< People

PROF. ALEXANDER GREEN 文浩航教授

Associate Professor 副教授

Tel

Email

Office

(852) 3943 1623

aggreen@cuhk.edu.hk

Room 620
Faculty of Law
6/F, Lee Shau Kee Building
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sha Tin, NT, Hong Kong SAR

Alex joined the Faculty of Law in January 2025. He is a public international lawyer, legal philosopher, and political theorist with particular expertise in the law of State creation, continuity, and extinction. Within general public international law, he also has expertise in relation to the self-determination of peoples, international law and climate change, the rights of Indigenous peoples, the law of the sea, and the philosophy and theory of public international law. Within legal philosophy, Alex is especially interested in the identification and determination of law, the relationship between law and morality, and the role of imagination in legal reasoning. His philosophical work also encompasses the connections between analytical philosophy and critical legal theory, the representation of law in Western opera and in popular culture, and the concept of legal pluralism. Within political theory, he researches political community and political membership, the concepts of territory and collective rights, and the political thought of Hannah Arendt. He welcomes potential PhD candidates in any and all of these areas.

Alex has a PhD, LLM, and LLB(Hons) from University College London in the United Kingdom. His previous academic appointments include the University of York, Leeds Beckett University, and the University of Hong Kong. He has held visiting positions at the University of Leeds and Cambridge University. In addition, he has taught at University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and worked at the International Law Commission, the International Criminal Court, and the International Bar Association. His articles have featured in several world-leading legal periodicals, including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, the American Journal of International Law, and the Australian Year Book of International Law. He is the (co)author of two monographs and coeditor of several special issues and edited collections. Beyond his academic work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Alex is an Academic Associate of 23 Essex Street Chambers in the United Kingdom (London and Manchester), as well as a Trustee and Board Member of the UK Socio-Legal Studies Association.


EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

  • PhD in Law (University College London, Faculty of Laws)
  • LLM in Human Rights Law (University College London, Faculty of Laws)
  • LLB(Hons) in Law (University College London, Faculty of Laws)
  • Bar Professional Training Course (City University London, City Law School)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (University of York)

AWARDS AND RESEARCH GRANTS

  • Society of Legal Scholars & University of Bristol, Subject Section conference funding award, Co-investigator: GBP 5,416 (2024)
  • Economic and Social Research Council & The York Impact Acceleration Fund, Internally Distributed Funding Award, Principal Investigator: GBP 8,110 (2023)
  • The York Law School, Strategic Project Development Fund, Principal Investigator: GBP 3,500 (2023)
  • The York Law School, Strategic Project Development Fund, Principal Investigator: GBP 3,000 (2022)
  • Society of Legal Scholars, Subject Section conference funding award, Co-investigator: GBP 3,000 (2022)
  • Modern Law Review, Covid-19 Response Fellowship, Principal Investigator: GBP 10,000 (2020)
  • Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Early Career Scheme award, Principal Investigator: HKD 455,520 (2019)
  • University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, Seed Grant for the Research Grant Incentive Scheme, Principal Investigator: HKD 100,000 (2018)
  • Modern Law Review, Doctoral Scholarship, GBP 5,000 per annum (2014-2016)
  • Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust, Doctoral Award, GBP 500 (2013)
  • Lincoln’s Inn, Hague Scholarship, GBP 6,500 (2012)
  • Lincoln’s Inn Lord Denning Scholarship and Accommodation Award, GBP 14,000 (2012)
  • Lincoln’s Inn, Hardwicke Entrance Award (2011)

VISITING ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS AND OTHER EXTERNAL AFFILIATIONS (CURRENT AND PAST)

  • United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council, Peer Review College Member (2024 – Present)
  • University of Manchester, External Examiner (2024 – Present)
  • United Kingdom Socio-Legal Studies Association, Trustee and Board Member (2023 – Present)
  • United Kingdom Higher Education Academy, Fellow (2023 – Present)
  • University of Westminster, External Examiner (2023 – Present)
  • 23 Essex Street Chambers (23ES), Academic Associate (2021 – Present)
  • The Law Teacher, Peer Review College Member (2021 – Present)
  • University of Stirling, External Examiner (2021 – Present)
  • Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, Editorial Board Member (2019 – Present)
  • Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Member (2011 – Present)
  • University of York, Associate Academic Fellow (2024-2025)
  • United Nations International Law Commission, Legal Assistant (2023; 2024)
  • United Kingdom Society of Legal Scholars, Jurisprudence Section Convenor (2021 – 2024)
  • University of Leeds, Centre for Law and Social Justice, Visiting Scholar (2019 – 2021)
  • University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Visiting Fellow (2019)
  • University of Hong Kong, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Fellow (2017 – 2020)
  • UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Editorial Board Member (2013 – 2015)

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Statehood as Political Community: International Law and the Emergence of New States (Cambridge University Press 2024)
  • Legal Pluralism: New Trajectories in Law (Routledge Glasshouse 2024) (co-authored with Professor Jennifer Hendry)
  • Dialogues on Jurisprudence: Bridging the Analytical-Critical Divide (Routledge, forthcoming 2026) (with Dr Sahar Shah, University of Bristol and Dr Joshua Jowitt, University of Newcastle)
  • Cultural Legal Studies of Science Fiction (Routledge 2024) (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)
  • Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary (Routledge 2024) (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)

Journal Special Issues (as editor)

  • ‘Plural Visions of Law: The Legacy of Joseph Raz’ (journal special issue; co-edited with Dr Joshua Jowitt, University of Newcastle; forthcoming in the Res Publica)
  • ‘International Law and Political Morality: ‘Anti-Positivism’ and the Global Legal System’ (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory (edited with Ms Alexandra Hearne, University College London)
  • ‘Jurisprudence of the Future’ (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • ‘The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty: Statehood and Security in the Face of Anthropogenic Climate Change’ (2024) 118(4) American Journal of International Law 684 (co-authored with Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, University of New South Wales Canberra).
  • ‘Ships of State and Empty Vessels: Critical Reflections on ‘Territorial Status in International Law” (2024) 44(4) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
  • ‘Three Reconstructions of ‘Effectiveness’: Some Implications for State Continuity and Sea-level Rise’ (2024) 44(2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
  • ‘Lines to a Don: Why it isn’t Meaningless to ‘Reimagine’ Jurisprudence’ (2023) 57(4) The Law Teacher
  • ‘“Just Teach Them the Law!”: The Ethics of Value Inculcation within Legal Education’ (2023) 57(3) The Law Teacher
  • ‘A Political Theory of State Equality’ (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory 176
  • ‘Symposium: International Law and Political Morality’ (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory 113 (co-authored with Ms Alexandra Hearne, University College London)
  • ‘The Creation of States as a Cardinal Point: James Crawford’s Contribution to International Legal Scholarship’ (2023) 40(1) Australian Year Book of International Law 67
  • ‘The Importance of Dystopian Hypotheticals: Towards an Ethical Turn in Liberal Political Philosophy’ (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans 60
  • ‘Jurisprudence of the Future’ (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans 1 (co-authored with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)
  • ‘Ad Hominem Criminalisation and the Rule of Law: The Egalitarian Case against Knife Crime Prevention Orders’ (2022) 42(2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 634 (co-authored with Professor Jennifer Hendry)
  • ‘The Precarious Rationality of International Law: Critiquing the International Rule of Recognition’ (2021) 22(8) German Law Journal 1613
  • ‘Three Models of Political Membership: Delineating ‘The People in Question” (2021) 41(2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 565
  • ‘Non-Positivist Legal Pluralism and Crises of Legitimacy in Settler-States’ (2019) 14(2) Journal of Comparative Law 267 (co-authored with Professor Jennifer Hendry)
  • ‘Rights, Risk and the Value of Life: A critical analysis of the right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights’ (2013) 20 Journal of Law and Medicine 877
  • ‘All Taking and No Giving: The Conceptual Trend in Transfers of Ownership’ (2012) 16 The Journal Jurisprudence 495
  • ‘A Philosophical Taxonomy of European Human Rights Law’ (2012) 1 European Human Rights Law Review 71
  • ‘Expanding Law’s Empire: Interpretivism, Morality and the Value of Legality’ (2011) 4(1) European Journal of Legal Studies 121
  • ‘An Absolute Theory of Convention Rights: Why the ECHR Gives Rise to Legal Rights that Cannot Conflict with Each Other’ (2010) 16 UCL Jurisprudence Review 75

Chapters in Textbooks and Edited Collections

  • ‘The Universal Plurality of Law’ (with Professor Jennifer Hendry) in Alex Green, Joshua Jowitt, and Sahar Shah, Dialogues on Jurisprudence: Bridging the Analytical-Critical Divide (Routledge, forthcoming 2026)
  • ‘Towards an Impossible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity’ in Alex Green, Mitchell Travis, and Kieran Tranter, Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary (Routledge 2024)
  • ‘Actors in International Law: States’ in Sué González Hauck, Raffaela Kunz, and Max Milas, Public International Law: A Multi-Perspective Approach (Routledge 2024)
  • ‘Approaches to International Law: Positivism’ in Sué González Hauck, Raffaela Kunz, and Max Milas, Public International Law: A Multi-Perspective Approach (Routledge 2024) (co-authored with Ms Başak Etkin, Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas)
  • ‘Successful Secession and the Value of International Recognition’ in Jure Vidmar, Sarah McGibbon and Lea Raible, Research Handbook on Secession (Edward Elgar 2022)

    Shorter Contributions and Knowledge Exchange

    • “Law, Dungeons, and Dragons’ Opinio Juris – Fourth Annual Symposium on Pop Culture and International Law’ Opinio Juris (acting credit, as ‘Lord-Arbiter Modus Vivendi’, 1 November 2024; alongside Dr Alonso Gurmendi (LSE), Dr Tamsin Paige (Deakin), Dr Nicolás Carrilo (Cagliari), Ms Juliana Santos de Carvalho (Cambridge))
    • ‘Called to the Bar – International Law and Drinks, Episode 22: Climate change and the survival of small island states: The new Tuvalu-Australia Treaty’ Called to the Bar – International Law and Drinks (podcast, 22 October 2024)
    • Interviewed by Isabelle Castro for Digital Frontier in ‘Digital state of mind’ (20 September 2024)
    • ‘Existential Vulnerability Myths and the Resilience of Large Ocean States’ The Diplomat & Border Crossings (double publication; 6 June 2024)
    • Two written questions, with The Rt Hon. The Lord Naseby PC, to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, on UK policy on Small Island States and sea-level rise (16 May 2024)
    • ‘The Making of States: Indeterminacy, International Law, and Creating New Political Communities’ Fifteen Eighty Four (6 February 2024)
    • ‘The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty: Security in the face of climate change…and China?’ (with Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, University of New South Wales Canberra) EJIL:Talk! (28 November 2023)
    • Five written questions, with The Rt Hon. the Lord Naseby PC, to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, on UK policy on Small Island States and sea-level rise (7 November 2023)
    • ‘Towards an Impossible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity’ Völkerrechtsblog: International Law & International Legal Thought (August 2023)
    • ‘SIDS, Legal Statehood, and Sea-level Rise’, written evidence for the UK International Development Committee (House of Commons) on the UK Small Island Developing States Strategy (19 July 2023) (with Several citations in: International Development Committee, Fourth Report of Session 2023-24)
    • ‘Borderline Jurisprudence Ep19: Alex Green on Natural Law, Statehood and International Law’ Borderline Jurisprudence (podcast, 7 April 2023)
    • ‘Statehood and Sea-level Rise: Small Island State Resilience in the Face of Climate Change’, keynote presentation for the Indian Ocean Commission and Member States (28 July 2022)
    • ‘Book Review: Philosophy and International Law: A Critical Introduction’ (2021) 84(5) Modern Law Review 1159
    • ‘Legal Theory and Your PhD’ The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies PGR Training Series (podcast, 23 June 2020)
    • Interviewed by Naomi Xu Elegant for Fortune Magazine in ‘Why the U.S. acts as an enforcer of the Hong Kong deal between Britain and Beijing’ (4 June 2020)
    • ‘Our Constitution, Accountability and the Limits of the Power to Prorogue’ UK Constitutional Law Blog (26 September 2019)
    • ‘The Importance and Precarity of Accountability in the Prorogation Litigation’ Law at the End of the Day (19 September 2019)
    • ‘The Challenge of Legitimate Governance in CANZUS Settler-States’ (with Professor Jennifer Hendry) SLSA Blog (17 May 2019)
    • ‘Why the EU Referendum Might be Morally Binding – A Partial Response to Yossi Nehushtan’ UK Constitutional Law Blog (14 July 2016)
    • ‘Book Review: What Makes Law: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law’ (2015) 78(3) Modern Law Review 571
    • ‘Team America: Should it (Air)Strike Again?’ Social Justice First (30 August 2013)
    • ‘Why do we Punish War Criminals?’ Social Justice First (24 September 2012)
    • ‘Financial Suicide: A legal perspective on moral responsibility’ Social Justice First (19 September 2012)

      REPRESENTATIVE CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND KEYNOTE LECTURES

      • ‘Legal Pluralism: New Trajectories in Law’ Book launch (with Professor Jennifer Hendry), Centre for Law and Social Justice, University of Leeds, December 2024; Commentators: Dr Rosie Fox (Leeds), Professor Michael Palmer (SOAS; HKU; Serle Court Chambers), Dr Emma Patchett (Leeds), Dr Paolo Sandro (Leeds)
      • ‘The Universal Plurality of Law’ (with Professor Jennifer Hendry), presented at:
        • ‘Just’ Jurisprudence? A Workshop on Bridging the Analytical-Critical Divide, University of Bristol, November 2024
        • XII Mexican Conference on Legal Philosophy, The National Autonomous University of Mexico, November 2024
      • ‘Statehood as Political Community: International Law and the Emergence of New States’, Invitational Book Symposium, given at:
        • Research Centre for International Justice, Maynooth University, November 2024
        • Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory, University of Edinburgh, November 2024
      • ‘In the Name of the Emperor? Authority and Pluralism in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future’, Warhammer Conference, University of Heidelberg, September 2024
      • ‘Legal Symbolism in Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold’, presented at:
        • SLSA Conference 2024, University of Portsmouth, March 2024
        • Historicising Jurisprudence: Person, Community, Form (WG Hart Conference), Queen Mary University of London, June 2024
      • ‘Statehood as Political Community: International Law and the Emergence of New States’ Book launch, University College London, March 2024; Commentators: Professor Martins Paparinskis (UCL), Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice (QMUL), Professor Gerry Simpson (LSE), Professor Emmanuel Voyiakis (LSE)
      • ‘Plural Legality’, Keynote (with Professor Jennifer Hendry), University of Newcastle, December 2023
        • ‘Towards an Impossible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity’, presented at:
        • Book Launch for ‘Cultural Legal Studies of Science Fiction’ and ‘Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary’, Centre for Law and Social Justice, University of Leeds, November 2024
        • Progress and International Law – A Cursed Relationship?, Academy for European Human Rights Protection, University of Cologne, September 2023
        • SLSA Conference 2023, University of Ulster, April 2023
      • ‘A Revolutionary Return? The ‘New Grotian’ School of International Law’ Revolutionary International Law in Revolutionary Times, London School of Economics and Political Science, September 2023
      • ‘New Thinking about Statehood and Recognition’, Invitational Talk with Professor Jure Vidmar, (Maastricht University), Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security, University of Glasgow, January 2022
      • ‘The Importance of Dystopian Hypotheticals: Towards an Ethical Turn in Liberal Political Philosophy’, SLSA Conference 2022, University of York, April 2022
      • ‘A Political Theory of Sovereign Equality’, presented at:
        • American Society of International Law International Legal Theory Interest Group, University of Georgia, August 2021
        • Invitational Talk, University of Leeds, July 2020
      • ‘Ad Hominem Criminalisation and the Rule of Law: The Egalitarian Case against Knife Crime Prevention Orders’, Invitational Talk (with Professor Jennifer Hendry), Glasgow/Edinburgh Virtual Criminal Law Discussion Group, University of Edinburgh, March 2021
      • ‘The State as a Source of International Law: A Political Theory of Global Jurisgenerativity’, International Law and Political Morality: ‘Anti-Positivism’ and the Global Legal Order, Leeds Beckett University, March 2021
      • ‘The Value of International Legality’, Invitational Talk, University of Cambridge, November 2019
      • ‘Towards a Unified Understanding of Political Obligation’, Invitational Talk, University of York, October 2019
      • ‘Political Obligation as the Duty to Participate’ SLS 2019 110TH Annual Conference: Central Questions About Law, University of Central Lancashire, June 2019
      • ‘A Moral Reading of Legal Pluralism’ (with Professor Jennifer Hendry), Invitational Talk, University of Kobe, May 2019
      • ‘Legal Pluralism and Legal Theory’, Cosmopolitan Pluralism and International Criminal Justice Conference, University of Leeds, January 2019
      • ‘The Puzzle of States and their Territory’, ICON-S 2018 Annual Conference: Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law, University of Hong Kong, July 2018
      • ‘International Law and the Value of Statehood’, presented at:
        • Juris North: UK-Russian Legal and Political Theory Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, March 2016
        • 23rd BIICL Annual Conference on Theory and International Law: Sovereignty in the 21st Century, British of Institute of International and Comparative Law, June 2014
      • ‘How to Identify Meaningful International Law’, Jurisprudence Discussion Group, University of Oxford, October 2014

      CONFERENCES CONVENED

      • The Law(s) of the Future (2025; co-organised with Dr Mitchell Travis, University of Leeds) Current Topic – SLSA Conference 2025; Host Institutions: Socio-Legal Studies Association; University of Liverpool
      • Book Launch for ‘Cultural Legal Studies of Science Fiction’ and ‘Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary’ (2025; co-organised with Dr Mitchell Travis, University of Leeds) Host Institution: Centre for Law and Social Justice, University of Leeds
      • ‘Just’ Jurisprudence? A Workshop on Bridging the Analytical-Critical Divide (2024; co-organised with Dr Sahar Shah, University of Bristol, and Dr Joshua Jowitt, University of Newcastle)
      • Host Institutions: Society of Legal Scholars; University of Bristol
      • Plural Visions of Law: The Legacy of Joseph Raz (2023; co-organised with Dr Joshua Jowitt, University of Newcastle) Host Institutions: Society of Legal Scholars; University of York
      • Jurisprudence of the Future: Law, Justice, and Science Fiction (events in 2021 and 2022; co-organised with Dr Mitchell Travis, University of Leeds)
        • Thematic Stream – 2021 Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia Conference; Host Institutions: Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia; University of the Sunshine Coast
        • Current Topic – SLSA Conference 2022; Host Institutions: Socio-Legal Studies Association; University of York.
      • International Law and Political Morality: ‘Anti-Positivism’ and the Global Legal Order (2021; co-organised with Alexandra Hearne, University College London) Host Institution: Leeds Beckett University
      • Into the Motherlands: Creating Just and Resilient Communities (2021 co-organised with Dr Mitchell Travis, University of Leeds) Host Institutions: Leeds Beckett University, University of Leeds

      COURSES TAUGHT

      • Climate Law (Graduates only – JD/LLM)
      • Public International Law (Graduates only – JD/LLM)
      • Property Law (Undergraduates only)