Research Profile

Professor Chin Leng Lim

Professor C.L. Lim’s research focuses on international economic law, international business, and global trade negotiations. While he writes mainly on the WTO and preferential trade agreements, his recent writings have addressed aspects of international commercial arbitration, international law, foreign investment law and the use of economic sanctions. He recently completed “Law of the Hong Kong Constitution” (Sweet & Maxwell, September 2011), co-edited with Johannes Chan S. C. His latest book, with Deborah K. Elms and Patrick Low, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty negotiations will be published by Cambridge University Press in September 2012.

Recent Articles (2007-date)

  • "Beijing's 'Congo' Interpretation, Commmercial Implications", Note, (2012) 128 Law Quarterly Review 6-10
  • “Absolute Immunity for Sovereign Debtors in Hong Kong”, Note, (2011) 127 Law Quarterly Review 495-499
  • “East Asia’s Engagement with Cosmopolitan Ideals under its Trade Treaty Dispute Provisions”, (2011) 56 McGill Law Journal 821-862
  • “State Immunity in Post-Handover Hong Kong”, Note, (2011) 127 Law Quarterly Review 159-162
  • “Cast Light and Evil Will Go Away: The Transparency Mechanism for Regulating Regional Trade Agreements After Three Years”, (2011) 45:2 Journal of World Trade 375-400 (with Jo-Ann Crawford)
  •  “China and the Doha Development Agenda”, (2010) 44:6 Journal of World Trade 1309-1331  (with JiangYu Wang)
  • Withdrawing from Custom ”, (2010) 20 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 143-156 (with O. A. Elias)   
  • “Australia’s ‘Rudd Proposal’: Business As Usual”, (2008) 14 Asian Yearbook of International Law 287-306
  • “The Turn to Trade”, (2008) 103 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 231-237
  • “Saving the WTO from the Risk of Irrelevance”, (2008) 11 Journal of International Economic Law 899-925 (with Henry Gao)
  • “From Constructive Engagement to Collective Revulsion: The Myanmar Precedent of 2007”, The 21st Singapore Law Review Lecture, (2008) 26 Singapore Law Review 204-225
  • “Neither Peacocks Nor Sheep: T.O. Elias and Postcolonial International Law”, (2008) 21 Leiden Journal of International Law 295-315
  • “The Green Paper from a Constitutional Perspective”, Comment, (2007) Hong Kong Law Journal  741-749
  • “The Great Power Balance, the United Nations and What the Framers Intended”, (2007) 5 Chinese Journal of International Law 307-328  

Recent Book Chapters (2007-date)

  • “The Conventional Morality of Trade”, in C. Carmody, F. Garcia & J. Linarelli (eds.), Distributive Justice and International Economic Law, American Society of International Law Studies in International Legal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2011) (forthcoming)
  • “On Free Trade and the Post-American World” in S. Hoque & S. Clark (eds.), What Lies Ahead? Debating the Prospects for a “Post-American World”, (Routledge, 2011) 230-236
  • “Who’s Afraid of Asian Trade Regionalism, and Why?”, in R. Buckley, R. Hu and D. Arner (eds.), East Asian Economic Integration: Law, Trade and Finance (Edward Elgar, 2011) 25-48
  •  “Competing WTO and RTA Jurisdictional Claims: Defusing the Politics by Resorting to Private International Law Analogies”, in T. Broude, A. Porges & M. Bush (eds.), The Politics of International Economic Law: The Next Four Years (Cambridge University Press, 2010) 282-314 (with Henry Gao)
  • “The China-ASEAN Tariff Acceleration Precedent”, in M. Sornarajah & J. Wang (eds.), China, India and the International Economic Order (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 427-453
  • “Saving the WTO from the Risk of Irrelevance” in D. Steger (ed.), Redesigning the World Trade Organization for the 21st Century (Laurier Press, 2009), 389-416 (with Henry Gao) (reprinted from the Journal of International Economic Law)
  • “Did Captain America Kill International Law?” in M. Frick & A. Oberprantacher (eds.), Power and Justice in International Relations (Ashgate, 2009), 29-52
  • “Inter Arma Silent Leges? Black Hole Theories of the Laws of War” in V.V. Ramraj (ed.), Terrorism and the Rule of Law: Legal Theory in Times of Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 385-407
  • “Free Trade Agreements in Asia and Some Common Legal Problems”, in Y. Taniguchi, A. Yanovich & J. Bohanes (eds.), Dispute Settlement, Multilateral Negotiation and Regional Integration (Cambridge University Press, 2007) 434-456

Books & Essay Collections

  • Law of the Hong Kong Constitution (Sweet & Maxwell, 2011), Co-General Editor with Johannes Chan S.C.
  • Economic Diplomacy: Essays and Reflections by Singapore’s Negotiators (Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, 2011), co-edited with Margaret Liang
  • Renegotiating Westphalia: Essays and Commentary on the European and Conceptual Foundations of Modern International Law (Nijhoff, 1999), co-edited with Christopher Harding
  • The Paradox of Consensualism in International Law (Kluwer, 1998), co-authored with O. A. Elias

Selected Reports

  • “Hong Kong’s Bridging Role in China-India Economic Exchanges”, A Study on Hong Kong in the Region: Role, Issues and Strategies, Central Policy Unit, Government of the HKSAR, July 2009
  • “A Mega Jumbo Jet: Southeast Asia's Experiments with Trade and Investment Liberalisation", in The New International Architecture in Trade and Investment - Current Status and Implications (APEC#207-HR-01.2) (APEC, 2007) 115-140

Selected Keynote Speeches, Conference Papers and Speaking Engagements (2007-date)

  • "The Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks", Joint UNESCAP-WTO Seminar on Regional Trade Agreements, UNESCAP, 25-27 July 2011
  • Chair, Panel on "Evaluating the Contribution of Regional Trade Agreements to the Governance of Services Trade", Pacific Economic Cooperation Council-Asian Development Bank Institute Conference, 3 June 2011
  • Stakeholder Meeting, Sixth Round of Treaty Negotiations, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore, 27 March 2011
  • “China’s State-Centric Model of Steered Economic Liberalisation”, Conference on European and Global Economic Governance After the Financial Crisis, Brussels, 8-9 February, 2011
  • Speech, Launch of “Economic Diplomacy: Essays and Reflections by Singapore’s Negotiators”, Traders Hotel, Singapore, 19 November 2010
  • “Should the WTO Promote Socially-Bounded Economies?”, VIII Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Public International Law Conference, Derag Hotel Kanzler, Bonn, 11-12 November 2010
  • “Regional FTAs and Global Governance”, Workshop on Comparative Regional Economic Governance: Learning from Crises?, School of International Studies, Peking University, 29-30 June 2010
  • “Cast Light And Evil Will Go Away: The First Three Years of the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements”, Asia WTO Research Network Bi-Annual Conference, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 22 May 2010 (with Jo-Ann Crawford)
  •  “Hong Kong’s Strategies on Regional Cooperation”, Seminar on New Opportunities & Challenges in Hong Kong’s Development: Southeast Asian Perspectives, Central Policy Unit, Government of the HKSAR, 17 December 2009
  • “The Future of Free Trade Agreements and Bilateral Investment Treaties”, New York State Bar Association, Seasonal Meeting 2009, Singapore, 29 October 2009
  • Roundtable on Free Trade Agreements, WTO Headquarters, Geneva, 15 April 2009
  •  “The Trade Lawyer’s Guide to Development”, 2009 Harvard Journal of International Law Symposium, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 6 March 2009
  • “Listening to What Developing Countries Say in Disbelief”, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Medford, Massachusetts, 5 March 2009
  • Keynote Speech, “The Conventional Morality of Trade”, Symposium on “Distributive Justice and International Economic Law”, Interest Group on Legal Theory, American Society of International Law, Tillar House, Washington D.C., 7 November 2008
  • “Australia’s Asia-Pacific Community Proposal”, Asian Law Centre, Melbourne University Law School, Melbourne, Australia, 3 October 2008
  • “Do International Financial Institutions Repress Development?”, 102nd Annual  Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington D.C., United States of America, 9-12 April 2008
  • “Saving the WTO from the Risk of Irrelevance: The Dispute Settlement Mechanism as a ‘Common Good’ for RTAs”(with Henry Gao),  WTO Institutional Reform Project, organized by the Emerging Dynamic Global Economies (EDGE) Network, Waterloo, Ontario, 13-15 March 2008
  • The Twenty-First Singapore Law Review Lecture, “From Constructive Engagement to Collective Revulsion: The Myanmar Precedent of 2007”, Singapore, 9 November 2007
  • “Hong Kong in the Era of Asian and Global Trade Regionalism”, Seminar on Hong Kong in the Asia-Pacific Region – Issues and Opportunities, Central Policy Unit, Government of the HKSAR & Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 23-24 November 2007

Current Editorial Appointments

  • Chinese Journal of International Law (Oxford University Press and the Chinese Society of International Law)
  • Journal of Korea Trade (Korea Trade Research Association)
  • Asian Commercial, Financial and Economic Law and Policy Book Series (Edward Elgar) (with Douglas Arner & Zhang Xianchu)

Recent International Press Coverage

  • "Analysis – After 10 Years, China's WTO Ride Could Get Bumpier", Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 29 November 2011; Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo), 30 November 2011 (Reuters)
  • "China's Help for Europe Has a Political Price-Tag", Guardian (London), 15 September 2011 (Reuters)
  • "China Vows to Appeal Raw Materials Case", Guardian (London), and Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 24 August 2011 (Reuters)
  • “[Singapore Foreign Minister] George Yeo Says Free Trade Area for the Asia-Pacific is No Longer an Impossible Dream”, Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore), 21 November 2010 (in Chinese)
  • “Singapore’s Economic Diplomacy Demystified”, Business Times Weekend (Singapore), 20 November 2010
  • “Call to Strengthen US-Asia Trade Ties”, Business Times Weekend (Singapore), 20 November 2010
  • “China’s Coming of Age in the WTO War”, Forbes (New York), 20 April 2009
  • “Where Are China’s WTO Lawyers?”, Forbes (New York), 27 April 2009