Ziying LIANG
Ziying is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law. Her research interests are in procedure law and public interest litigation and her doctoral research currently focuses on the public interest litigation against wildlife crimes in Mainland China.
Prior to her doctoral research at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), she obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from South China Normal University (SCNU, 2013-17). Afterwards, she obtained a MPhil’s degree in Procedure Law from the Graduate School of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL, 2017-20).
During her PhD studies at HKU, Ziying also works as a research assistant at the Faculty of Law, assisting in editing books and participating in research projects of the Faculty. She is a student fellow of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies at HKU. Ziying has published articles on public interest litigation in both English and Chinese Journals and delivered speeches at relevant conferences in Asia. Her articles have received several awards for their contributions. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the HKU Dissertation Year Fellowship in 2026.
Publications
[Journal Article]
Amanda S. Whitfort and Ziying Liang. ‘Recognising the ecological impact of wildlife crimes in China through public interest litigation.’ The Journal of Comparative Law 20, no. 2 (2025): 579-596.
Ziying Liang and Amanda S. Whitfort. ‘A collaborative model for restorative compensation in public interest litigation involving aquatic ecology in Guangdong Province, China.’ Wild 2, no. 2 (2025): 16. Ziying Liang. ‘粤港澳大湾区涉海洋生态刑事附带民事公益诉讼修复赔偿机制刍议——以涉海洋生态犯罪一审判决为样本[Restorative compensation mechanism for criminal incidental civil public interest litigation relating to marine ecology in the Greater Bay Area of China].’ 法治论坛[Nomocracy Forum] (CSSCI), no.4 (2024): 74-92.
Ziying Liang. ‘The PRC’s new approach to deterring pangolin crime and the concept of criminal incidental civil public interest litigation.’ Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy 26, no. 3 (2023): 179-208. Ziying Liang. ‘大数据视域下的刑事电子数据认定规则[Identification rules for criminal electronic data from the perspective of big data].’ 辽宁公安司法管理干部学院学报[Journal of Liaoning Administrators College of Police and Justice] 25, no. 5 (2020): 54-60.
[Conference Paper]
Ziying Liang, ‘珠江流域涉海洋犯罪公益诉讼生态赔偿的全流域管理模式——以广东省一审刑事判决为例[A basin-wide management model for ecological compensation in public interest litigation concerning marine-related crimes in the Pearl River Basin: a case study of first hearing criminal judgements in Guangdong Province]’, accepted by the 7th International Symposium on the Rule of Law in Energy and Resource, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘野生动物保护：刑事附带民事公益诉讼生态赔偿的实践检视与规则优化[Wildlife protection: practical reviews and optimization of rules for ecological compensation in China’s criminal incidental civil public interest litigation]’, awarded the Second Prize by the 2025 Annual Academic Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Litigation Law, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘粤港澳大湾区涉红树林湿地公益诉讼与“蓝碳”司法的协同保护[Synergistic protection of the public interest litigation for the mangrove wetlands and the judicial measures involving blue carbon in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area of China]’, awarded the Third Prize by the 2025 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal Forum, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘公共卫生安全与野生动物贸易犯罪公益诉讼的跨域协同规制——以粤港澳大湾区为例[Cross-domain collaborative regulation of public health safety and public interest litigation against wildlife trade offences – a case study of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area]’, awarded the Third Prize by the 2025 Annual Academic Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Health Law, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘A dialogue between law and conservation biology: public interest litigation and aquatic wildlife offences in China’, invited by the Interdisciplinary Dialogues of Sustainable Humanities Research on ‘Creaturely Stories’, the Education University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘公共卫生安全与野生动物贸易犯罪公益诉讼的跨域协同规制刍议——以粤港澳大湾区为例[Cross-domain collaborative regulation of public health safety and public interest litigation against wildlife trade offences – a case study of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area]’, accepted by the 2025 Global Health Law Forum on ‘Mission and Responsibility in Global Health Rule of Law’, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘野生动物保护：刑事附带民事公益诉讼生态赔偿的实践检视与规则优化——以破坏野生动物资源犯罪一审判决文书为分析样本[Wildlife protection: a practical review and rule optimization of ecological compensation in criminal incidental civil public interest litigation – an analysis based on first hearing judgements in cases involving crimes of the destruction of wildlife resources]’, awarded the Second Prize by the 2024 Annual Academic Conference of Public Interest Litigation Prosecution Specialized Committee of the Procuratorial Studies Association of the China Law Society, China, 2025.
Ziying Liang, ‘Environmental public interest litigation in Mainland China: a tug-of-war between NGOs and China’s Procuratorate’, accepted by the 2024 Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA) Annual Meeting, Sungkyunkwan University, Graduate School of Law, Korea, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘Constitutionalization of the concept of ‘legal supervision’ and its evolution in China,’ accepted by the 10th Asian Constitutional Law Forum (ACLF) on ‘Constitutional Change in Asia in the 21st Century’, Faculty of Law, the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, the University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘以大湾区为中心的广东省涉海洋生态犯罪公益诉讼生态赔偿的全流域管理模式[A basin-wide management model for ecological compensation in public interest litigation against marine ecological crimes in Guangdong Province centered on the Greater Bay Area]’, accepted by the 2024 Annual Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Society for Maritime Law Studies and the Symposium on ‘New Quality Productivity and High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy’, Sun Yat-sen University, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘后疫情时代公共卫生安全与野生动物保护公益诉讼[China’s Public health security and public interest litigation for wildlife conservation in post-pandemic era]’, accepted by the Symposium on ‘Modernizing Public Safety Governance in the Context of Chinese-Style Modernization’, the Centre for the Internal Security and Social Stability, Guangdong Police College, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘刑事附带民事公益诉讼视阈下野生动物保护的实证研究——基于1747份裁判文书的分析[An empirical study on wild animal conservation under the threshold of the criminal incidental civil public interest litigation in the PRC – an analysis based on 1747 judgements]’, awarded the Third Prize by the 1st Annual Conference of the Animal Law Forum, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘大湾区涉海洋生态刑事附带民事公益诉讼修复赔偿机制刍议——以涉海洋生态犯罪一审判决为样本[Restorative compensation mechanism for criminal incidental civil public interest litigation relating to marine ecology in the Greater Bay Area of China – a sample of first-instance judgements on marine ecological offences]’, awarded the Third Prize by the 2024 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal Forum, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘Public interest litigation and wildlife crimes in Mainland China’, accepted by the Conference on ‘Law&: An exploration of the past, present and future of interdisciplinary legal studies’, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies, the University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘刑事附带民事公益诉讼视阈下野生动物保护的实证研究——基于1747份裁判文书的分析[An empirical study on wild animal conservation under the threshold of the criminal incidental civil public interest litigation in China – an analysis based on 1747 judgements]’, accepted by the 6th China Natural Resources Rule of Law Forum, China, 2024.
Ziying Liang, ‘Criminal incidental civil public interest litigation: the PRC’s new approach to deterring pangolin crime and maintaining ecological sustainability’, accepted by the 2023 Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA) Annual Meeting, Sunway University, Malaysia, 2023.
Ziying Liang, ‘刑事附带民事公益诉讼视阈下野生动物保护的实证研究——基于496份裁判文书的分析[An empirical study on wild animal conservation under the threshold of the criminal incidental civil public interest litigation in China – based on 496 judgements]’, awarded the Second Prize by the Symposium on ‘Strictly Preventing and Controlling Environmental Risks and Safeguarding National Ecological Security in accordance with the Law’, Tianjin University, China, 2022.
Ziying Liang, ‘大数据背景下的刑事电子数据的认定规则[Validation rules of the criminal electronic data based on big data],’ awarded the Third Prize by the Symposium on ‘Big Data and Social Governance’, China, 2020.
Awards
HKU Dissertation Year Fellowship, HKU, 2026
2024 Annual Academic Conference of Public Interest Litigation Prosecution Specialized Committee of the Procuratorial Studies Association of the China Law Society, Second-Prize Winner, China, 2025
2025 Annual Academic Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Litigation Law, Second-Prize Winner, China, 2025
2025 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Legal Forum, Third-Prize Winner, China, 2025
2025 Annual Academic Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Health Law, Third-Prize Winner, China, 2025
1st Annual Conference of Animal Law Forum, Third-Prize Winner, China, 2025 HKU Foundation First Year Excellent PhD Award 2023/24, HKU, 2024
2024 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Legal Forum, Third-Prize Winner, China, 2024
Symposium on Strictly Preventing and Controlling Environmental Risks and Safeguarding National Ecological Security in accordance with the Law, Second-Prize Winner, China, 2022
Postgraduate Scholarship, HKU, 2021-25
Outstanding Graduate Student, School of Criminal Justice, CUPL, 2020
Symposium on Big Data and Social Governance, Third-Prize Winner, Guangzhou, China, 2020
Academic Scholarship, CUPL, 2018-19
Academic Scholarship, CUPL, 2017-18
Freshmen Scholarship, CUPL, 2017
Academic Scholarship, SCNU, 2016-17
Essay Contest of Research of Community Correction’s Theory, Third-Prize Winner, Guangzhou, China, 2015