Prof. John Zhuang Liu
Associate Professor
LLB, MPhil, PhD, Peking University
LLM, JSD, The University of Chicago
Biography
Zhuang (John) Liu’s interests include the role of the courts and judicial behavior, as well as law and development. He is one of the leading scholars in applying quantitative methods to analyze Chinese law. Currently, his research projects focus on utilizing a vast dataset of judicial opinions in China to examine and predict judges’ decisions; using statistical methods to estimate judicial transparency in China; studying law and development with a combination of court data and economic data in China; and conducting experimental studies to reveal the hidden behavioral patterns of judges. His work has been published in esteemed academic journals specializing in law and in China studies, including Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Legal Analysis, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, American Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of Comparative Economics, China Quarterly, and Journal of Contemporary China. In addition to his English publications, he also contributes to leading law journals in China.
Prof. Liu holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Ph.D. in Law from Peking University, as well as an LLM and a JSD from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong, he was affiliated with the School of Management and Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He played a pivotal role in establishing the legal big data group at the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, which conducts research utilizing extensive judicial decision data from China.
His current endeavors include the development of a comprehensive structural database of Chinese court decisions in civil, criminal, and administrative cases, facilitating empirical studies of the Chinese legal system. Additionally, he is constructing indices to measure judicial transparency and performance at the county or district level, a pioneering effort in this field.
Prof. Liu’s teaching expertise is in two main areas: Chinese law and China’s economic development, and the application of quantitative methods in law. He teaches Economic Law and Market Regulations in China, Introduction to Chinese Law, Rule of Law and China’s Economic Miracle, Economic Analysis of Law, and Introduction to AI and Law.
He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where he taught Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Law, and at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he taught Chinese Law.
Publications
Books
《机器能替代法官吗？人工智能、数据科学与法律》，北京大学出版社2024年出。(Can Machine Replace Judges? Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Law. Peking University Press, 2024)
Scholarly Articles in English
Live Broadcasting the Courtroom: A Field Experiment in Real Trials. Journal of Legal Studies (2024 forthcoming) (with Yingmao Tang).
Courting a Blue Sky? Understanding the Rise of Environmental Litigation in China. Journal of Contemporary China (2024 forthcoming) (with Wenwei Peng and Shaoda Wang).
Authoritarian Transparency: China’s “Missing Cases” in Judicial Opinion Disclosure. Journal of Comparative Economics 50 (1) (2022) (with T.J. Wong, Yi Yang, Tianyu Zhang).
Live Broadcasting and Decision Fairness of Chinese Judges. China Review 22 (3) (2022) (with Yingmao Tang and Kangyun Bao).
The Internet Echo Chamber and the Misinformation of Judges: The Case of Judges’ Perception of Public Support for the Death Penalty in China. International Review of Law and Economics 69 (2021).
Judicial Transparency as Judicial Centralization: Mass Publicity of Court Decisions in China. Journal of Contemporary China (2021) (with Lei Chen and Yingmao Tang).
Precedent and Chinese Judges: An Experiment. American Journal of Comparative Law 69 (1) (2021) (with Lars Klöhn and Holger Spamann).
Are There Common/Civil Law Differences and Precedent Effects in Judging Around the World? A Lab Experiment. Journal of Legal Analysis 13 (1) (2021) (with Holger Spamann, Lars Klöhn, Christophe Jamin, Vikramaditya Khanna, Pavan Mamidi, Alexander Morell, Ivan Reidel).
Public Support for the Death Penalty in China: Less from the Populace but More from Elites. China Quarterly 246 (2021).
The Jury Trial and Public Trust in the Judiciary: Evidence from Cross-countries Comparison. Asia Pacific Law Review 28(2) (2020) (with Lei Chen).
Legal Techniques for Rationalizing Biased Judicial Decisions. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 16(3) (2019) (with Xueyao Li).
Ownership and Political Control: Evidence from Charter Amendments. International Review of Law and Economics 60 (2019) (with Angela Huyue Zhang).
Mass Publicity of Chinese Court Decisions: Market-Driven or Authoritarian Transparency? China Review 18(2) (2019) (with Yingmao Tang).
Does Reason Writing Reduce Decision Bias? Experimental Evidence from Judges in China. Journal of Legal Studies 47(1) (2018).
Book Chapters & Book Reviews
Book Review on China Netizens’ Opinion on the Death Penalty. China Quarterly (2022).
Computational Legal Studies in China, in Ryan Whalen ed., Computational Legal Studies: The Promise and Challenge of Data-Driven Research, Edward Elgar (2020) (with Yingmao Tang).
Scholarly Articles in Chinese
幻象与本相：法律人工智能及其他，《中国法律评论》2024年第2期。
民意如何影响量刑？——以醉酒型危险驾驶罪为切入，《中国法律评论》2023年第1期（与吴雨豪合著）。
矫饰的技术：说理与判决中的偏见，《中国法律评论》2022年第2期（与李学尧合著）。
庭审直播是否影响公正审判，《清华法学》2021年第4期（与唐应茂合著）。《人大复印报刊资料》2022年第3期转载。
政府放权意愿、混合所有制改革与雇员效率，《世界经济》2021年第5期（与易阳等合著）。
法学中的实验方法，《中国法律评论》2018年第6期。《高等学校文科学术文摘》2019年第2期转载。(An Introduction to Experimental Methods in Legal Studies. China Law Review [Chinese], 6[2018])
影子银行的第三类风险，《中外法学》2018年第1期。(Moral Hazard in Shadow Banking. Peking University Law Journal [Chinese], 1 [2018].)
司法信任与经济发展，《法律和社会科学》2015年第1期。(Judicial Trustworthiness and Economic Development. Law and Social Sciences [Chinese], 1 [2015].)
法学教育与法律决策的内在一致性，《法律和社会科学》2013年第2期。《中国社会科学文摘》2014年第6期转载。(Legal Education and Internal Consistency in Legal Decision Making. Law and Social Sciences [Chinese], 2 [2013]. Reprinted by Social Sciences in China Digest [Chinese], 6 [2014].)
合理性及其限度：再论优先购买权和同意权的并存，《金融法苑》2012年第1期。(A Study of the Co-existence of the Right of Preemptive Purchasing and the Right of First Refusal in Corporate Law. Financial Law Forum [Chinese], 1 [2012]).
主权财富基金不应被特殊对待——对规制理论基础的研究，《金融法苑》2010年第2期。(Sovereign Wealth Funds Should Not Be Treated Differently: A Study of the Theory of Regulation. Financial Law Forum [Chinese], 2 [2010]).