Weitseng 
CHEN

 
Associate Professor

Member

Cluster Coordinator (Comparative Civil Law)

Weitseng Chen specializes in comparative Asian law—particularly within greater China area, with an emphasis on law and development, property law and financial institutions. He received his JSD from Yale Law School where he was a Fulbright scholar. Thereafter, he worked for Stanford University as a Hewlett Fellow of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). Immediately before he joined NUS Faculty of Law, Weitseng Chen worked as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Contact

(65) 6516-4107
ETS-02-33

Education

JSD, LLM (Yale); LLM, LLB (National Taiwan University); Attorney (New York State); Attorney (Taiwan)

Curriculum Vitae

Current Courses

Legal Systems of Asia (A)

Legal Systems of Asia (B)

Legal Systems of Asia (C)

Legal Systems of Asia (D)

Legal Systems of Asia (E)

Legal Systems of Asia (H)

Weitseng Chen specializes in comparative Asian law—particularly within greater China area, with an emphasis on law and development, property law and financial institutions. He received his JSD from Yale Law School where he was a Fulbright scholar. Thereafter, he worked for Stanford University as a Hewlett Fellow of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). Immediately before he joined NUS Faculty of Law, Weitseng Chen worked as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Weitseng’s recent research focuses on authoritarian legality, property rights transition in greater China, and Asian law & development. He has published the books entitled “Authoritarian Legality in Asia: Formation, Development and Transition”(Cambridge University Press, 2020) and “The Beijing Consensus? How China has Changed the Western Ideas of Law and Economic Development” (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His other published articles can be found in the American Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of International Economic Law, Washington International Law Journal, Chicago Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, and Australian Journal of Asian Law etc.

Weitseng Chen has also held visiting academic appointments at Harvard Law School, Melbourne Law School, University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, University of Washington, University of British Columbia, Academia Sinica Institutum Iurisprudentiae, National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University and FGV DIREITO SP Law School (Brazil). He is also a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 2021-22).

Edited Books
Chen Weitseng and Fu Hualing (eds), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia (Cambridge University Press 2023)

Chen Weitseng and Fu Hualing (eds), Authoritarian Legality in Asia: Formation, Development and Transition (Cambridge University Press 2020)

Book Chapters
Chen Weitseng and Mariana Mota Prado, 'Finance, state-owned enterprises, and development: A comparative study of pawnshops in Brazil, Mexico and Taiwan' in Susan Rose-Ackerman (ed), Public Sector Performance, Corruption and State Capture in a Globalized World (Routledge 2024) 52

Chen Weitseng, 'Adaptive Authoritarian Policing: A Journey From China and Japan to Taiwan' in Weitseng Chen and Hualing Fu (eds), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia (Cambridge University Press 2023) 192

Fu Hualing and Chen Weitseng, 'Mapping the Authoritarian and Democratic Divide: The Transformation of Policing in Asia' in Weitseng Chen and Hualing Fu (eds), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia (Cambridge University Press 2023) 3

Chen Weitseng, 'Same Bed, Different Dreams: Constitutionalism and Legality in Asian Hybrid Regimes' in Philipp Dann, Michael Riegner, and Maxim Bönnemann (eds), The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2020)

Chen Weitseng and Fu Hualing, 'Introduction - Authoritarian Legality, the Rule of Law, and Democracy' in Chen Weitseng and Fu Hualing (eds), Authoritarian Legality in Asia: Formation, Development and Transition (Cambridge University Press 2020) 1

Chen Weitseng, 'Student Activism and Authoritarian Legality Transition in Taiwan' in Chen Weitseng and Fu Hualing (eds), Authoritarian Legality in Asia: Formation, Development and Transition (Cambridge University Press 2020) 303

  • Law, Institutions and Development
  • Chinese Law
  • Taiwan-China Comparative Legal Studies
  • Financial Legal History