Dr
Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung
Postdoctoral Fellow
DPhil (Oxon); LLM (LSE); LLB (CUHK)

Alvin is a postdoctoral fellow at the ANU Law School. His research sits at the intersection of law, society, and technology. He’s interested in how legal concepts evolve in response to technological and social change, and how they remain shaped by ideology. His recent works critically engages with digital property and distributed ledger regimes, AI and machine learning, focusing on how these technologies influence legal thinking, particularly in private law, across diverse legal traditions. Alvin also writes on property law, labour relations, and the humanities, with a regional interest in China and Southeast Asia, including the role of cultural contexts and customs. His work has appeared in journals such as The Cambridge Law Journal, Big Data & Society, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, International Journal of Law in Context, Chinese Journal of Comparative Law, Asian Journal of Law and Society, Work, Employment & Society, Law and Critique, Law, Culture and the Humanities, as well as several U.S.-based tech law journals. 

Alvin holds a DPhil from Oxford, an LLM from the LSE, and an LLB from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before turning to academia, he practiced as a solicitor in Hong Kong.

Appointments

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, ANU College of Law (Present)

Selected journal articles

Book chapters

  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, ‘Blockchain and Humanity: Rethinking Techno-Libertarianism.’ in John Flood and Lachlan Robb (eds.), Blockchain Handbook on Law and Society (De Gruyter, 2025) (Upcoming).
  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, ‘Digital Assets from a Socio-Legal Perspective.’ in Jason Grant Allen, Simon Gleeson, and Peter Hunn (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Digital Assets and the Law (Oxford University Press, 2025) (Upcoming).
  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, ‘Ethnography’ in Jan Smits and Nuno Garoupa (eds.), Handbook on Research Methods in Labour Law (Edward Elgar, 2023).
  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, ‘Shaping Narratives of Anti-Corruption Through Popular Culture: An Analysis of the “Storm” Film Series.’ in Séagh Kehoe and Gerda Wielander (eds.), Cultural China 2021: The Contemporary China Centre Review (University of Westminster Press, 2022)

View more publications on the ANU Researchers website

Link to ANU researchers profile

Work in progress

  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, ‘DAO as Rhizome: Reimagining Rules, Governance, and Organisations.’ Under review at Law and Critique.
  • Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung and Amelia Dale, ‘The Roots of Private Property: Native Vegetation Laws and Murder in The Winter Road.’ Under review at Law, Culture and the Humanities.

Conference papers & presentations

  • ‘DAO as Rhizome: Reimagining Rules, Governance, and Organisations’ – Law Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia – Deus Ex Machina – Law – Technology – Humanities – Law Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia Conference 2023 – Queensland University of Technology, 11-14 December 2023
  • ‘Adapting Traditional Chinese Legal Culture to Westernised Property Law: A Comparative Study of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan’ Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) – Hong Kong Commercial and Maritime Law Centre (HKCML) Joint Conference – City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 13 January 2023
  • ‘Decolonization Unfinished — A Critical Perspective on “Multiculturalism” in Hong Kong and Singapore’ - Law and Society Association Annual Meeting 2022 - Lisbon, Portugal, 13-16 July 2022
  • ‘Boundary Spanners as Control Mechanism in the Multicultural Work Environment of Organisations’ - 2022 CERIC Doctoral Conference – University of Leeds, UK, 20 May 2022
  • ‘See No Racism: A Critical Perspective on “Multiculturalism” in “Decolonised” Hong Kong and Singapore’ - Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2022 – University of York, UK, 6 April - 8 April 2022
  • ‘One City, Two Attitudes: Hong Kong’s Legal Mobilisation in Response to China's Influence’ - 15th Biennial Conference for Nordic Association for China Studies (NACS) & NIAS-Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 14th Annual Nordic NIAS Council Conference - University of Helsinki, Finland, 10-11 June 2021
  • ‘Intercultural Conflicts in Foreign-Invested Factories: The Methodological and Cultural Challenges in Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork in Myanmar’ – Reimagining Justice and Ethnography – 5th Annual Postgraduate Law Conference – University of Strathclyde, UK, 29-30 April 2021
  • ‘Construing “Family Property“ in Westernised Property Law: Analysing the Influence of Traditional Chinese Legal Culture on Contemporary Chinese Courts’ – Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2021 – Cardiff University, UK, 30 March - 1 April 2021
  • ‘The Cultural Challenges in Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork in Myanmar’ - PGR Socio-Legal Methodology Workshop – University of Birmingham, UK, 18 November 2020
  • ‘Researching Intercultural Conflicts of Foreign Direct Investment: Methodology and Challenges’ - Empirical and Socio-Legal Methods Workshop – University of Oxford, UK, 10 May 2019
  • ‘Managing Intercultural Conflicts with Key Stakeholders of Foreign Direct Investment: A Study from the Lens of Legal Culture of Chinese Private Enterprises in Myanmar’ – Research Symposium 2019 Oxford Hong Kong Scholars Association – University of Oxford, UK, 9 February 2019

Other

 

PhD, SJD, MPhil, LLM, Honours thesis supervision

I am willing to supervise in the areas:

  • Law and technology, property law, labour law, law and humanities, Asian law

Current Courses

YearCourse CodeCourse Name
2024LAWS2205/LAWS6205Equity and Trusts
2024LAWS2248

Legal Research and Writing

(Guest Lecture)

Alvin Hung

Research themes

Asian Law
Comparative Law
Law, Science & Technology
Private Law
Socio-legal Studies

Contacts

hoi-chun.Hung@anu.edu.au
ANU Law School, 5 Fellows Rd, Acton ACT 2600