S.J.D. Candidate
bhu at sjd.law.harvard.edu
Dissertation
Beyond Neutrality: How Legal Institutions Mediate Scientific Authority in Environmental Governance—A Comparative Study of Forest Law and Policy in China and the United States (1950s-2010s)
My project examines how legal institutions mediate and institutionalize scientific authority in environmental governance through a comparative study of forest law and policy in China and the United States from the 1950s to the 2010s. Focusing on the evolution of national afforestation strategies and forestry management, the project analyzes how certain scientific narratives gain legal traction while others are excluded, and how law helps stabilize these narratives as authoritative.
The project draws on framing theory and the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to explore the co-production of legal and scientific authority. It argues that forest governance reflects not only environmental priorities but also deeper visions of science and the state. By tracing the embedded assumptions behind afforestation and forest restoration policies, the study reveals how institutionalized scientific narratives shape—and are shaped by—legal norms, political structures, and cultural expectations.
Fields of Research and Supervisors
- Comparative Legal Approaches to the Non-Human World with Professor Kristen Stilt, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
- Chinese Law and Chinese Society with Professor William Alford, Harvard Law School
- Environmental Law and Environmental Governance with Professor Richard Lazarus, Harvard Law School
- History of Science and Technology with Professor Jill Lepore, Harvard Law School
Additional Research Interests
- Science and Technology Studies
- Legal History
Education
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate, 2025-Present
- Harvard Law School, LL.M. Program 2024-2025 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
- Renmin University of China, LL.M. in Jurisprudence, 2024
- China University of Political Science and Law, LL.B., 2022
Academic Appointments and Fellowships
- Harvard Law School, 2024, F.Y. Chang Scholar
- Renmin University of China, 2023, Teaching Fellow
Representative Publications
- Biyuan Hu, ‘Grassroots Lawyers as Channels for State Power Penetration in Republican China: A Case Study of Longquan, Zhejiang’ Law and Social Science (China) (forthcoming 2025)
- Biyuan Hu, ‘Navigating Between Morality and Law: Legal Formalization and Social Ambiguities in Republican China, the Liu Lu Homicide in 1935’ in Xiangyu Gao (ed), Women, War, and Revolution in Modern China (China University of Political Science and Law Press, forthcoming 2025)
- Biyuan Hu, ‘Understanding Legal Professionals in Republican China and the Break with Legal Tradition: Trial of Liu Jinggui in 1935’ [2022] Legal Traditions of West and China 96
Additional Information
- Languages: English, Mandarin (Native), French (Intermediate)
- National Legal Professional Qualification of People’s Republic of China (Aug. 2022, inactive)
Last Updated: June 13, 2025