Warwick Law School News

Warwick Law School welcomes a new Assistant Professor to our community.

Prior to joining Warwick, Jiajun Luo was a Hauser Global Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU School of Law, where he was also affiliated with the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, following the completion of his PhD in Law at the University of Hong Kong in 2025. At NYU, Jiajun developed research projects on legal empowerment and access to justice, courts and judicial governance, and the growing use of technology in legal institutions. He was also involved in teaching, workshops and other academic activities at the Law School.

When asked about joining Warwick Law School as a faculty member, Jiajun told us:

“I’m really excited to be here. Warwick’s tradition of studying law in context really resonates with me - I’ve always been interested in what happens when we look beyond what the law says on paper and ask how it actually works in practice. It’s a big new chapter for me, and I’m excited to build my work here and make Warwick my academic home."

We chatted some more...

What will you be doing at Warwick?

I’ll be teaching public law and continuing to develop my research. I’m also looking forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues across the Law School and the wider University, and getting to know and supporting our students.

What are your research interests?

My research lies at the intersection of public law, comparative law and socio-legal studies, with a particular focus on legal processes and dispute resolution. More broadly, I am interested in the critical institutional analysis of how legal processes operate in practice: how they structure access and participation, mediate relationships between individuals and state power, and distribute or constrain public power. My current projects examine state-orchestrated legal empowerment, algorithmic standardisation and judicial governance in authoritarian smart courts, and anti-SLAPP as a constitutional blind spot in post-war liberal democracies. While China is an important empirical site for much of my work, I use it to engage with broader comparative and theoretical questions about law, institutions and public power.

Why did you want to study law?

Partly because I wasn’t very good at maths! I was always much more drawn to history, the social sciences and the humanities. Law appealed to me because it seemed to offer a window into all of these things — a way of understanding society, politics and institutions through the questions and disputes that arise in everyday life. That is probably still what I find most interesting about law today.

University can be very stressful, what do you do to unwind?

I enjoy travelling, exploring new places and trying different food. I also like running and hiking, going to the cinema, playing video games, and exploring grocery stores wherever I happen to be. I’ve only recently moved to the Midlands, so I’m still discovering the best places to explore around here. And when university gets particularly stressful, there is always the supermarket.

Professor Andrew Williams, Head of School has said: "I’m very pleased to welcome our new colleagues to the law school. I am sure they will make a significant contribution to our community in the years ahead."

Good luck in your first term Jiajun, we are thrilled to have you with us.

Find out more about Jiajun's researchLink opens in a new window.