Address: New York University Shanghai, 1555 Century Ave,
Pudong, Shanghai, China, 200122
Email: mac1041@nyu.edu

I am an Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai. My research explores the history of international law in East Asia and investigates how China’s rise as a global power is shaping norms and redefining the international distribution of power. In light of the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, I am looking at the economic, legal, and political repercussions of Chinese investments and economic engagement in Europe and Africa. I completed my PhD in Law at the University of Hong Kong and prior to joining NYU Shanghai, I was a Marie-Curie fellow at KU Leuven and a fellow at the Italian Academy of Columbia University, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, European University Institute of Florence’s Max Weber Program, and New York University Law School.

Select Publications

• Sovereignty in China. A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840 (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
• The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance, edited with Jean-Christophe DeFraigne & Jan Wouters (Edward Elgar Publisher, 2020)
• The Politics of History in the late Qing Era: W.A.P. Martin and a History of International Law for China,” The Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d’histoire du droit international 22.2-3 (2020)
• China’s Malleable Sovereignty Along the Belt and Road Initiative: The Case of the 99-year Chinese Lease of Hambantota Port,” N.Y.U. Journal of International Law & Politics 51 (2019)
• “It Is Not the End of History: The Financing Institutions of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Bretton Woods System,” Transnational Dispute Management 3 (2017)

Education

• PhD, Law The University of Hong Kong
• MA, Political Science University of Bologna
• MA, East Asian Studies Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
• BA, Chinese Studies Sapienza University of Rome

Research Interests

• International Law
• Legal History
• International Relations