Decoding China's Foreign-Related Rule of Law
Friday-Saturday, November 21-22, 2025
9:00 am-4:30 pm
Vanderbilt Hall 216
This event is in-person only.
Agenda
The workshop is co-hosted by Professor Maria Adele Carrai of NYU Shanghai and Mapping Global China.
About the event:
“Foreign-related rule of law” (FRROL) is one of the Chinese leadership’s pithy phrases for a big governance idea. Like the more famous Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative, FRROL is not a single project or program but a policy signal. It is shorthand for the leadership’s ambition to reexamine and update the rules and processes that undergird China’s legal relationships with foreign actors in both the private and public spheres, and build its capacities to manage those relationships in the national interest. It is sweeping, ambitious, vague, and potentially impactful, depending on how the Chinese legal community – and perhaps the world – responds to the call. Hundreds of academic articles citing FRROL have been published in Chinese but relatively few in English.
In April 2025, Professor Maria Adele Carrai held an initial workshop at NYU Shanghai at which Chinese and international scholars shared their research about how the FRROL initiative is playing out in specific areas of law, from trade and tariffs to international arbitration to repatriation of cultural artifacts. Participants also assessed China’s legal influence globally.
Picking up where the April workshop left off, during Nov. 21-22 we will hear presentations from two dozen scholars from around the world, including China, as we continue to decode the meaning of FRROL, its impact so far, and the prospects for future impact on international legal norms and practices.
List of participants
AGENDA
[as of 2025-11-15]
Friday 9 am – 12:15 pm
9:00 - 9:10 Welcome remarks
9:10 - 9:45 Kong Qingjiang, professor of law at China University of Political Science and Law [online from China]: Towards a Treaty Implementation Law
Commentator: Shen Wei, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Law School
9:45 - 10:20 Ilias Bantekas, professor of transnational law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University [online from Qatar] & Cong Gao, senior solicitor at Gherson Solicitors LLP, [online from London]: China’s New Regime in International Law: Advancing Cooperation Amid Global Instability
Commentator: Ngozi Nwoko, assistant professor at Lakehead University [online]
10:20 - 10:35 am Break
10:35 - 11:10 Chen Zhen, researcher in the Private International Law Department of the Law faculty at Groningen University [online from Netherlands]: legal standing in cultural property claims
Commentator: Katherine Wilhelm, executive director of USALI at NYU Law
11:10 - 11:45 Malcolm Jorgensen, senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law: China’s Foreign-Related Rule of Law and Hegemonic Legitimacy
Commentator: Zeming Liu, lawyer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
11:45 - 12:15 Xuan W. Tay, doctoral candidate at Adelaide Law School & Justin Li, senior student at NYU Stern School of Business: An Overview of the Foreign-Related Rule of Law Scholarship
Commentator: Malcolm Jorgensen, senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
12:15 - 1:15 pm Lunch break
Friday 1:15--4:20 pm
1:15- 1:50 Jeanne Huang, associate professor at the University of Sydney: China’s 2025 Arbitration Law and Data Governance: A Change in Direction?
Commentator: Keith Hand, professor of law at University of California, San Francisco
1:50 - 2:25 Susan Finder, distinguished scholar in residence at Peking University School of Transnational Law: Role of Supreme Peoples’ Court in FRROL
Commentator: Junhao Chen, JSD student at NYU Law
2:25 - 2:35 pm Break
2:35 - 3:10 Benjamin Liebman, professor of law at Columbia Law School & Zeming Liu, lawyer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP: Redefining Law in China
Commentator: Clement Yongxi Chen, senior lecturer at the ANU College of Law
3:10 - 3:45 Jacques deLisle, professor of law and political science at University of Pennsylvania: Foreign-Related Rule of Law: Its Place in China’s Xi Jinping-Era Legal Engagement with the Outside World
Commentator: Xuan W. Tay, doctoral candidate at Adelaide Law School
3:45 - 4:20 Fabio Morosini, professor of law at UFRGS Law School: International Economic Law by Other Means: Chinese Investments in Brazil's Agribusiness
Commentator: Ignacio Tornero, founder & CEO of East Consulting
Saturday 9 am--12:00 pm
9:00 - 9:40 Wang Heng, professor of law at SMU school of law [online from Singapore] & You Chuanmen, senior lecturer at Singapore University of Social Science [in person]: China’s AI regulation
Commentator: Shen Wei, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Law School
9:40 - 10:20 Ka Lok Yip, assistant professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University [online from Qatar]: China and the third nomos of the earth
Commentator: Maria Adele Carrai, assistant professor at NYU Shanghai
10:20 - 10:30 am Break
10:30 - 11:10 Junhao Chen, JSD student at NYU Law: China’s Emerging Jurisdictional Maximalism
Commentator: William Dodge, professor of comparative law and jurisprudence at George Washington Law School
11:10 - 11:50 Keith Hand, professor of law at University of California, San Francisco: China’s External Legal Struggle: Capacity and Constraints
Commentator: Chu Shuyu, postdoctoral global fellow at NYU Law School
12:00 - 1:00 pm Lunch break
Saturday 1:00 - 4:30 pm
1:00 - 1:40 Zhang Kangle, assistant professor of international law at Peking University Law School: Beyond Coherence-China’s evolving international law posture
Commentator: Jacques deLisle, professor of law and political science at University of Pennsylvania
1:40 - 2:20 Sophia Tang, professor of law at Wuhan University: From Policy to Law: The Institutionalization of China's Foreign Relations
Commentator: Jie (Jeanne) Huang, associate professor at the University of Sydney
2:20 - 2:30 pm Break
2:30 - 3:10 Samuli Seppanen, associate professor of law at China University of Hong Kong Law School: Foreign-Related Rule of Law and the Construction of Chinese Legal Soft Power
Commentator: Kangle Zhang, assistant professor of international law at Peking University Law School
3:10 - 3:50 Bulelani Jili, assistant professor at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service: China’s legal influence in African lawmaking in the ICT space
Commentator: Obert Bore, program manager of Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation
3:50 - 4: 30 Ignacio Tornero, founder & CEO of East Consulting: Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Latin America: SASAC and State Grid’s Acquisition of Chilquinta in Chile
Commentator: Jiajun Luo, Hauser postdoctoral global fellow at NYU Law
4:30 Closing remarks