China’s Impact on International Human Rights Law

Finnish China Law Center at the University of Helsinki will host a guest lecture on Wednesday 15 June 2022. Professor Eva Pils from King’s College London will give a guest lecture on the topic of ‘China’s Impact on International Human Rights Law’.

Time: 15 June, 14:15-15:45 Helsinki time (12:15-13:45 London time)

Venue: Zoom

The lecture is open to all. Registration is required to receive the Zoom meeting information.

We kindly ask you to register by 12 June by completing the following electronic form:

https://www.lyyti.in/Chinas_impact_on_international_human_rights_law_2364

If you have any questions, please contact the Center’s Coordinator via ngoc.pham@helsinki.fi.

 

Background

The People’s Republic of China’s (‘China’) leadership has long expressed itself committed to the idea of independent, sovereign nation-states and the principle of non-interference, but its current leader, Xi Jinping, has also stated that ‘as the global governance system is going through a critical period of adjustment and change, we must actively participate in the formulation of international rules and become participants, promoters and leaders in the process of global governance changes,’ leaving the desired direction of such changes open and giving rise to lively debates about China’s growing international influence across different academic fields, as well as among policymakers, diplomats, and civil society actors. Some critical observers have argued that there is a possibility of the emergence of ‘authoritarian international law ,’ while others have associated China’s global rise with the  exercise of ‘ sharp power  – or indeed with global ‘disarray.’ This paper assesses the ways in which the party state uses coercive and discursive power in interacting with the international human rights law framework and its institutions. Engaging critically with the ‘authoritarian law’ and the ‘sharp power’ theses, it argues that explicitly critical and normatively grounded conceptions of law and power are required to understand and respond to the corrosive and corrupting effects of power exercise on UN-based international human rights law.

About the speaker

Eva Pils is Professor of Law at King’s College Londonan affiliated scholar at the US-Asia Law Institute of New York University Law School, and an external member of the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg, as well as a current fellow at EURICS/IEAP. She studied law, philosophy and sinology in Heidelberg, London and Beijing and holds a PhD in law from University College London. Her current research addresses autocratic conceptions and practices of governance, legal and political resistance, and forms of complicity with autocratic wrongs. At King’s, she teaches courses on human rights; law and society in China; and authoritarianism, populism and the law. Before joining King’s in 2014, Eva was an associate professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law.