Biography

Professor Liu is Associate Professor of Sociology and Law at the University of Toronto. His research interests include the sociology of law, organizations and professions, criminal justice, globalization, and social theory, with a geographical focus on the Greater China Region. Professor Liu has conducted extensive empirical research on China’s legal reform and legal profession, including the globalization of corporate law firms, the political mobilization of criminal defense lawyers, the feminization of judges, and the career mobility of law practitioners. One of his current research projects examines influence of colonialism and authoritarianism on the professions in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Professor Liu is the author of three books in Chinese and English, most recently, Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work (with Terence C. Halliday, Cambridge University Press, 2016). He has also published many articles in leading law and social science journals, including the China Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, Canadian Review of Sociology, Sociological Theory, Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, etc. He received his LL.B. from Peking University and his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.