I have contracts for two future books. Regionalism and International Law and Relations (Ashgate) and National Security Issues and State Legitimacy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (with Kim McGuire) with a German publishing house.

In addition, I have made substantial progress with draft publications on the role of US geopolitical power in national security dimensions of international law and relations, and the rationale for study revised forms of US imperialism as a topic within the study of international criminal justice and international law more generally, which I will publish as a book in late 2021.

For reasons of space, structure and word limits, my monograph on criminal justice and hate crimes left out some vital draft chapters on international and comparative law aspects of incitement to genocide that I will also turn into a series of articles.

Teaching and Research Interests

My teaching and research interests are varied. They include

·         International / transnational criminal justice and national security, with particular reference to the role of intelligence agencies.

·         The standing of regular legal norms during “states of emergency.”

·         Academic writing and qualitative research skills,

·         Academic/research mentoring / PhD supervision

·         Exploring issues raised by practices of judicial and other forms of textual interpretation,

·         Law and security related issues in related to interdisciplinary empirical research that crosses the boundaries of intelligence studies and international criminal law.

·      Law and policy aspects of hate crime, including international criminal justice aspects of incitement to genocide and terrorism.

·       Implications for international law and relations of the rise of regionalism within South East Asia (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Arab League, African Union) and

·          Law and literature - especially constitutional and security issues in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

·          Activity and group based academic learning.

Our hate crime project was a major study which included organising an international academic and practitioner conference in Brussels in 2013 - see the following: https://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/defining_hate_crime_in_europe.php https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/projects/when_law_and_hate_collide.php

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/.../when_law_and_hate_collide.php

I co-founded in 2015 UCLan’s “Institute for International and Comparative Law” within an emphasis on China https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/groups/uclan_international_comparative_law_centre.php

Here, I helped organise and contributed to an international conference at my home university on “Institute for International and Comparative Law International Conference on “Rule of Law and Chinese Legal Reforms: Developments and Prospects”  in Collaboration with the Confucius Institute, Lancashire Law School University of Central Lancashire 13 May 2015, Preston, UK

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/groups/assets/chinese_law_conference_brochure_2.pdf

My paper was later chosen for publication in a special issue: ' The Liberal Rule-of-law as a Critical Yardstick for China? Explaining Some Contradictions, ’ 5(1) Global Journal of Comparative Law 2016.

Research Plans

I am currently completing three monograph for publication by academic publishers: 

·         “National security issues as explored in Shakespeares’ Hamlet.’

·       The Emergence of a revised form of US imperialism and its complex relation with international law norms, doctrines, institutions and procedures..

·          The Rise of Regionalism within International law and relations, including in relation to Schmittian geopolitical Grossraum (large space) theory

I am co-writing a paper with one of my former Heyuan Polytechnic students contrasting traditional, exclusively written and textbook/written exam oriented studies of English language, with an emerging trend towards activity based and communicatively oriented approaches, which I have developed with others in my own teaching. This contrasts the perspective of both a student of mine and myself in order to give a two dimension and experiential account of the challenges Chinese ESL students face and the possibilities of meeting these in innovative ways that on occasion with generate predictable resistance.

I also have a number of draft studies on the phenomenology of prejudice and the phenomenology of empathy, which were originally part of our EU hate crime project but needed to be removed from the final monograph for space reasons. These could provide the material for future publications

PhD Supervision

I have successfully supervised numerous PhD students many of which now hold senior positions in UK universities

·     Dr Geoff Pearson (Univ of Liverpool) (domestic and international law and practice regarding sports-related criminal violence)

·         Dr Julia Shaw (Leicester University) jurisprudential aspects of euthanasia

·         Dr/professor Susan Ost (:Lancaster University) international law aspects of euthanasia

·         Dr Susan Twist (UClan law school) (war crimes in international law)

·         Dr Allwell Ubesque) (UClan law school) (international human rights law and practice in Nigeria)

·         Dr John McGarry (Edge Hill University) (theory of legal interpretation)

·         Dr Maggi Eastwood (Edge Hill University) (incitement to genocide law)

·         Dr Joy Ogechi (not working in a job)

·         Dr Syn Chitolie (comparative law of Equity)

·         Dr Katherine Ogunleye (war crimes in Nigeria)

·         Dr Jumi Talbot (the legality of US targeting killing with drones).

I am completing supervision as Professor Emeritus of one other student Danny Dyson on immunity aspects of the 1947-9 Tokyo War crimes trials aspects of medical / biological warfare

I completed an EU funded hate crime project at UClan as Principal Researcher.

I have worked in interdisciplinary teams in many of my earlier projects including most recently the EU funded hate crime project, which combined international criminal law with domestic criminal law (doctrinal and socio-legal) as well as international comparative law.

If you look at my publications and the journals you can see that most of my publications have crossed disciplinary boundaries including those of

·         International criminal justice and intelligence studies, 2/. International law and international relations,

·         International law theory and political theory,

·         International criminal law and archival research into immunity from prosecution deals.

My overall approach is social scientific using qualitative research methods/methodologies, which explains why I have been asked regularly to contribute to cross-faculty research methods training courses in both my previous universities. 

Please note the high number of joint publications with colleagues and Ph.D. students as part of their research mentoring.

I also co-founded the UCLan Institute for International and Comparative Law in 2014-15: https://www.schoolandcollegelistings.com/GB/Preston, and organised various conferences including on China and the Rule of Law

I am an active member of numerous networks related to EU policy and hate crime, legal theory, research methods in law, and you can see from my cv that my publications have included many with colleagues from other universities, including John Moores. Also, I am completing research with colleagues from Griffiths University on regionalism and international law, and was invited there in 2017 as a senior visiting fellow. I also have organised conferences on China and the rule of law which involved my network of contacts from South East Asia and the University of Macao, where I have given advanced workshops on research techniques, I have also been a visiting professor at a top 10 Chinese Law School in 2012 and later in 2014