Ms. Yuxi FENG 馮鈺晰女士

Research Student

Working toward a PhD in Laws, expected 2021

Ms. Feng Yuxi is a Ph.D. candidate at Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Ms. Feng obtained her bachelor’s degree in laws and her master’s degree in international law in Fudan University. Ms. Feng has her research interests in topics bearing on the international peace and security, human rights and international criminal law.

THESIS TOPIC

Defining “International Community” within the Context of R2P, co-supervised by Professors Gregory GORDON and Ryan MITCHELL.

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND AIMS

Ms. Feng Yuxi is particularly interested in jus ad bellum, transitional justice, and legal theories. With her thesis, she aims to spell out her proposed understanding of the key concept “international community” in the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, which prescribes a double-layered scheme of obligations on states and, residually, on the international community as a whole, to protect populations from atrocity crimes. The main questions ask: who should be considered as part of this community? What are the defining characteristics to determine the existence of a community as such? The research bases its analyses on several premises: (1) textual examination of R2P drafters’ intentions, supplemented by interviews with key figures involved; (2) a teleological enquiry of the term “international community” necessitated by R2P’s goals; (3) a theoretical probe into the notion of “community” in light of the major scholarship in sociology, international relationships, international law and so forth. Building on these considerations, the research puts forward a tentative division of labor within the international community, with an aim to break down and thus substantiate the collective yet evasive responsibility of protection.

WORKING PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS
  • “Parentage in Cases of Artificial Insemination by Donor: Most Recent Development in China through Comparative Perspective”, The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 4, n. 2, 2017, Oxford University Press.
  • “Ascertaining Foreign Laws: Updated Practice and New Approaches in China’s Courts”, Social Science Research, 2017.
  • “Contending Goals of Achieving Ad-hoc Propriety and Adjudicatory Consistency: Procedure Justice under the Legal Systems in Imperial China”, Fudan Juris Master Review, Vol. 13, 2013.
PAPERS DELIVERED
  • “Obligations of States to Exercise Due Diligence to Prevent a Pandemic” (Paper delivered with Professor Benoit Mayer and Ms. Xueji Su at Research Seminar: International Legal Issues on Covid-19, 7 August 2020, The Chinese University of Hong Kong).
  • “The Conceptual Outlook of ‘International Community’ in the Context of R2P” (Paper presented at the 3rd Hamburg Young Scholars’ Workshop in International Law, 20-21 September, 2019).“‘Us’ or ‘the Other’: Contesting Ways of Envisaging ‘the International Community’ in the Context of R2P” (Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy, 18-19 July, 2019).
  • “Contingent Unilateralism: A Prism of European Union Leadership in Climate Change Mitigation” (Conference paper and invited speech presented at Seminar on Rule of Law: A Dialogue between Chinese and Nordic Young Jurists, Shanghai, China, 2015).
  • “Applying Principles of International Commercial Contracts to Transnational Investment Agreements”(Paper presented at Annual Meeting of Chinese Society of International Economic Law, Changsha, 2015).
  • “Temporal Elements in Treaty Interpretation” (Paper presented at Shanghai Postgraduate Forum, 2015).
EDUCATION AND AWARDS
  • Master in International Law, Fudan University, China, 2017.
  • Bachelor in Laws, Fudan University, China, 2014.
  • Honor of Outstanding Graduate, Fudan University, Shanghai, 2017.
  • Second Prize, 13th Jessup International Law Moot Court (National Round), Beijing, 2015.