Teng 
LI

 
Post-Doctoral Fellow

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Contact

CALS Office, Block B, Level 2

In Residence

5 December 2022 to 4 December 2025

Teng Li graduated from the JSD program at NYU School of Law. Prior to that he was an LLM student at NYU Law’s legal theory program. He obtained his LLB degree from Sun Yat-Sen University in China, and a master degree on common law studies from the University of Hong Kong. Teng Li’s scholarship focuses on the normative questions, assumptions, concepts, principles, and methodological ideas that underlie legal and political institutions, as reflected in the fields of general jurisprudence, political philosophy, and public law. His doctoral thesis conceptualizes the legitimacy of the state in terms of justified coercion. It draws attention to the normative ramification that citizens are prohibited from resorting to physical force when the state is justified in monopolizing coercion. At CALS, Teng will continue to explore the themes set out in his research on legitimacy, particularly on the distributive and legal implications of what he calls the ‘pacified condition’ that defines a legitimate state.