'Seeing from Others': Oxford Chinese Law Discussion Group Conference for Junior Researchers (2025)

The Conference is organized by the Chinese Law Discussion Group (CLDG), a discussion group affiliated with the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. The CLDG explores a full range of issues with respect to the intersection/comparison of Chinese, civil, and common law and legal traditions as well as international law issues relating to China. The upcoming conference of 2025 seeks to offer junior researchers a valuable opportunity to showcase their recent research works and receive feedback from peers and more senior scholars, fostering academic growth and networking within this vibrant community. 

The theme for the conference this year is ‘Seeing from Others’. People know themselves better by taking others’ perspective. Lawyers are no exception, as law is indeed a matter of inter-subjectivity. Fundamentally, law is designed to reconcile relationships between some entities and ‘others’, encompassing individuals, interest groups, governmental bodies, and nations, and the art of effective communication and perspective taking has always been a central theme of law. Such features seem all the more significant in the increasingly pluralistic (yet also polarised) world today. Additionally, law is not merely a self-fulfilling language system; it grows in tandem with dynamic social realities, thereby necessitating the integration of external resources for a better understanding of its operation, evolution, and effect. ‘Seeing from others’ and positioning oneself is therefore an important requisite for resolving substantial legal questions, as well as developing rigorous methodologies for legal research. 

The conference received 89 submissions, among which 47 papers were selected. As the papers to be discussed at the Conference are still works in progress, we kindly request that all workshop participants refrain from citing these drafts or distributing them further unless expressly permitted by the author. 

The conference is currently scheduled to be held in-person on 6th and 7th June 2025 at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, while online participation will also be available for those who are unable to travel to Oxford. For participants who wish to attend the conference but DO NOT wish to present, please register here.

For any enquiries, please contact us at  oxfordchinalawdiscussiongroup@gmail.com.

For the full programme, please download the following document: Chinese CLDG Conference 2025-0603_0.pdf