Panelists
- Dr. Jiaying Jiang is a Hauser Global Fellow affiliated with the Information Law Institute at New York University School of Law. She is also the co-leader of CBDC Project, cooperating with the China Center at Yale Law School; and contributor of the RegTrax Initiative at CodeX, Stanford Law School. Her research focuses on law and emerging technologies.
- Prof. Syren Johnstone is the Executive Director of the Master of Laws (Compliance & Regulation) Programme at The University of Hong Kong. A member of the Securities and Futures Commission's Fintech Advisory Group (2016-2021), he has contributed thought leadership via engagements as an expert for statutory regulatory agencies and his work has been referenced in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and the Court of Appeal. He previously held senior management roles with international investment banks and holds two masters degrees, in neuroscience and law, from Oxford and London universities respectively.
- Prof. William Magnuson is an associate professor at Texas A&M Law School, where he teaches and writes about corporations, technology and finance. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he taught law at Harvard, worked as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell and served as a journalist in the Rome bureau of the Washington Post.
This panel will explore the workings of blockchain technology and its implications for the law. The audience will learn about how the technology originated and has been applied to cryptocurrency and other industries, as well as how governments around the globe and Asia in particular have grappled with regulating blockchain technology. Drawing on his recent book Blockchain Democracy: Technology, Law and the Rule of the Crowd (2020), Prof. Magnuson will begin the discussion with an overview of the technology and the challenges and opportunities presented by decentralized systems. Prof. Johnstone will examine how different regulatory approaches across jurisdictions are impacting the development of the technology and the sustainability concerns presented by such fragmentation, based on the analysis in his book Rethinking the Regulation of Cryptoassets: Cryptographic Consensus Technology and the New Prospect (forthcoming 2021). Finally, Dr. Jiang will focus on China's recent policy innovations and explain how they are simultaneously pro-blockchain and anti-cryptocurrency, incorporating her study and article on Regulating Blockchain? A Retrospective Analysis of China's Blockchain Policies and Regulations (2020).
* A recording of the session will be made available, when registered for the webinar.
