Urania Chiu

Urania Chiu is reading for a DPhil in Socio-Legal Studies under the supervision of Professor Linda Mulcahy (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies), Professor Charles Foster (Faculty of Law), and Dr Michael Dunn (Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore). Her research looks at how mental disorder and the disordered defendant are constructed in the criminal legal context. Urania's doctoral studies are supported by the Exeter College Amelia Jackson Senior Studentship.

Urania obtained her LLB (First Class Honours) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also holds an LLM in Human Rights (Distinction) from the University of Hong Kong, where she was awarded the Anna Wu Prize in Human Rights.

Urania's work on mental health law and human rights has been presented at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference and published in various peer-reviewed journals, including the Hong Kong Law Journal and the International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law. Most recently, her co-authored chapter on mental capacity law in Hong Kong was included in the Spanish-language volume, Capacidad jurídica, discapacidad y derechos humanos, published by the Supreme Court of Mexico Human Rights Division.

Outside of her doctoral research, Urania is interested in capacity-building in medical law and socio-legal studies more broadly. She convened the Medical Law and Ethics Discussion Group in 2022–23 and has served as the General Editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal as well as Lead Editor of Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies. She is currently the Graduate Teaching Assistant for Medical Law and Ethics, offering lectures and tutorials on mental capacity and disability law.