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Staff profile

Overview

Professor Lei Chen

Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law

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Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law in the Durham Law School  

Biography

Professor Lei CHEN (PhD) is Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law at Durham Law School, Durham University. He founded the Durham International Dispute Resolution Institute (DIDRI) in 2022 and is now its director. Professor Chen is an Adjunct Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, teaching the EMBA and MPA programmes at the City University of Hong Kong Business School and the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University. He is also an Honorary Professor at the School of Law, University Galway, Ireland. Professor Chen has also been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard, Columbia, Emory, Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Private Law, K.U. Leuven, Université Catholique de Lyon, Radboud University, Maastricht University, Chuo University Japan, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), and the University of Hawaii.


Professor Chen's research areas are comparative private law and international commercial arbitration. He has two L.L.B. degrees (from civil and common law backgrounds). He has had significant success in applying for research grants and has been awarded General Research Funds four times from Hong Kong Research Grant Committee. He has been an external reviewer for grant funding bodies in the U.S.A., Hong Kong, UK, Israel, Poland and Australia. Professor Chen has published seven books (authored and edited) and many leading journal articles. He sits on the editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals published by OUP, Hart, Taylor & Francis, Springer, and Brill.

In 2021, Professor Chen was elected as Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He has been a Fellow of the European Law Institute since 2013. He has been a Law Panel of Research Assessment Exercise (R.A.E.) 2020 in Hong Kong as an institutional reviewer. He is now a research grant committee member of the Society of Legal Scholars (S.L.S.).


Professor Chen is on the panel of arbitrators and mediators in many leading arbitration institutions such as HKIAC, SCIA, KCAB, CIETAC, B.A.C., SHIAC, AIAC, C.A.A. and THAC etc. He is also a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators. Apart from participating in international academic networks, he advises various international organizations and governments and frequently provides expert opinions across multiple arbitration institutions and courts in Hong Kong, P.C.A. (Hague), Washington DC, Geneva, Singapore and England. Professor Chen is an expert member on ODR collaborating with UNCITRAL. He has led consultancy work commissioned by Microsoft Inc. and the Great Britain China Centre, UK.

Professor Chen has supervised 10 PhD, J.S.D., and MPhil (research postgraduate) students in property, contract, civil procedure, company and commercial arbitration. He has also served as an external PhD examiner/panel member in Monash University, Leiden University, Maastricht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Maastricht University.

Selected Grants
  1. Addressing Impediments or Hardship to Contract Performance: A Comparative Study of the Common Law in Hong Kong and Chinese Law, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $512,904, July 2021, Lei CHEN (Co-I), Qiao Liu (PI), Ewan Mckendrick (Co-I)
  2. The Availability of Specific Performance in Chinese Courts: An Empirical Assessment, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Estimated Amount: HKD $460,000, Jan 2016 - Jul 2018, Lei CHEN (PI).
  3. Understanding Property Transitions: The Emergence of Rural Land Markets in China, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $510,000, Jan 2015 - Jun 2017, Lei CHEN (PI) .
  4. Assessing Property Relations and Formalizing Condominium Ownership in China, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $499,000, Nov 2012 - Nov 2015, Lei CHEN (PI) .
  5. Contract Law in China and Europe: A Comparative Approach, EU-China Research Grant, 2011 - 2014, Co-I Jan Smits (PI).
  6. Comprehensive Analysis of Diversity of Legal Systems in Asia-Pacific Region and Convergence towards Establishment of Rule of Law, Private University Research Branding Project, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Tech日本文部科學省, Amount: JPY $3,500,000, 2017 - 2018, Co-PI (Lei CHEN); Prof. Nobuyuki Sato (PI) .
  7. Cross-border Data Transfer among Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Research Project commissioned by Microsoft Int. Policy Research Grant, Amount: HKD $360,000, 2018 - 2019, Lei CHEN (PI).

Research interests

  • Comparative contract law
  • Condominium Law
  • Corporate and commercial law
  • International arbitration
  • Property law

Esteem Indicators

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Supervision students

Mr Deepjot Singh

PhD

Mr Dogan Baydar