Zhou Gengsheng, referred to as “the dean of China’s international law community” by Wang Tieya, has been instrumental in founding the discipline of international law in China in 1930s. His extensive work had an unrivaled influence in shaping the style, taste and perspective of the international law profession in China. Having been trained in Japan, UK and France, Zhou was very international in his intellectual landscape. He was decisive in the modernization and technicalization turn of international law in China by producing two important textbooks of international law respectively in 1929 and 1976. Building on his system of international law on the work of Oppenheim, Zhou also implicitly brought into the Chinese circle the British tradition of international law in China.

About the Speaker:

Yifeng Chen is an associate professor at the Peking University Law School and deputy director of the Peking University Institute of International Law. Before joining the Peking University, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki from 2010-2013. His fields of interest include history and theory of international law, law of international organizations, and international labour law.

The Law Society of Hong Kong has awarded this seminar 1 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) point.