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Staff profile

Overview

Professor Lei Chen

Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law

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Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law in the Durham Law School
Chair in International Arbitration and Chinese Law in the Durham Law School

Biography

Professor Lei Chen (PhD) is the Chair of International Arbitration and Chinese Law and the Deputy Dean for Strategic Development and Internationalisation at Durham Law School, Durham University. He is a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and an ordinary member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Since 2013, Prof Chen has also been a Fellow of the European Law Institute. In 2022, he founded the Durham International Dispute Resolution Institute (DIDRI), where he currently serves as Director.

Beyond his role at Durham, Professor Chen is an Adjunct Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, where he teaches EMBA and MPA courses in partnership with Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Galway, Ireland, a visiting Wenlan Chair at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and an adjunct professor at  Shandong University. With a proven track record in promoting international activities and managing external relations, Professor Chen has effectively fostered academic partnerships and alums engagement. During his tenure as Deputy Dean at the City University of Hong Kong, overseeing external links, the university achieved notable global rankings in the Times Higher Education Law Subject Rankings, placing 25th in 2019 and 31st in 2020. In 2019, City University of Hong Kong Law School was also ranked No. 1 worldwide in international outlook and No. 1 in Asia for industry income.

In 2024, Professor Chen was appointed to the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, he serves as a non-local member of the Social and Behavioural Sciences sub-panel for the University Grants Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong, where he assesses research proposals and selects external peer reviewers. 

Professor Chen’s research focuses on comparative private law and international arbitration. He has published extensively in these areas in legal journals, edited volumes of multidisciplinary scholarship, interdisciplinary journals and monographs. His publications include monographs on Chinese Property Law, Transition and Trend (CUP), Chinese Condominium Law (Intersentia), Contract Law in China (Kluwer), edited volumes on Trends in International Dispute Resolution (Springer), Comparative Consumer Sales (Routledge), The Legal Protection of Personality Rights in Europe and China (Brill); and numerous articles in leading law and interdisciplinary journals such as Legal Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Legal History Review, European Review of Private Law, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, and Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business. He holds dual LLB degrees from both civil and common law jurisdictions and has secured multiple research grants, including four General Research Funds from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. He has served as an external reviewer for grant bodies in the USA, Hong Kong, the UK, Israel, Poland, and Australia, and as an institutional reviewer for the 2020 Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Currently, he leads a multi-volume project on article-by-article English commentary of the Chinese Civil Code.

 As a panel arbitrator and mediator with leading institutions such as HKIAC, SCIA, KCAB, CIETAC, BAC, SHIAC, AIAC, CAA, and THAC, Professor Chen is also a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators. Active in international academic networks, he advises global organizations and governments, frequently providing expert opinions across arbitration institutions and courts, including Hong Kong, the PCA in The Hague, Washington D.C., Geneva, Singapore, and England.

Professor Chen is an editorial board member for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature), Comparative Legal History (Hart), Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (OUP), Asia Pacific Law Review (Taylor & Francis), China-EU Law Journal (Springer), and European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance (Brill). He also serves as an editor and advisor for the book series Chinese and Comparative Law (Brill) and Commercial Law in Asia (Singapore Academy of Law).

In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Chen has supervised 12 PhD, JSD, and MPhil students across diverse areas, including property, contract, civil procedure, company law, and commercial arbitration. He has also served as an external PhD examiner at institutions such as Monash University, Leiden University, Maastricht University, the University of Manchester, King’s College London, the University of Helsinki, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Hong Kong.

Selected Grants
  1. Addressing Impediments or Hardship to Contract Performance: A Comparative Study of the Common Law in Hong Kong and Chinese Law, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $512,904, July 2021, Lei CHEN (Co-I), Qiao Liu (PI), Ewan Mckendrick (Co-I)
  2. The Availability of Specific Performance in Chinese Courts: An Empirical Assessment, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Estimated Amount: HKD $460,000, Jan 2016 - Jul 2018, Lei CHEN (PI).
  3. Understanding Property Transitions: The Emergence of Rural Land Markets in China, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $510,000, Jan 2015 - Jun 2017, Lei CHEN (PI) .
  4. Assessing Property Relations and Formalizing Condominium Ownership in China, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grant Committee (RGC), Hong Kong Government, Amount: HKD $499,000, Nov 2012 - Nov 2015, Lei CHEN (PI) .
  5. Contract Law in China and Europe: A Comparative Approach, EU-China Research Grant, 2011 - 2014, Co-I Jan Smits (PI).
  6. Comprehensive Analysis of Diversity of Legal Systems in Asia-Pacific Region and Convergence towards Establishment of Rule of Law, Private University Research Branding Project, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Tech日本文部科學省, Amount: JPY $3,500,000, 2017 - 2018, Co-PI (Lei CHEN); Prof. Nobuyuki Sato (PI) .
  7. Cross-border Data Transfer among Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Research Project commissioned by Microsoft Int. Policy Research Grant, Amount: HKD $360,000, 2018 - 2019, Lei CHEN (PI).

Research interests

  • Comparative contract law
  • Condominium Law
  • Corporate and commercial law
  • International arbitration
  • Property law

Esteem Indicators

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Monograph

Supervision students

Jiantong Zhao

Qian Gao

Yusuf Ozturk