Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the US Legal System

International Speaker Series Spring 2024 - Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the US Legal System

Date & Time: February 29, 2024 (Thursday) 12:00 – 13:00

Despite escalating geopolitical rivalry, the US and China continue to be economically intertwined. Numerous Chinese companies have made substantial investments in the US and are reluctant exit this strategically important market. While the global expansion of Chinese companies has ignited intense policy and academic debates, their interactions with complex host-state legal systems have largely escaped systematic examination. To fill this knowledge gap, Negotiating Legality introduces a dual institutional framework and applies it to analyzing extensive interviews and multi-year survey data, thereby shedding light on how Chinese companies develop in-house legal capacities, engage with US legal professionals, and navigate litigation in US courts. As the first comprehensive investigation of these crucial topics, this talk is indispensable for anyone interested in China’s rise, its global impacts-especially on legal systems of developed nations like the US-and the intricate dynamics of US-China relations.

Speaker:
Ji Li is John & Marilyn Long Professor of US-China Business and Law, Irvine School of Law, University of California. Professor Li’s teaching and scholarship explores a broad range of topics including Chinese law and politics, international business transactions, contracts, comparative law, and empirical legal studies.

Discussant:
Jedidiah Kroncke is Associate Professor of Law at The University of Hong Kong. He currently teaches property, equity and trusts, as well as courses in common law reasoning for civil law students.

Chair:
Angela Zhang is the Director of Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at The University of Hong Kong