Yuan Yi Zhu is Assistant Professor of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science.

More information about Yuan Yi Zhu

Yuan Yi Zhu is Assistant Professor of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science. He studies historical international relations, international law, Chinese foreign policy, as well as public and constitutional law.

Yuan’s current research agenda mainly focuses on the historical developments of the legal and political rules which underly the modern international order. He is currently working on a book on the evolution of the legal rules governing the extinction of states, and has published articles on semi-sovereignty and imperialism and the transposition of sovereignty norms to the cyberspace (with Katharin Tai). He also writes about the relationship between judicial power and democratic politics: his co-edited volume (with Dr Richard Johnson) on constitutional reform in the United Kingdom is forthcoming with Bloomsbury/Hart.

His research has won awards such as the International Studies Association’s English School Junior Scholar Award, its Barbara W. Tuchman Prize for Best Paper in Historical International Relations by a Graduate Student, and the Asian Society of International Law’s Young Scholar Prize.

Yuan regularly advises national governments and legislators on a range of matters related to his areas of expertise, and his work has been cited in the British and Canadian parliaments. He regularly writes for a range of leading publications, including The Spectator, The Telegraph, The Times (London), and many others.

Yuan is a research fellow at Harris Manchester, Oxford, a research associate at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, and a senior research fellow at Policy Exchange.

PhD supervision

Yuan Yi Zhu is available to supervise PhD students and invites PhD candidates to send research proposals in the areas of:

• historical international relations
• international law
• international relations of China

See more information on PhD positions:

› Institute of Political Science: PhD

Publications