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Staff Profile

Professor Sophia Tang

Visiting Professor

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7551
  • Address: Newcastle Law School
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Professor Zheng Sophia Tang is a Professor at the Wuhan University and a Deputy Director at the Wuhan University Institute of International Law and Deputy Dean at the Wuhan University Academy of International Law and Global Governance. She is a visiting professor at the Newcastle University. Before that she was a full time Chair in Law and Commerce at the Newcastle University. She also taught law at the University of Leeds and the University of Aberdeen. She has been a senior visiting professor at the University of Duke, Max Planck Institute of Comparative and International Private Law, and LSE. She is a barrister-at-law and an accredited mediator in England and Wales,and a listed arbitrator at the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration. She is a honorary professor at the Shanghai Superior Court. She is also a member of the standing committee at the China Society of Private International Law.

Professor Tang is specialised in private international law, consumer law, international commercial arbitration, and Chinese law, in which she has published extensively. Her articles appear in prestigious law journals, including ICLQ, Modern Law Review, Journal of Private International Law, Hong Kong Law Journal, Edinburgh Law Review, European Law Review, Netherlands Journal of International Law, etc. Professor Tang's monograph Electronic Consumer Contracts in the Conflict of Laws (2nd., Hart, 2015) and article "Exclusive Choice of Forum Clauses in Electronic Consumer Contracts" (2005) 1 Journal of Private International Law 237 are cited by the Canadian Supreme Court in Douez v Facebook. Her co-authored book Conflict of Laws in the People's Republic of China (EEL, 2016) has received positive reviews from scholars in the UK, Australia, China and Singapore and four awards from China.

Professor Tang is a founding editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Transnational Law, a peer review journal published by SAGE, an editor of conflictoflaws.net, and a member of the advisory board of Journal of Private International Law . She is one of the authors of Cheshire, North and Fawcett: Private International Law (15th ed), the leading text in this field. She is a regular reviewer for many reputable law journals in the field and prestigious law publishers, including OUP, CUP, Hart, Edward Elgar, etc. She has provided public lectures and training for judges, government officials and legal practitioners in EU, UK, China and Macau. She has led research projects funded by the Carnegie Trust, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of PRC, Chinese Social Science Foundation, Chinese Ministry of Education, PRC HK and Macau Work Office, and European Commission. She serves as an expert for the European Commission DG Justice in the Justice programme and Horizon 2020, and for the National Science Centre in Poland. She is a member of the ESRC Global Challenge Research Fund peer review group. 


 

Research

Professor Tang's research interest lies in the field of private international law/conflict of laws. Professor Tang's research primarily focuses on European harmonisation of private international law, and the interaction between private international law and other commercial law areas, such as consumer protection, e-commerce, aviation law, commercial corruption, etc. She is also interested in cross-border commercial law, including transnational litigation, class action/collective redress, and international arbitration.

Professor Tang published extensively in her specialised area. She has published five monographs with Hart, Routledge and Edward Elgar. Her articles are published in reputable peer-review journals, such as ICLQ, Modern Law Review, European Law Review, Journal of Private International Law, Hong Kong Law Journal, Edinburgh Law Review and the Netherlands International law Review. She is a frequent speaker in international academic and professional conferences and seminars.

Current Research Projects 

International Data Transfer and Data Protection

Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and the Interaction between Prescriptive and Adjudicative Jurisdiction

Smart Court and Digitisation of Justice

Cross-Border Consumers in New Economy

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

Private International Law

Postgraduate Teaching 

International Sale of Goods

International Commercial Arbitration

Courses Previously Taught

Contract Law

Company Law


Professor Tang was nominated for Teaching Excellence Awards (TEAs) 2016 (Taught Supervisor of the Year)

 

Publications

  • Articles

  • Authored Books

  • Book Chapters

    • Tang Z, Liao T. China. In: Stellina Jolly & Saloni Khanderia, ed. Private International Law in BRICS. Bloomsbury, 2024, pp.87-100.
    • Tang Z, Zhang X. Legality of Chinese Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. In: Shiping Hua, ed. Chinese Legality: Ideology, Law, and Institutions. Routledge, 2023, pp.94-111.
    • Tang Z. China. In: Matthias Weller, João Ribeiro-Bidaoui, Moritz Brinkmann, Nina Dethloff, ed. The 2019 Hague Judgment Convention. Bloomsbury, 2023, pp.297-312.
    • Takahashi K, Tang ZS. Collective Redress. In: Paul Beaumont and Jayne Holliday, ed. A Guide to Global Private International Law. Bloomsbury, 2022.

  • Edited Book

  • Editorial

    • Tang Z. Legalization of Foreign Relations in China. Chinese Journal of Transnational Law 2024, 1, 89-95.

  • Note

    • Tang Z. Foreign Relations Law of the People’s Republic of China. International Legal Materials 2024, 63, 627-636.