The FLIA Board and Advisory Committee is made up of academic and research specialists in the field of international relations. We are especially proud to say that FLIA’s executive team is anchored largely by young female leaders.
Shaoming Zhu is the Founder and President of the Foundation for Law and International Affairs. She earned the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science from Pennsylvania State University and her Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws in China. She is also a postdoc research fellow at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management. She works to advocate for empowering individuals in global governance and implementing inclusive decision-making mechanics in transnational infrastructure projects. She is the author of two academic books. Her publications, including books, articles, blogs, and funded research projects focus on jurisprudence, comparative law, private international law, NGOs and global governance, Chinese legislation on social and economic development, and other related topics. She has been granted more than 40 awards for her academic and social work. More information about her and her blogs, see https://shaomingzhu.com
Professor Mark Poustie (MA, LLB, DipLP) is a Board Member of FLIA. He is currently Dean of the School of Law at University College Cork. Professor Poustie is a public law scholar primarily focused on environmental and land-use planning law and human rights issues relating to such laws. He served at the University of Strathclyde as Head of the Law School from 2007-2013 and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, in charge of international affairs from 2013-2015. From 2016-2019 Mark worked full-time in China at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Law School under the Shanghai Thousand Talents Programme. Professor Poustie has conducted significant research in the area of environmental law, land law, urban planning law, and EU law, with considerable impact on the international scene. Also, Professor Poustie was an active practitioner, who was involved in the governmental policy-making process.
Professor Larry Catá Backer is a Board Member of FLIA. He is the W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law & International Affairs at the Pennsylvania State University (B.A. Brandeis University; M.P.P. Harvard University Kennedy School of Government; J.D. Columbia University). His research focuses on governance related issues of globalization and the constitutional theories of public and private governance, with a focus on institutional frameworks where public and private law systems converge. He is particularly interested in transnational problem solving through law, broadly defined, including issues of corporate social responsibility, the relationship between state-based regulation and transnational systems of “soft” regulation, state participation in private markets, and the emerging problems of polycentricity where multiple systems might be simultaneously applied to a single issue or event. He teaches courses in corporate law, transnational law, and International Organizations. His publications include the books Lawyers Making Meaning: The Semiotics of Law in Legal Education (Springer 2013), and Signs in Law, A Source Book (Springer 2014) (both with Jan Broekman), casebooks, Comparative Corporate Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2002) and Law and Religion: Cases, Materials, and Readings (West 2015, with Frank S. Ravitch), an edited collection of essays, Harmonizing Law in an Era of Globalization (Carolina Academic Press, 2007) and a number of articles in journals and books.
Professor Liao Shiping is a Board Member of FLIA. He is now professor in Law School of Beijing Normal University. He focuses on many topics on international law, including the law of the sea, the law of the treaties, international humanitarian law, the jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals, international investment law and international trade law. He serves as legal advisor for the Ministry of Commerce of People’s Republic of China, and State Oceanic Administration for several years, presenting before WTO panel and Apellate Body in several WTO cases. He also serves as judge for various international law moot competitions, including JESSUP, ELSA WTO, Manfred Lachs Moot of Space Law, Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, International Criminal Court Moot and IHL Moot in Chinese domestic round, Asia-Pacific regional round and World Final Round.
Dr. Flora Sapio (Habilitated Associate Professor) is a Board Member of FLIA. She is internationally reknown for her sophisticated analyses of themes in China studies ranging from legal theory to politics, from economy and society to political communication, from criminal law to social organisations. Her mixed intellectual background, and life experiences in China, the United States, Europe, and Australia have shaped her perspective on the most diverse topics.
Professor Xu Duoqi is a Board Member of FLIA. She holds a Ph. D. in Law. She is also Professor of Law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Shuguang Scholar and one of The Top Ten Excellent Young Jurists in Shanghai (fifth session). She is also a Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard law school from 2016 to 2017, was a Hauser Global research fellow at NYU from 2008 to 2009, and a visiting professor at Taiwan University in 2013. Professor Xu is the chief-editor of Internet Finance Law Review, the director of Center for Internet Finance Law Innovation of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Main social appointments are council member of the Tax Law Society of China Law Society, council member of the Banking Law Society of China Law Society, standing vice president of the Tax Law Research Institute of Shanghai Law Society, and vice president of Shanghai Financial Law Research Institute. She is a consultant and independent directors for some companies, especially fintech companies, and an arbitrator of Shanghai International Trade Arbitration Commission, Guangzhou Financial Arbitration Court and Zhuhai (Hengqin) Financial and Trade Arbitration Commission.
Professor Xu’s research interests include Financial law, Tax law and Fintech legal issues. She has published more than 70 articles on CSSCI Journals including Social Sciences in China, China Legal Science (English version), Studies in Law and Business, the Science of Law, Legal Science, Law Review, Jurist, Economic Law Forum, Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Journal of Wuhan University. A substantial number of those articles are fully reprinted by Xinhua Digest, China University Academic Abstract, China Legal Science Briefing and Renmin University of China Reprinted Materials. She has published articles on oversea journals including Tax Notes International, Frontiers of Chinese Law and Financial and Economic Yuedan Law Review (Taiwan), and is the independent author of two books and one translation work. She has hosted almost 10 provincial projects including two Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China Legal Research in Commercial Banks—Actual Conflicts and Law Integration of Credit Assets Securitization(finished) and Licenses Charting and Market Supervision of Internet Finance.