Seminar Abstract

Given the centrality of law in the creation, decision-making, and impact of the United Nations Security Council, the deliberative discourses among Security Council Members, and the necessity for China to articulate its reasons publicly for its actions within the Security Council, the roles that China plays within the Security Council illuminate and clarify its approaches to international legal order as it currently stands. This seminar explains how law serves as a constitutional–normative framework within which the Security Council must function, followed by a discussion of how the Security Council in turn may serve as a locus of deliberative discourses that delineate, influence, and constrain its members’ state behaviours. It challenges the view that law plays a limited role on matters of international security by exploring China’s voting behaviour in the Security Council and the arguments that it has proffered. It also discusses how China has taken a proactive role in the maintenance of international peace and security through the Security Council.

About the Speaker

Holder of Law degrees from the University of Hong Kong, Durham, and the National University of Singapore where he received his Ph.D. in International Law and Chinese Law, Dr Chan has worked at universities in Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and the Middle East, and is currently Senior Fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm and Chengdu. Through his publications, including China, State Sovereignty and International Legal Order (Brill, 2015) and over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, he has built an international scholarly reputation in areas of China, Asia, public law and human rights, international law and global governance. He is Guest Editor of two International Journal of Human Rights special double issues, both reprinted as Routledge books with Forewords by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. On the basis of his research, cited by international bodies including the United Nations International Law Commission, he has delivered over 80 invited guest lectures, seminars and conference papers at universities and think tanks worldwide.