Staff profile

Zhiyu Li joined Durham Law School as an Assistant Professor in 2018. She holds undergraduate degrees in law and economics from the East China University of Political Science and Law and a doctorate in jurisprudential science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhiyu’s teaching and research interests centre on public law and comparative law. She writes at the intersection of law and policy, with a particular emphasis on the role of the courts in authoritarian and democratic states. Her research employs both qualitative methods such as doctrinal analysis, case studies and interviews, and quantitative methods, including traditional surveys, survey experiments and machine learning techniques. Her research findings have been disseminated in internationally respected outlets such as the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, the Cornell International Law Journal and the Harvard International Law Journal and have been cited in the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Judicial Behaviour and the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Administrative Law. She has also delivered talks at various fora within and outside the United Kingdom such as the Annual Conference of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Stanford International Junior Faculty Forum.

Prior to joining the law faculty, she was a Hauser Post-Doctoral Global Fellow at New York University School of Law on a merit-based fellowship stipend. At Durham, Zhiyu participates in the Research Methods Centre and Research Project Leadership Programme. She has held visiting positions at the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the National University of Singapore.

• Chinese Law and Society
• Constitutional Law
• Judicial Politics
• Law and Technology
• Administrative Law

• 2023: Quoted in Cointelegraph: see All Rise for the Robot Judge: AI and Blockchain Could Transform the Courtroom (13 March 2023), https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/all-rise-for-robot-judge-ai-blockchain-transform-courtroom/.
• 2023: Quoted in Deutsche Welle: see How China's AI is Automating the Legal System (20 January 2023), https://www.dw.com/en/how-chinas-ai-is-automating-the-legal-system/a-64465988.

Journal Article

• Chen, B. M., Li, Z., Cai, D., & Ash, E. (2023). Detecting the influence of the Chinese guiding cases: a text reuse approach. Artificial Intelligence and Law, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-023-09358-7
• Chen, M. B., & Li, Z. (2023). Courts Without Separation of Powers: The Case of Judicial Suggestions in China
• Li, Z. (2022). Specialized Judicial Empowerment. University of Florida journal of law and public policy, 32(3), 491-546
• Chen, B. M., & Li, Z. (2021). Judicial Legitimation in China. Cornell international law journal, 53(2), 169-206
• Chen, B. M., & Li, Z. (2020). How Will Technology Change the Face of Chinese Justice?. Columbia Journal of Asian Law, 34(1), 1-58. https://doi.org/10.7916/cjal.v34i1.7484
• Li, Z. (2018). Innovation Through Interpretation: How Judges Make Policy in China. Tulane journal of international and comparative law, 26(2), 327-380
• Chen, B. M., & Li, Z. (2017). The Foundations of Judicial Diffusion in China: Evidence from an Experiment. Review of Law and Economics, 14(3), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1515/rle-2017-0008
• Chen, B. M., & Li, Z. (2016). Explaining Comparative Administrative Law: The Standing of Positive Political Theory. Washington international law journal, 25(1), 87-131

Other (Print)

• Qiao, S., Li, Z., & Chen, B. (2022). How Technology is Changing Justice in China