Pro Bono as Political Control: Public Legal Services in China

Date: Friday, February 21, 2025

Time: 10:30 am-12:00 pm (Eastern)

Wilf Hall 3/F Conference Room and on Zoom

Register here

About the event:

China’s legal service sector is growing rapidly, including not only commercial law offices but publicly funded legal aid and innovative free legal advice platforms. At the same time, the regime has largely suppressed the country’s human rights lawyers. What is going on? Hualing Fu, dean of the law faculty at the University of Hong Kong and visiting professor at NYU School of Law, will share his research into an emerging new sector that he calls “public legal services,” which the party-state is developing in order to ensure that social disputes are resolved speedily in line with regime interests. In the process, Chinese lawyers may be transitioning backward from legal professionals to state legal workers.

About the speaker:

Fu Hualing is the Warren Chan Professor of Human Rights and Responsibilities and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently teaching at NYU School of law as the Jerome A. Cohen Visiting Professor of Law for the spring semester of 2025. His research focuses on rule of law reform, constitutional development, and human rights, with a particular emphasis on China. He is the China Law Editor of the Hong Kong Law Journal, a member of the Editorial Board of The China Quarterly, and co-editor of the Routledge Rule of Law in China and Comparative Perspectives Series. His most recent publication is Regime Type and Beyond: Police Transformation in Asia, co-edited with Dr. Weitseng Chen, published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. He holds an LLB from Southwestern University of Politics and Law in China, an MA from the University of Toronto, and a PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School.