law Review 2(1), 210-212, 2010.
• Review of Mediation: Principles and Regulation in Comparative Perspective (edited by Klaus J. Hopt and Felix Steffek) (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013), lx +1347 pp., ISBN 9780199653485, European Business Organization Law Review 14(4), 613-618, 2013.
• Review of Towards a Chinese Civil Code: Comparative and Historical Perspectives (edited by Lei Chen and C.H. (Remco) van Rhee) (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012) pp. xiii + 562, ISBN 978-9-004-20487-4, Comparative Legal History 2(1), 128-133, 2014.

AWARDS

• Outstanding Research Award for Junior Faculty 2020, City University of Hong Kong, School of Law

EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES

• Editor-in-Chief, Contemporary Chinese Civil and Commercial Law Series, Springer
• Member, Editorial Board, Hong Kong Lawyer (The Official Journal of the Hong Kong Law Society)
• Member, International Editorial Council, Kazan University Law Review
• Bibliography updates (Hong Kong/ China), International Journal of Procedural Law

Esteem Indicators

• Fellow, European Law Institute
• Invited Fellow, Maastricht European Private Law Institute
• Member, International Association of Procedural Law

External Services

• People’s Assessor (Hong Kong), Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court, 2018 - 
• Member, Steering Committee on Rule of Law Education, HKSAR Department of Justice, February 2023-
• Member, Working Group on Coordination and Liaison of the Steering Committee on Rule of Law Education, HKSAR Department of Justice, April 2023-
• Executive Committee Member, the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Education Association, 2021-
• Member, Editorial Board, Hong Kong Lawyer (The Official Journal of the Hong Kong Law Society)
• Member, International Editorial Council, Kazan University Law Review
• Member, Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training, Sep 2015-Aug 2016.
• Member, Sub-Committee on English Language Proficiency of the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training, Sep 2011-present.
• Member, PCLL Conversion Examination Board, Sep 2015-Aug 2016.
• Volunteer, Stand Tall, May 2009 – present.
• Examiner, Head III, Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination, July 2014 – present.