Matthew Erie

Matthew S. Erie (J.D., Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies and Associate Research Fellow of the Socio-Legal Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Professor Erie is trained in both law and anthropology and studies comparative Asian law. For example, he has written on Chinese domestic law (e.g., property law and constitutional law) and international law in the Asian region (e.g., cross-border dispute resolution, conflict of laws, anti-corruption law, and investment law). His work has either appeared in or is forthcoming in such journals as the Harvard International Law Journal, American Journal of International Law Unbound, Yale International Law Journal, Virginia Journal of International Law, American Journal of Comparative Law, Chinese Journal of Comparative Law, Asia Pacific Law Review, Law and Social Inquiry, and American Ethnologist. His first book, China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016), is the first ethnographic study of the relationship between sharia and state law in China. His current research project “China, Law and Development,” funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant (€1.5 million), examines China’s approach to international law and the legal and regulatory systems of host states receiving Chinese capital. He has taught Chinese law in the U.S., U.K., China, and Pakistan. At Oxford, he teaches Chinese law, international commercial arbitration in Asia, and empirical approaches to law. Professor Erie previously held academic positions at Princeton University and NYU Law School, and he was a visiting scholar at the National University Singapore Law Faculty. In the fall 2018, he was a Global Research Fellow in the Hauser Global Program of NYU Law School. He is also an Adjunct Researcher at the Jiaotong University Koguan Law School. He practiced law in the New York and Beijing offices of Paul Hastings LLP where he focused on corporate real estate transactions and white-collar investigations (e.g., FCPA). He holds degrees from Cornell University (Ph.D., Anthropology), University of Pennsylvania (J.D.), Tsinghua University Law School (LL.M.), and Dartmouth College (B.A). He studied Chinese language at Tsinghua University and Middlebury College and has professional proficiency. Professor Erie is a member of the New York Bar, the American Society of International Law, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Law and Society Association, and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.