Research Overview
With a Hui cleric.
I am a lawyer (J.D. University of Pennsylvania) and anthropologist (Ph.D. Cornell University) who studies the intersection of non-liberal law (Chinese law, post-socialist law, and Islamic law) with ideas of development, freedom, "rule of law," and global governance. In particular, I have developed two lines of inquiry: one shows how property mediates not only social relations, but also the relationship between the market and security, personhood and community, and the state and religion and the second examines how dispute resolution operates across plural rules. My scholarship is centrally concerned with bringing empirical methods, such as ethnography, to bear on problems of non-liberal law in emerging contexts. At the University of Oxford, I am an Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies, an Associate Research Fellow of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, and a Fellow at St. Cross College. I am also the China editor for SHARIAsource, a virtual platform for research, discussion, and debate about Islamic law, hosted by the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.
My first book China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016) is the first ethnographic study of sharia (Islamic law and ethics) in China. It examines the ways in which Chinese Muslims (Hui) reconcile their obligations under sharia with (post)socialist law across a number of legal domains including family law, property, finance and charity, ritual, and dispute resolution. China and Islam has received a number of distinctions, including a 2017 Asian Law & Society Association Distinguished Book Award Honourable Mention and the book is listed as one of the "Books of the Year 2017" by both the Times Literary Supplement (here) and the Times Higher Education (here). China and Islam been reviewed in a number of journals: the American Journal of Comparative Law, International Journal of Law in Context, Journal of Law and Religion, China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Chinese Political Science, and Cross-Currents. For an interview with Ian Johnson in the New York Times, please click here.
My second book project examines what I call "legal hubs" through the lens of international commercial law. Across Eurasia, from Dubai to Hong Kong to Singapore, new centers of dispute resolution are emerging. Legal hubs feature corporate law firms, international arbitration, international commercial courts, and business mediation to facilitate cross-border trade and investment. The project asks whether the rise of protectionist policies in the U.S. and the U.K. as well as the ascension of China are reconfiguring the landscape for resolving conflicts under international private law. Legal hubs, which are linked through ties of complementarity (e.g, enforcement of foreign judgments) as well as competition (i.e., legal services), are increasingly oriented towards Chinese capital. Through ethnographic case studies and analysis of cross-border contracts, especially choice of law and choice of forum clauses, this project examines the normative implications of legal hubs for not just for Anglo-American law, but also for emerging legal practices in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. I have been awarded research grants from the British Academy and the John Fell Fund (Oxford University Press Research Fund) to start this project.
My research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Henry Luce Foundation. I have published in such journals as American Ethnologist, Law & Social Inquiry, the Hong Kong Law Journal, the Journal of Legal Education, and China Information. My recent research is forthcoming in the American Journal of Comparative Law and Islamic Law and Society. I am a member of the New York bar and have worked in law firms in Beijing and New York City. Starting in 2016, I am a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' Public Intellectuals Program.
Please contact me at matthew"dot"erie"at"orinst"dot"ox"dot"ac"dot"uk".
My first book China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016) is the first ethnographic study of sharia (Islamic law and ethics) in China. It examines the ways in which Chinese Muslims (Hui) reconcile their obligations under sharia with (post)socialist law across a number of legal domains including family law, property, finance and charity, ritual, and dispute resolution. China and Islam has received a number of distinctions, including a 2017 Asian Law & Society Association Distinguished Book Award Honourable Mention and the book is listed as one of the "Books of the Year 2017" by both the Times Literary Supplement (here) and the Times Higher Education (here). China and Islam been reviewed in a number of journals: the American Journal of Comparative Law, International Journal of Law in Context, Journal of Law and Religion, China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Chinese Political Science, and Cross-Currents. For an interview with Ian Johnson in the New York Times, please click here.
My second book project examines what I call "legal hubs" through the lens of international commercial law. Across Eurasia, from Dubai to Hong Kong to Singapore, new centers of dispute resolution are emerging. Legal hubs feature corporate law firms, international arbitration, international commercial courts, and business mediation to facilitate cross-border trade and investment. The project asks whether the rise of protectionist policies in the U.S. and the U.K. as well as the ascension of China are reconfiguring the landscape for resolving conflicts under international private law. Legal hubs, which are linked through ties of complementarity (e.g, enforcement of foreign judgments) as well as competition (i.e., legal services), are increasingly oriented towards Chinese capital. Through ethnographic case studies and analysis of cross-border contracts, especially choice of law and choice of forum clauses, this project examines the normative implications of legal hubs for not just for Anglo-American law, but also for emerging legal practices in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. I have been awarded research grants from the British Academy and the John Fell Fund (Oxford University Press Research Fund) to start this project.
My research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Henry Luce Foundation. I have published in such journals as American Ethnologist, Law & Social Inquiry, the Hong Kong Law Journal, the Journal of Legal Education, and China Information. My recent research is forthcoming in the American Journal of Comparative Law and Islamic Law and Society. I am a member of the New York bar and have worked in law firms in Beijing and New York City. Starting in 2016, I am a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' Public Intellectuals Program.
Please contact me at matthew"dot"erie"at"orinst"dot"ox"dot"ac"dot"uk".
