Dr
Clement Yongxi Chen
Lecturer

Dr Yongxi (Clement) Chen is a Lecturer at the ANU College of Law. His research focus is in the areas of law & technology and public law. He has published on freedom of information, privacy, judicial review, and regulation of big data, with a focus on China and from a comparative perspective. His recent projects explore the interface between public law and algorithms by examining the norms and normativity emerging in China’s Social Credit System. He also collaborates with computer scientists in using machine learning to inform legal decision-making.

Dr Chen’s work has appeared in international journals such as Law & Social Inquiry, European Data Protection Law Review, Human Genetics, Tsinghua China Law Review, and The Journal of Comparative Law. He has been awarded a competitive General Research Fund (GRF) grant by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for research on algorithm-assisted sanctions. He has been invited to speak at numerous international conferences in his fields of research, including the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, the European China Law Studies Association Annual Conference, and the International Junior Faculty Forum sponsored by Stanford Law School. He has also advised on the drafting of local legislation in China related to freedom of information and digitisation.

Dr Chen holds an LLB and an MPhil in Law from Sun Yat-sen University, a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a PhD from The University of Hong Kong. He won the Intersentia Prize for the Best PhD Thesis in Law and the French Government Scholarship, among other awards.

Prior to joining the ANU, Clement was a Research Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Law, University of Turin, and the WYNG Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University. He is a Fellow at the Centre for Public Law, Sun Yat-sen University and a Visiting Fellow at the Law & Technology Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

Significant research publications

  • Y. Chen and A. Cheung, ‘The Transparent Self under Big Data Profiling: Privacy and Chinese Legislation on the Social Credit System’ (2017) 12(2) The Journal of Comparative Law 356-77.
  • A. Cheung and Y. Chen, ‘From Datafication to Data State: Making Sense of China’s Social Credit System and Its Implications’ [2021] Law & Social Inquiry .
  • Y. Chen and L. Song, ‘China: Concurring Regulation of Cross-Border Genomic Data Sharing for Statist Control and Individual Protection’ (2018) 137(8) Human Genetics 605-15.
  • Y. Chen, ‘Transparency versus Stability: The New Role of Chinese Courts in Upholding Freedom of Information’ (2016) 9(1) Tsinghua China Law Review 79-138.
  • Y. Chen, ‘Privacy and Freedom of Information in China: Review through the Lens of Government Accountability’ (2015) 1(4) European Data Protection Law Review 265-76.

Related websites

SSRN

View more publications on the ANU Researchers website

Link to ANU researchers profile

 

Grants

  • General Research Fund (GRF) grant, 2020-2023, ‘Accountability in Algorithm-assisted Sanctions: Public Law Scrutiny of China’s Social Credit System” (Research Grants Council of Hong Kong), Principle Investigator, 2020-2023, HK$705,920.

Refereed journal articles

  • A. Cheung and Y. Chen, ‘From Datafication to Data State: Making Sense of China’s Social Credit System and Its Implications’ [2021] Law & Social Inquiry .
  • Y. Chen, ‘Circumventing Transparency: Extra-Legal Exemptions from Freedom of Information and Judicial Review in China’ (2018) 7(2) J. Int’l Media & Ent. L. 203-251.
  • Y. Chen and L. Song, ‘China: Concurring Regulation of Cross-Border Genomic Data Sharing for Statist Control and Individual Protection’ (2018) 137(8) Human Genetics 605-15.
  • Y. Chen, ‘Taming the Right to Information: Motive Screening and the Public Interest Test under China’s FOI-like Law’ (2017) 12 The Journal of Comparative Law 236-67.
  • Y. Chen and A. Cheung, ‘The Transparent Self under Big Data Profiling: Privacy and Chinese Legislation on the Social Credit System’ (2017) 12(2) The Journal of Comparative Law 356-77.
  • Y. Chen, ‘Transparency versus Stability: The New Role of Chinese Courts in Upholding Freedom of Information’ (2016) 9(1) Tsinghua China Law Review 79-138.
  • Y. Chen, ‘Privacy and Freedom of Information in China: Review through the Lens of Government Accountability’ (2015) 1(4) European Data Protection Law Review 265-76.
  • Y. Chen, ‘回避法定知情权的开放政府——香港政府信息公开制度评析’ [Open Government without a Legislated Right to Know: A Critical Review of the Access-to-Information Regime in Hong Kong], (2012) 6 宪政与行政法治评论 [Review of Constitutionalism and Administrative Law] 91-127 [in Chinese].

Book chapters

  • Y. Chen, ‘Die Entwicklung Des Social Credit Systems: Zu Drei Seiner Funktionen Aus Sicht Des Öffentlichen Rechts [Evolution of the Social Credit System: Three Functions through the Lens of Public Law]’ in Harald Gapski and Stephan Packard (eds), Super-Scoring? Datengetriebene Sozialtechnologien Als Neue Bildungsherausforderung [Data-Driven Social Technologies as a New Educational Challenge] (Kopaed, 2021) 35-51 [translated from English to German].
  • Y. Chen, ’Freedom of Information in China? The Paradox of Access to Information in a Closed Regime’, in T. Felle and J.Mair, FOI 10 Years On: Freedom Fighting or Lazy Journalism? (UK: Abramis Academic Publishing, 2015) 272-8.

Conference papers & presentations

  • T. Wu, B. Kao, F. Chan, A. Cheung, M. Cheung, G. Yuan and Y. Chen, ‘“Semantic Search and Summarization of Judgments Using Topic Modeling’ (published as a full paper in the Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX), 8-10 December 2021) doi:10.3233/FAIA210323, 100-106.
  • T. Wu, B. Kao, A. Cheung, M. Cheung, C. Wang, Y. Chen, G. Yuan and R. Cheng, ‘Integrating Domain Knowledge in AI-assisted Criminal Sentencing of Drug Trafficking Cases’ (published as a full paper in the Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX), 2-3 December 2020) doi:10.3233/FAIA200861, 174-183.

Other

YearCourse codeCourse name
2023

LAWS8405

Class #7125

Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society
2023

LAWS4276

Class #4614

Chinese Law and Society
2023

LAWS8243

Class #4180

Freedom of Information and Privacy
Clement Yongxi Chen

Research themes

Administrative Law
Law & Technology

Contacts

yongxi.chen@anu.edu.au
ANU College of Law, 5 Fellows Rd, Acton ACT 2600