Virginia HARPER HO is a Professor of Law at CityU School of Law. Her primary research interests are corporate law and governance, securities regulation, sustainability, and corporate finance with a comparative focus on mainland China. Her work has been published by leading law journals, including the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Journal of Corporation Law, and the American Business Law Journal. She has written recently on ESG disclosure, shareholder activism, comparative corporate governance, and China's green finance reforms, and has contributed to ESG reform initiatives of the of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining CityU, she was the Associate Dean for International & Comparative Law Programs and Director of the Polsinelli Transactional Law Center at the University of Kansas School of Law (USA).

She has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Hoeber Award for Excellence in Research from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB). She serves on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL),  and is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).  She is also an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law and a Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. She has previously served as a Research Fellow of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing and as a visiting scholar at Zhejiang University and Sun Yat-Sen University. Prior to entering academia, Harper Ho practiced corporate and securities law and advised U.S. and foreign multinationals on cross-border transactions with a focus on Asia.

Research & Visiting Appointments

Visiting Research Fellow, Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) (2018-2019)
Visiting Scholar, Zhejiang University Guanghua School of Law (2011)
Visiting Scholar, Sun Yat-Sen University School of Law (2003, 2008)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Indiana University – Bloomington Maurer School of Law (2008-2010)
Research Fellow, University of Iowa School of Law, Center for Asian & Pacific Studies (2003-2004)

Editorial Positions 

Associate Editor, Executive Editorial Board, American Journal of Comparative Law (2020-present)

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

• “Beyond Transplant: A Network Innovation Model of Transnational Regulatory Change,” 71(3) American Journal of Comparative Law 513-567 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avad039
• “Climate Risk Disclosure Line-Drawing & Securities Regulation,” 56 University of California - Davis Law Review (2023) (symposium)
  -Featured on Oxford Business Law Blog (11 Apr. 2023), https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/blog-post/2023/04/secs-climate-disclosure-line-drawing-and-its-limits
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets (Mar. 27, 2023), https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2023/03/27/climate-disclosure-line-drawing-and-securities-regulation/
  -Featured on Duke University Financial Economics Center FinReg Blog (Apr. 20, 2023),  https://tinyurl.com/2r97uept
• “Modernizing ESG Disclosure,” 2022 Illinois Law Review 277 (2022)
  -Featured on Oxford Business Law Blog (Jan. 28, 2022), https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2022/01/modernizing-esg-disclosure. 
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets (Nov. 11, 2021), https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2021/11/11/modernizing-esg-and-climate-risk-disclosure/
• “The Limits of Enlightened Shareholder Activism,” International Journal of Financial Services [Revues Internationale de Services Financiers] 37 (2022)
• “Disclosure Overload? Lessons for Risk Disclosure & ESG Reporting Reform From the Regulation S-K Concept Release,” 65 Villanova Law Review 67 (2020)
  - Reprinted in 2021 Securities Law Review § 2:4, Donald C. Langevoort, ed. (a yearly anthology of leading articles in securities law)
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets (Nov. 5, 2019),  http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2019/11/05/is-there-too-much-disclosure/
• “Over-Disclosure Overblown,” The Conference Board: Sustainability Matters (Aug. 2020)
• “Non-financial Reporting & Corporate Governance: Explaining American Divergence and Its Implications for Disclosure Reform,” 10(2) Journal of Accounting, Economics & Law: A Convivium 1 (2019)
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets (June 2, 2020), https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2020/06/02/why-the-u-s-is-lagging-on-esg-disclosure-reform/
• “ESG Disclosure: Optimizing Private Ordering in Public Reporting,” 41 University of Pennsylvania International Law Journal 249 (2019) (with Stephen Park)
• “From Public Policy to Materiality: Non-Financial Reporting, Shareholder Engagement, & the Rule 14a-8 Ordinary Business Exception,” 76 Washington & Lee Law Review 1231 (2019) (symposium)
  - Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog - Columbia Law School’s blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets (Nov. 12, 2019), http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2019/11/12/how-sec-rule-14a-8-and-the-ordinary-business-exception-impede-esg-disclosure-reform/
• “Sustainable Finance & China’s Green Credit Reforms: A Test Case for Bank Monitoring of Environmental Risk,” 51 Cornell International Law Journal 609 (2018)
• “Nonfinancial Disclosure & The Costs of Private Ordering,” 55 American Business Law Journal 407 (2018)
  - Awarded the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Hoeber Award for Excellence in Research
• “Comply or Explain’ and the Future of Nonfinancial Reporting,” 21 Lewis & Clark Law Review 317 (2017)(symposium)
  - Reprinted in 2018 Securities Law Review § 3.2, Donald C. Langevoort, ed. (a yearly anthology of leading articles in securities law)
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, Mar. 14, 2017, available at http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu
• “Sustainability in the Mainstream: Why Investors Care and What it Means for Corporate Boards,” The Conference Board: Director Notes (Nov. 2017)
• “Risk-Related Activism: The Business Case for Monitoring Nonfinancial Risk,” 41 Journal of Corporation Law 647 (2016)
  -Featured on Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, Oct. 7, 2014, available at http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/
• “Team Production & the Multinational Enterprise,” 38 Seattle Law Review 499 (2015) (symposium)
• “Corporate Responsibility in China: Law & the Business Case for Strategic CSR,” 12 South Carolina Journal International Law & Business 1 (2015)
• “The Power of Presence,” 5 Journal of Christian Legal Thought 3 (2015)
• “The Pursuit of Happiness with Chinese Characteristics,” 82 University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review 915 (2014) (symposium)
• “The Recursivity of Reform: China’s Amended Labor Contract Law,” 37 Fordham International Law Review 973 (2014) (with Huang Qiaoyan)
• “Of Enterprise Principles and Corporate Groups: Does Corporate Law Reach Human Rights?,” 52 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 113 (2013)
• “Beyond Regulation: A Comparative Look at State-Centric Corporate Social Responsibility & the Law in China,” 46 Vanderbilt Transnational Law Journal 375 (2013)
• “Corporate Governance as Risk Regulation in China: A Comparative View of Risk Oversight, Risk Management, and Accountability,” 4 European Journal of Risk Regulation 463 (2012)
  - Reprinted in 《外国学者论中国法丛书——公司法分卷》；丛书总主编：陈夏红。公司法分卷主编：葛平亮，梁姣龙;《论中国关于风险规制的公司治理规则：以比较法研究看风险监督、风险管理和企业责任》，郝唯真著，闫文嘉译, 第138页，北京：中国大百科全书出版社，2014 [Foreign Experts on Chinese Law – Corporate Law, at 138, trans. Xian Wenxi] (Chen Xiahong, series ed.; Ge Pingliang, Liang Jiaolong, vol. eds.; Beijing: Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 2014)]
• “Governance Beyond Regulation: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of the State in Comparative Perspective” (in Chinese) [超越规则的治理：比较视角下的企业社会责任和政府角色], 公共行政评论 2:100 [2 Chinese Journal of Public Administration 100] (2012)
• “Theories of Corporate Groups: Corporate Identity Reconceived,” 42 Seton Hall Law Review 879 (2012)
• “‘Enlightened Shareholder Value’: Corporate Governance Beyond the Shareholder-Stakeholder Divide,” 36 Journal of Corporation Law 59 (2010)
  - Selected for inclusion in International Corporate Governance Network training materials for financial analysts (2014)
• “From Contracts to Compliance? An Early Look at Implementation Under China’s New Labor Legislation,” 23 Columbia Journal of Asian Law 35 (2009)
  - Reprinted in Obligations and Property Rights in China, Perry Keller, ed. (Ashgate: 2012)
• “Non-citizen Voting Rights: the History, the Law, and Current Prospects for Change,” 18 Law & Inequality Journal 271 (2000)
  - Reprinted in 21 Immigration & Nationality Law Review 477 (2000)

Book

• Labor Dispute Resolution in China: Implications for Labor Rights and Legal Reform (University of California, Berkeley: Institute for East Asian Studies, 2003)

Book Chapters

• “Securities Regulation & Climate Change,” The Cambridge Handbook of Climate Change and Private Law, Ernest Lim & Doug Kysar, eds. (Cambridge UP: 2025) (forthcoming)
• “China & Transnational Green Finance: Diverse Influences in an Unsettled Field, The Impact of China on the Future of International and Transnational Law,” Ji Li & Gregory Shaffer, eds. (Oxford Univ. Press) (forthcoming)
• “China’s Corporate Credit System & The Boundaries of Corporate Liability,” in Fraud & Risk in Commercial Law, Hans Tijo & Paul Davies, eds. (Hart Publishing: 2024) 323
• “U.S. ESG Regulation in Transnational Context,” in Corporate Purpose, CSR and ESG: A Trans-Atlantic Perspective, Jens-Hinrich Binder, Klaus J. Hopt, Thilo Kuntz, eds. (Oxford Univ. Press: 2024)
  - Featured on Oxford Business Law Blog (1 Apr. 2024), https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/oblb/blog-post/2024/04/us-esg-regulation-transnational-context
• “Sustainable Finance & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling,” in Investment Management, Stewardship and Sustainability, Iris Chiu & Hans-Christoph Hirt, eds. (Hart Publishing: 2023)
• “Sustainable Finance & the Public Turn in Corporate Law,” in A Research Agenda for Corporate Law, Christopher Bruner & Marc Moore, eds. (Edward Elgar: 2023)
• “Corporate Groups: Toward Enterprise Accountability,” in Handbook of Corporate Liability, Martin Petrin & Christian Witting, eds. (Edward Elgar: 2023)(with Gerlinde Berger-Walliser & Rachel Chambers)
• “Rewriting Smith v. Van Gorkom,” in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Corporate Law, Kelli Alces, et al., eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press: 2022)
• “Board Duties: Monitoring, Risk Management & Compliance”, in Handbook of Comparative Corporate Governance, Afra Afsharipour & Martin Gelter, eds. (Edward Elgar: 2021)
  - Featured on Duke Law School FinReg Blog (June 1, 2020), https://sites.duke.edu/thefinregblog/2020/06/01/beyond-board-duties-a-comparative-look-at-monitoring-risk-management-compliance/
• “Capital Market Disclosure Regimes: Advancing Accountability for Chinese TNCs,” in Handbook of Research on Transnational Corporations, Alice de Jonge and Roman Tomasic, eds. (Edward Elgar: 2017)

Public Policy Reports & Amicus Briefs

• Response to Singapore Exchange (SGX) Consultation Paper on “Starting With a Common Set of Core ESG Metrics” (Sept. 25, 2021)
• Response to Singapore Exchange (SGX) Consultation Paper on “Climate and Diversity: The Way Forward” (Sept. 25, 2021)
• Comment to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on Climate Change Disclosures (June 12, 2021)
• Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. et al. v. Ark. Teacher Ret. System, et al., Case No. 20-222 (U.S. 2021), Brief of Professors of Securities Law and Complex Litigation as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents (Mar. 3, 2021)
• Comment to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Modernization of Regulation S-K Items 101, 103, and 105 (File Number S7-11-19) (Oct. 22, 2019)
• “Incentives & Impacts of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Audit Program,” Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), Suzhou, China (Dec. 2018)
• “Corporate Social Responsibility & Chinese Investment in Africa: China’s Soft Power or Real Corporate Accountability?” United States Institute for Peace, Peace Brief (Sept. 20, 2017), http://usip.org/publications/2017/09/chinas-soft-power-africa-or-real-corporate-accountability
• “Financial Stability Board Guidance on Climate-Related Financial Reporting: Game-Changer for Voluntary Sustainability Reporting?“ American Bar Association Section of International Law, International Environmental Law Committee (Mar. 2017) (with Linda Lowson, et al.)
• Research Brief, “Sustainability Financial Reporting: United States”, American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources, Sustainability Financial Reporting Initiative: G20 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) (Aug. 2016) (with Jeanne Solomon)
• Research Brief, “Sustainability Financial Reporting: People’s Republic of China”, American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources, Sustainability Financial Reporting Initiative: G20 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) (July 2016)
• Research Brief, “Sustainability Financial Reporting: Hong Kong SAR”, American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources, Sustainability Financial Reporting Initiative: G20 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) (July 2016) (with Paul Wehrmann)
• Research Brief, “Voluntary Reporting & Shareholder Activism,” American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources, Sustainability Financial Reporting Initiative: G20 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) (July 2016)
• Comment on the definition of “eligible organization” for purposes of Coverage of Certain Preventative Services Under the Affordable Care Act, submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services [File Code CMS-9940-P] (Oct. 21, 2014)
• Comment on Draft Model Business Conduct Standards to Eradicate Labor/Child Trafficking, American Bar Association Section of Business Law (Nov. 2013)

Other Publications

• Book Review, Law and Political Economy in China: The Role of Law in Corporate Governance and Market Growth Tamar Groswald Ozery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 252 pp. $125.00 (hbk). ISBN 9781009158244. The China Quarterly. 2024:1-2. doi:10.1017/S0305741024000249
• Book Review, 69 Asian Studies 1181 (2010) (reviewing Ronald Brown, Understanding Labor & Employment Law in China (2009))
• Book Review, 57 American Journal of Comparative Law 387 (2009) (reviewing Jianfu Chen, Chinese Law: Context and Transformation (2008))
• Book Review, 12 China Review International 130 (2005) (reviewing Hilary K. Josephs, Labor Law in China (2nd ed. 2003))
• “The Challenges of Global Compliance in Emerging Markets,” 25 American Corporate Counsel (ACC) 52 (Sept. 2007) (with Marya M. Rose & M. Angella Castille)
• “Buying Into the China Market,” Financier Worldwide (Apr. 2007), at 42-43 (with Zack Z. Dong)
• “Catching the M&A Wave in China: A New Era of Foreign Investment,” 23 American Corporate Counsel (ACC) 46 (June 2005) (with Kenneth Tung & Edward Williams)

Selected Honors & Awards

• Research Member, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)
• Environmental Law Institute (ELI) Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) Award 2022 (selecting Modernizing ESG Disclosure as one of the top twenty articles on environmental law and policy for 2021-2022).
• University of Kansas Woodyard International Educator Award (2019)
• Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Hoeber Award for Excellence in Research (2018)
• National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program Fellow (2016-2018)
• Docking Young Faculty Scholar Award (2013-2016), University of Kansas (awarded to early-career faculty who have distinguished themselves through exceptional research and teaching)
• Edwin W. Hecker, Jr. Teaching Fellow, University of Kansas School of Law (2015-2018) (awarded for excellence in teaching)
• University of Kansas Immel Teaching Award (2013)
• Yong K. Kim Memorial Prize (2001), Harvard Law School (awarded for the best paper on the law or legal history of the nations and peoples of East Asia)

Editorial Positions & Journal Refereeing

• Associate Editor, Executive Editorial Board, American Journal of Comparative Law (2020-present)
• Editorial Advisory Board, Law & Financial Markets Review (Routledge) (2022-present)

Judicial Clerkship

• Hon. Robert W. Pratt, U.S. Federal District Court, Southern District of Iowa (2002-2003)

Selected Leadership Service

• American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL), Secretary (2020-present), Executive Committee (2018-present)
• Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
  - Executive Committee, Comparative Law Section (2021-2022)
  - Executive Committee, East Asian Law Section (2018-2022)
  - Chair, Executive Committee, Section on Transactional Law & Skills (2019-2020); Chair-elect (2016-2018)
• Director, Polsinelli Transactional Law Center, University of Kansas School of Law (2015-2021)
• Kansas Bar Association, Corporate Business and Banking Section, General Corporation Code Review Committee (2013-2021)
• American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources, G20 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (2016-2017)

Academic & Professional Affiliations

• Member, Hong Kong Institute of Directors (HKIoD) (2024-present)
• Research Member, European Corporate Governance Institute (2023-present)
• Member, United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) Academic Network (2008-present)
• Member, American Bar Association (2001-present)
• Affiliate, University of Oslo Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART) Program (2018-2019)