Dr Enshen Li is an Associate Professor at CityU School of Law. His research lies at the intersection of several research fields: comparative criminal law, criminal justice, theoretical criminology, terrorism and socio-legal studies of punishment. Dr Li has published extensively in the leading academic journals, including British Journal of Criminology, The China Journal, Punishment & Society, Theoretical Criminology, Law & Social Inquiry, Social & Legal Studies, New Criminal Law Review, Terrorism and Political Violence, Emory International Law Review and Columbia Journal of Asian Law among others. He has taught multiple criminal law and criminology courses in Australia since 2008.

Before joining CityU School of Law, Dr Li was a Senior Lecturer in law at the University of Queensland. Prior to entering academia, he worked at Tilanqiao Prison (Shanghai) as a prison officer and practised for many years as a criminal defense lawyer in China. He was the recipient of the Early Career Research Excellence in Research Award at The University of Queensland in 2018. Dr Li has also held visiting academic appointments at The University of Melbourne, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing Normal University and Shanghai Jiaotong University. He has been widely consulted by international media (e.g. ABC, CNA, The Economist and The Guardian) on issues concerning criminal law, criminal justice and punishment in China and Australia. He has also served as an expert witness in more than a dozen of criminal trials in Australia and the US. Dr Li was the General Editor of The University of Queensland Law Journal and LawAsia Journal and now sits on the editorial board of Chinese Journal of Comparative Law. He is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States Research Bulletin.

PUBLICATIONS LIST

Books
E Li, X Yuan, Y Zhang (2024), Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).
E Li (2018), Punishment in Contemporary China: Its Development, Evolution and Change (Routledge).
E Li (2018) Business and Corporations Law Guidebook (English/Chinese) (Thomas Reuters)

Book Chapters
E Li (2024), ‘The Many Cultural Manifestations of Convictions through Pleas in Greater China: An International Perspective’ in E Li, X Yuan, Y Zhang (eds.) Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).
Y Lu, X Lin, E Li (2024), ‘Plea Leniency in Mainland China: Legislation, Characteristics and Effects’ in E Li, X Yuan, Y Zhang (eds.) Criminal Case Dispositions through Pleas in Greater China: Conception, Operation and Contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).
E Li (2024), ‘Penal Policies and Practices in China’ in Alessandro Corda (ed.) Research Handbook on Penal Policy (Edward Elgar, forthcoming).
E Li (2024), ‘Three Evil Forces’ in Ching-Hsing Wang (ed.) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Chinese Studies (Routledge, forthcoming).
E Li (2023), ‘Bureaucratising Criminal Convictions in China’ in Ed Johnson and Anna Pivaty (eds.) Bureaucratising Criminal Convictions in China 69-87 (Routledge).
E Li (2022), ‘Rehabilitation and Corrections in China’ in Maurice Vanstone and Philip Priestley (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Rehabilitation in Criminal Justice 89-106 (Palgrave Macmillan).
E Li (2016), ‘China’s Socialization of Administrative Offenders in the Community: An Unrealistic Agenda?’ in Susan Trevaskes, Sarah Biddulph, Flora Sapio and Elisa Nesossi (eds) Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China, 43-61 (Routledge). 
S Bronitt and E Li (2015), ‘Counter-Terrorism Law in Australia: New Paradigms in Criminal Law’ in Zhao Binzhi (ed.) Toward Scientific Criminal Law Theories, 610-630 (Law Press)

Refereed Journal Articles
E Li (2023), Forward-leaning Policing and Stability Maintenance: The Politics of Penal Control in Xi’s China, Punishment & Society, https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745231218473
E Li (2023), Risk, Political Security and Extra-Judicial Penality Under Xi, Theoretical Criminology, 27(4): 638-659.
E Li (2023), The Qianke System in China: Disorganisation, Discrimination and Dispersion, Criminology & Criminal Justice 23(4): 568-587.
E Li (2023), Legal Graft of Hong Kong National Security Law: A Turn against “One Country, Two Systems”?, The Journal of Comparative Law 18(1): 339-363
E Li, XF Lin and SH Liu (2023), Radical Times Call for Radical Measures: China’s Regulation of Covid-19 through Criminal Justice Innovation, China: An International Journal 21(1): 1-23.
E Li (2023), Can “Nudge” Salvage Community Policing against Terrorism?, Terrorism and Political Violence 35(1): 135-155.
E Li (2022), Chinese Courts' New Plea Leniency System: Scrutinizing the Efficacy of Mandatory Defence Counsels, The China Journal 88: 78-99.
E Li (2022), Haste Makes Waste: Why China’s New Plea Leniency System is Doomed to Fail, Asian Journal of Comparative Law 16(2): 71-105.
XF Lin, SH Liu, E Li and Y Ma (2022), Sentencing Disparity and Sentencing Guidelines: The Case of China, Asian Journal of Criminology 17: 127-155. 
E Li (2022), Unravelling the Mystery of Parole in China, British Journal of Criminology 62(4): 896-913. 
E Li (2022), Policing Terrorism in the Chinese Community: A Critical Analysis, Asian Journal of Law and Society 19(3): 466-499.  
E Li and R Thomason (2020), The Right to Legal Representation in China – An Australian Perspective of Counsel Competence and the Right to a Fair Trial, Asia Pacific Law Review 28(1): 179-201.
E Li (2020), In the Name of Prevention? Policing “Social Dangerousness” through Arrest in China, Social &Legal Studies 30(4): 581-604.
E Li and MY Su (2020), From Punishment to Control: Assessing Juvenile Justice in China, Law & Social Inquiry 45(2): 372-397.
E Li (2019), Fighting the Three Evils: A Structural Analysis of Counter-terrorism Legal Architecture in China, Emory International Law Review 33(3): 311-365.
E Li and S Bronitt (2017) Combating Foreign Bribery in China: Rethinking Zero Tolerance with “Chinese Characteristics”, Chinese Journal of Comparative Law 5(2): 308-344.
E Li (2017), The Rhetoric and Practice of Community Corrections in China, Asian Journal of Criminology 12(2): 143-162.
E Li (2017), Penological Developments in Contemporary China: Populist Punitiveness vs. Penal Professionalism, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 51: 58-71.
E Li (2016), China’s New Counterterrorism Legal Framework in the Post-2001 Era: Legal Development, Penal Chang, and Political Legitimacy, New Criminal Law Review 19(3): 344-381.
E Li (2016), China's Urban Population and Penal Policy, Criminology & Criminal Justice 16(1): 80-98.
E Li (2015), Towards the Lenient Justice? A Rise of 'Harmonious' Penality in Contemporary China, Asian Journal of Criminology 19(4): 1-17. 
E Li (2015), The Cultural Idiosyncrasy of Penal Populism: The Case of Contemporary China, British Journal of Criminology 55(1): 146-163. 
E Li (2015), China’s Community Corrections: An Actuarial Model of Punishment, Crime, Law and Social Change 64(1): 1-22.
E Li (2014), ‘The Neoliberal Penality Thesis in China: When Western Theory Meets Chinese Reality’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice 25(3): 803-817.
E Li (2014), The New Drug Detoxification System in China: A Misused Tool for Drug Rehabilitation, The University of Pennsylvania East Asia Law Review 9(2): 168-212.
E Li, Crime Control in China's Pre-trial System: A Political Ideology? (2013) 8(1) National Taiwan University Law Review 141-203.
E Li (2012), Between Reality and Idea: Implementing the Rule of Law in China’s Pre-trial Process, International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences 7(1): 398-415.
E Li (2012), Community Drug Treatment in China: A Promising Program or An Incomplete Project?, LawAsia Journal 13: 27-52.
E Li (2012), Between Idea and Reality: Is the Socialization of Administrative Offenders Realizable?, Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal 13(2): 164-209.
E Li (2011), The Abuse of Guaranteed Pending Trial in the Chinese Criminal Process: A Violation of International Human Rights Law, Indonesian Journal of International Law 9(1): 79-100.
E Li (2010), The Li Zhuang Case: Examining the Challenges Facing Criminal Defense Lawyers in China, Columbia Journal of Asian Law 24(1): 129-169.
E Li (2010), Prisonization or Socialization? Social Factors Associated with Chinese Administrative Offences, UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal 27(2): 302-347.
E Li (2010), Miscarriage of Justice in the Chinese Pre-trial Process, LawAsia Journal 11: 83-111.
E Li (2010), Chinese Administrative Justice System: Its Malpractice and Possible Reform, Frontiers of Law in China 5(4): 548-579.

Other Publications
E. Li (2024), Crime and Control in China: The Myth of Harmony. Asia Pacific Law Review, forthcoming (book review).
E Li (2023), Governance, Social Control and Legal Reform in China: Community Sanctions and Measures by Qi Chen. Punishment & Society, https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745231210172  (book review)
E Li (2023), The Timing of Guilty Pleas: Lessons from Common Law Jurisdictions by Kevin Cheng. Asian Journal of Comparative Law, doi:10.1017/asjcl.2023.32 (book review). 
E Li (2022), ‘Policing China: Street-Level Cops in the Shadow of Protest’, The China Journal 88: 164-165 (book review)
E Li (2022), ‘The Construction of Guilt in China: An Empirical Account of Routine Chinese Injustice’, Asian Journal of Criminology 17(1): 105-107 (book review)
E Li (2021), ‘China’s Move towards A Preventative State’, Social & Legal Studies Blog https://socialandlegalstudies.wordpress.com/2021/11/.
E Li (2019), ‘Criminal Defence in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work’, The China Journal 79: 124-126 (book review)
E Li (2017), ‘The Reform Report on Community Corrections in Shanghai’ (in Chinese)

COMMUNITY & SERVICES
Editor of the University of Queensland Law Journal (2021-2023)
Editor-in-chief of LAWASIA Journal (2018-2020)
Editorial Board Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (2017-present)
Editor-in-Chief of the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States Research Bulletin (2022-present)

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Member of Asian Criminological Society
Member of Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
Member of the American Society of Criminology
Member of the Chinese Bar Association