Virginia HARPER HO is a Professor of Law at CityU School of Law. Her primary research interests are corporate law and governance, securities regulation, sustainability, and corporate finance with a comparative focus on mainland China. Her work has been published by leading law journals and in numerous edited volumes. She has written recently on ESG disclosure reform, shareholder activism, comparative corporate governance, and China's green finance reforms, and has contributed to ESG reform initiatives of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

She has held visiting research appointments at the University of California-Berkeley, the National University of Singapore, the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE)’s International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF), Zhejiang University, and Sun Yat-Sen University.

Professor Harper Ho serves on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) and is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).  She is also an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law and a Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. Prior to entering academia, she practiced corporate and securities law and advised U.S. and foreign multinationals on cross-border transactions with a focus on Asia.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

“Corporate Climate Governance,” 51J. Corporation L. 540 (2026 (50 pp)
“Beyond Transplant: A Network Innovation Model of Transnational Regulatory Change,” 71(3) American Journal of Comparative Law 513 (2024), (55pp)
“Climate Risk Disclosure Line-Drawing & Securities Regulation,” 56 University of California- Davis Law Review 1875 (2023) (symposium) (31 pp)
“Modernizing ESG Disclosure,” 2022 Illinois Law Review 277 (2022) (76 pp)
“The Limits of Enlightened Shareholder Activism,” International Journal of Financial Services [Revues Internationale de Services Financiers] 37 (Apr. 2022) (9 pp)
“Disclosure Overload? Lessons for Risk Disclosure & ESG Reporting Reform From the Regulation S-K Concept Release,” 65 Villanova Law Review 67 (2020) (92 pp)
“Over-Disclosure Overblown,” The Conference Board: Sustainability Matters (Aug. 2020)
“Non-financial Reporting & Corporate Governance: Explaining American Divergence and Its Implications for Disclosure Reform,” 10(2) Journal of Accounting, Economics & Law: A Convivium 1 (2019) (29 pp)
“ESG Disclosure: Optimizing Private Ordering in Public Reporting,” 41 University of Pennsylvania International Law Journal 249 (2019) (with Stephen Park) (80 pp)
“From Public Policy to Materiality: Non-Financial Reporting, Shareholder Engagement, & the Rule 14a-8 Ordinary Business Exception,” 76 Washington & Lee Law Review 1231 (2019) (symposium) (28 pp)
“Sustainable Finance & China’s Green Credit Reforms: A Test Case for Bank Monitoring of Environmental Risk,” 51 Cornell International Law Journal 609 (2018) (73 pp)
“Nonfinancial Disclosure & The Costs of Private Ordering,” 55 American Business Law Journal 407 (2018) (68 pp)
“Comply or Explain’ and the Future of Nonfinancial Reporting,” 21 Lewis & Clark Law Review 317 (2017) (symposium) (37 pp)
“Sustainability in the Mainstream: Why Investors Care and What it Means for Corporate Boards,” The Conference Board: Director Notes (Nov. 2017) (19 pp)
“Risk-Related Activism: The Business Case for Monitoring Nonfinancial Risk,” 41 Journal of Corporation Law 647 (2016) (58 pp)
“Team Production & the Multinational Enterprise,” 38 Seattle Law Review 499 (2015) (symposium) (37 pp)
“Corporate Responsibility in China: Law & the Business Case for Strategic CSR,” 12 South Carolina Journal International Law & Business 1 (2015) (40 pp)
“The Power of Presence,” 5 Journal of Christian Legal Thought 3 (2015)
“The Recursivity of Reform: China’s Amended Labor Contract Law,” 37 Fordham International Law Review 973 (2014) (with Huang Qiaoyan) (62 pp)
“Of Enterprise Principles and Corporate Groups: Does Corporate Law Reach Human Rights?” 52 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 113 (2013) (60 pp)
“Beyond Regulation: A Comparative Look at State-Centric Corporate Social Responsibility & the Law in China,” 46 Vanderbilt Transnational Law Journal 375 (2013) (68 pp)
“Corporate Governance as Risk Regulation in China: A Comparative View of Risk Oversight, Risk Management, and Accountability,” 4 European Journal of Risk Regulation 463 (2012) (13 pp)
“Governance Beyond Regulation: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of the State in Comparative Perspective” (in Chinese) [超越规则的治理：比较视角下的企业社会责任和政府角色], 公共行政评论 2:100 [2 Chinese Journal of Public Administration 100] (2012) (24 pp)
“Theories of Corporate Groups: Corporate Identity Reconceived,” 42 Seton Hall Law Review 879 (2012) (74 pp)
“‘Enlightened Shareholder Value’: Corporate Governance Beyond the Shareholder-Stakeholder Divide,” 36 Journal of Corporation Law 59 (2010) (54 pp)

Book

Labor Dispute Resolution in China: Implications for Labor Rights and Legal Reform (University of California, Berkeley: Institute for East Asian Studies, 2003)

Book Chapters

“Corporate Scandals: A View From Hong Kong,” in Corporate Scandals in Asia, Ernest Lim, Luh Luh Lan & Joon Hyug Chung eds. (Cambridge UP: 2027).
“China & Transnational Green Finance: Diverse Influences in an Unsettled Field,” The Impact of China on the Future of International and Transnational Law, Ji Li & Gregory Shaffer, eds. (forthcoming)
“Securities Regulation,” The Cambridge Handbook of Climate Change and Private Law, Ernest Lim & Doug Kysar, eds. (Cambridge UP 2026)
“China’s Corporate Credit System & The Boundaries of Corporate Liability,” in Fraud & Risk in Commercial Law, Hans Tijo & Paul Davies, eds. 323-346 (Hart Publishing: 2024) (24 pp)
“U.S. ESG Regulation in Transnational Context,” in Corporate Purpose, CSR and ESG: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective, Jens-Hinrich Binder, Klaus J. Hopt, Thilo Kuntz, eds. 83-103 (Oxford Univ. Press: 2024) (26 pp)
“Sustainable Finance & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling,” in Investment Management, Stewardship and Sustainability, Iris Chiu & Hans-Christoph Hirt, eds. 137-164 (Hart Publishing: 2023) (28 pp)
“Sustainable Finance & the Public Turn in Corporate Law,” in A Research Agenda for Corporate Law, Christopher Bruner & Marc Moore, eds. 121-139 (Edward Elgar: 2023) (19 pp)
“Corporate Groups: Toward Enterprise Accountability,” in Handbook of Corporate Liability, Martin Petrin & Christian Witting, eds. 292-314 (Edward Elgar: 2023) (with Gerlinde Berger-Walliser & Rachel Chambers) (23 pp)
“Rewriting Smith v. Van Gorkom,” in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Corporate Law, Kelli Alces, et al., eds. 221-245 (Cambridge Univ. Press: 2022) (25 pp)
“Board Duties: Monitoring, Risk Management & Compliance”, in Handbook of Comparative Corporate Governance, Afra Afsharipour & Martin Gelter, eds. 242-262 (Edward Elgar: 2021) (21 pp)
“Capital Market Disclosure Regimes: Advancing Accountability for Chinese TNCs,” in Handbook of Research on Transnational Corporations, Alice de Jonge and Roman Tomasic, eds. 313-338 (Edward Elgar: 2017) (26 pp)

Selected Public Policy Reports & Amicus Briefs

“Directors' Duties Navigator: Climate Risk and Sustainability Disclosures (Hong Kong),” Climate Governance Initiative & Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative (CCLI) (Sept. 2024) (with Param Pandya).
Response to Singapore Exchange (SGX) Consultation Paper on “Starting With a Common Set of Core ESG Metrics” (Sept. 25, 2021)
Response to Singapore Exchange (SGX) Consultation Paper on “Climate and Diversity: The Way Forward” (Sept. 25, 2021)
Comment to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on Climate Change Disclosures (June 12, 2021)
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. et al. v. Ark. Teacher Ret. System, et al., Case No. 20-222 (U.S. 2021), Brief of Professors of Securities Law and Complex Litigation as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents (Mar. 3, 2021)
Comment to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Modernization of Regulation S-K Items 101, 103, and 105 (File Number S7-11-19) (Oct. 22, 2019)
“Incentives & Impacts of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Audit Program,” Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), Suzhou, China (Dec. 2018)
“Corporate Social Responsibility & Chinese Investment in Africa: China’s Soft Power or Real Corporate Accountability?” United States Institute for Peace, Peace Brief (Sept. 20, 2017),

Selected Honors & Awards

Outstanding Research Award, City University of Hong Kong, School of Law (2024)
Environmental Law Institute (ELI) Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) Award 2022 (selecting Modernizing ESG Disclosure as one of the top twenty articles on environmental law and policy for 2021-2022).
University of Kansas Woodyard International Educator Award (2019)
Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Hoeber Award for Excellence in Research (2018)
Docking Young Faculty Scholar Award (2013-2016), University of Kansas (awarded to early-career faculty who have distinguished themselves through exceptional research and teaching)
Edwin W. Hecker, Jr. Teaching Fellow, University of Kansas School of Law (2015-2018) (awarded for excellence in teaching)
University of Kansas School of Law Immel Teaching Award (2013)
Yong K. Kim Memorial Prize (2001), Harvard Law School (awarded for the best paper on the law or legal history of the nations and peoples of East Asia)

Judicial Clerkship

Hon. Robert W. Pratt, U.S. Federal District Court, Southern District of Iowa (2002-2003)