Lawrence J. Liu
Associate Professor of Law
Office
Anheuser-Busch Hall #571
Faculty Links
About Lawrence J. Liu
Professor Liu is a comparative law and politics scholar, with a focus on state-society relations in China and the United States. His research pays particular attention to the actors who engage and occupy legal institutions, such as lawyers, interest groups, administrative adjudicators, and judges. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and mixed-methods research tools, he seeks to understand how law and politics shape these actors’ decision-making processes and to identify implications for international trade, administrative law, and Chinese law. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in New York University Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law, Yale Journal of International Law, American Journal of Comparative Law, Law & Social Inquiry, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and The China Quarterly.
Prior to joining the WashU Law faculty, Professor Liu was a Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the Neukom Center for the Rule of Law at Stanford Law School. He holds a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an A.B., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. He clerked for the Honorable Andrew D. Hurwitz on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education
- Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (Jurisprudence and Social Policy), 2025
- J.D., Yale Law School, 2022
- M.A., University of California, Berkeley (Jurisprudence and Social Policy), 2018
- A.B., Princeton University, 2016
Courses
- Chinese Law, Politics, and Society Seminar
- International Trade Law
Areas of Expertise
- International Trade Law
- Chinese Law and Politics
- Administrative Law
- Legal Profession
- State-Society Relations
- Empirical Legal Studies
Scholarship
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Perceiving Techno-Legality: Social Attitudes towards the Judicial Use of Artificial Intelligence in China and the United States, Am. J. Compar. L. (forthcoming) (with Xinbo Lin, Eddie Yang, Jinhua Cheng, Han Liu, and Taisu Zhang).
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Tariffs and the Progressive Fiscal Constitution, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1933 (2026) (with Alex Zhang).
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Opening the Tariff Toolkit: The Demand for U.S. Administrative Trade Remedies, 101 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 520 (2026).
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No More IEEPA Tariffs? The Legal Bases of an Alternative Regime, 110 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 89 (2026).
- Independence through Judicialization: The Politics Surrounding Administrative Adjudicators, 1929–1949, 13 Mich. J. Env’tl & Admin L. 522 (2024).
- The Rules of the (Belt and) Road: How Lawyers Participate in China’s Outbound Investment and Infrastructure Initiatives, 46 Yale J. Int’l L. Online 168 (2021).
- State-Adjacent Professionals: How Chinese Lawyers Participate in Political Life, 247 China Q. 793 (2021) (with Rachel E. Stern).
- The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization in Contemporary China, 45 Law & Soc. Inquiry 226 (2020) (with Rachel E. Stern).
- Religion and Judging on the Federal Courts of Appeals, 14 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 716 (2017) (with Sepehr Shahshahani).
Working Papers
Media
Honors & Awards
- Junior International Law Scholars Association 2025 Jon Van Dyke Paper award for “Opening the Tariff Toolkit: The Demand for U.S. Administrative Trade Remedies.”
- Law & Society Association 2021 Article Prize for “The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization in Contemporary China.”
