The Rule of Climate Policy in Chinese Courtrooms
To register, please email yuxue.fang@law.ox.ac.uk. The online link and the relevant paper will be sent near the event.
The Rule of Climate Policy in Chinese Courtrooms
China’s climate governance is distinguished by the contrast between an abundance of policies on climate change and the lack of legally binding laws. Chinese courts bridge this difference, which fosters a ‘rule of climate policy’ rather than a strict rule of law. China’s constitutional design of ‘ecological civilization’ delegates the duty and the power of managing climate change issues to the executive branch of its government. Chinese judges, in deciding climate-related disputes, use non-legal materials to support statutory or contractual interpretations and determine the existence or limits of rights, which alters the meaning and scope of existing legal terms and principles.
Speaker - Dr Mingzhe Zhu
Dr Mingzhe Zhu obtained his PhD at Sciences Po. de Paris and works at China University of Political Science and Law and the University of Antwerp. His primary line of research focuses on the relation between political authority, society, and nature in the Anthropocene, with particular attention to the judicial apprehension of environmental issues. Mingzhe is currently conducting a multidisciplinary research project on the socio-political transformations occurring in the context of ‘Ecological Civilization’ in China.
Event Chair - Dr Sanja Bogojević
Dr Sanja Bogojević is Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Lady Margaret Hall and the Faculty of Law. Prior to joining Oxford Law Faculty, she was Associate Professor (‘Docent’) of Environmental Law at Lund University, to which she remains affiliated.
Discussant – Dr Mimi Zou
Dr Mimi Zou is Career Development Fellow in Chinese Commercial Law, Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford. Her research focuses on commercial law issues in the contexts of China’s digital economy and Chinese outbound foreign investments (especially relating to the Belt and Road Initiative).