BIO

Dr. Eric Yan-ho Lai is an expert in law, politics and human rights laws and practices in Hong Kong and China, and a visiting researcher at the Dickson Poon School of Law of King's College London. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lai has been involved in civil society development and human rights advocacy since 2010. He received his Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Chevening Scholar in 2013 and and  his Ph.D in law at SOAS University of London in 2022 respectively. His doctoral thesis, as a socio-legal study of Hong Kong, explains the relationship between legal transplant, legal professionalism, and legal mobilization in authoritarian regimes. He also studies judicial politics, national security, social movement, contentious politics, and electoral integrity in Hong Kong and China. Before joining Georgetown Law, Lai was a lecturer in Political Science at several universities in Hong Kong. He was also a visiting fellow at the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Law Fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. He writes on law and politics, electoral integrity, judicial activism, international human rights, and religious freedom in academic journals, newspapers, and popular literature. Lai is a member of the Asian Civil Society Research Network.

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My Academic Profile

• SOAS University of London: https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff124908.php

• Center for Asian Law, Georgetown University Law Center: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/law-asia/about-us/faculty-and-staff/ 

• Hong Kong Studies Association: https://www.hongkongstudiesassociation.co.uk/p/about.html

• Researchgate.net: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yan_Ho_Lai

• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7710-2038 

• Asian Civil Society Research Network: https://asiancivilsociety.com/network-members/europe/erik-lai/ 

Research Interests

• Law and Politics, Law and Social Movement, the Rule of Law, Authoritarianism, Electoral Integrity, China and Hong Kong Politics

Media Enquiry

• Opinion Columnist: Christian Times (Hong Kong), Citizen News (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Free Press, Initium Media, Inmedia.net, La Criox International, Lawfare, Ming Pao, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, The Stand News, UCANEWS, USA Today

• Political Commentator: ABC News, AFP, Apple Daily, BBC News, BBC World, Channel TEN, Deutsche Welle, Nikkei Asia, Now TV (Hong Kong), Radio Free Asia, TBC, The Guardian, The Independent, Voice of America, Vox, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post