Li Chen

Li Chen is Associate Professor of History and Global Asia Studies in the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies (UTSC) at the University of Toronto, with cross-appointments to the Graduate Department of History and the Faculty of Law. He served as Chair of the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies (2016–2019) and as President of the International Society for Chinese Law and History (2014–2017). His scholarship focuses on late-imperial and modern Chinese legal history, Sino-Western relations, and comparative legal cultures.

Education

• J.D., University of Illinois, magna cum laude
• Ph.D., Chinese History, Columbia University

Research Interests

Chen’s work interrogates the intersection of law, empire, and culture in China from the 15th to the 20th centuries. He explores how legal knowledge was produced and circulated among private specialists in the Qing juridical field, how international law shaped Sino-Western encounters, and how colonial discourses constructed images of Chinese law and sovereignty. His current SSHRC-funded monograph, Invisible Power and Technocratic Governance, offers the first comprehensive study of Confucian-literati-turned-legal-advisors who quietly administered Qing local justice.

Publications & Impact

Chen’s 2016 monograph Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes received the Joseph Levenson Book Prize (pre-1900 China) and honorable mention for the Peter Gonville Stein Book Award. His articles in Law & History Review, Journal of the History of International Law, and Late Imperial China have been translated into Chinese and Korean, influencing scholarship across East Asia and North America.

Awards & Honors

• Joseph Levenson Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies (2018)
• Peter Gonville Stein Book Award – Honorable Mention, American Society for Legal History (2017)
• Law and Society Association Article Prize – Honorable Mention (2011)

Grants & Projects

He is principal investigator on a multi-year SSHRC Insight Grant supporting archival research in China, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom, and France for his forthcoming book on Qing legal specialists and their role in shaping imperial governance and legal culture.