Li-kung Chen works in the philosophy of law, with particular interest in general jurisprudence and constitutional theory. In general jurisprudence, he has researched especially on the nature of law as a legal system, particularly the human acts, intentions, and beliefs constitutive of norms as well as systems of norms. He is also interested in how law could be properly understood as a distinctive type of social order, and specifically how law should be distinguished from other types of social and normative systems. In constitutional theory, he has worked on conceptual questions about constitution, constitution-making, and the state. His research interest also includes political philosophy and social ontology where they intersect with questions of legal philosophy.
Li-kung’s PhD thesis explores the nature of a legal system as a norm-making and applying group of legal officials, how such a group relates to the state whose officials they are, and the relevance of group agency to these questions. The thesis challenges well-received propositions in general jurisprudence on the relation between law and state. One of the findings leads to an article, entitled ‘The Continuity of a Legal System’, in the Modern Law Review. His current research probes another important aspect of the nature of a legal system: its unique features that distinguish it from other types of normative institutions, while critically engaging with the influential view that law is distinguished only by its non-functional, ‘modal’ feature.
Li-kung completed his LLB at National Chengchi University, LLM at University College London, MSt at the University of Oxford, and PhD at Trinity College Dublin. Prior to coming to NUS, Li-kung was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Academia Sinica.
