Edinburgh Law School alumna recognised by the Taiwanese Society of International Law

In March 2024, Jing-Han Chen was awarded the Taiwanese Society of International Law’s 2023 PhD Thesis Prize for her thesis ‘Contested Citizenship and Statelessness in Question: An Analysis of Cases of Overseas Taiwanese People and Tibetan Exiles in Taiwan’. Jing-Han completed her PhD from Edinburgh Law School in April 2023 under the supervision of the Law School’s Head of School, Professor Jo Shaw and Sophia Woodman, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science. 

About receiving this award, Jing-Han said: “I am profoundly honoured to receive the PhD Thesis Prize from the Taiwanese Society of International Law for my work. My thesis explores the complex dynamics of Taiwanese citizenship, both domestically and internationally, with a particular focus on the Tibetan exiles in Taiwan and overseas Taiwanese. It encompasses the legal structure of Republic of China (ROC) citizenship, the predicaments faced by immigrants and stateless persons in Taiwan, the issue of contested citizenship within the Taiwanese context, and substantial democratic participation in broader contested citizenship practices. I am deeply grateful for this recognition and for the support I have received from my supervisors, colleagues, parents, and friends throughout my PhD studies.”

The Taiwanese Society of International Law was founded in 2001 to advance international law knowledge in Taiwan. In 2015, the Society launched the ‘Taiwan International Law Quarterly’ journal, and winners of the thesis prize are requested to publish a paper in the journal. Alongside this publication, winners are also given a grant of around £700. 

Jing-Han Chen completed her PhD in April 2023 and she is now a tutor of International Law and International Private Law at Edinburgh Law School. She is also working on several research papers on citizenship studies, one of which was published this spring on Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT); co-written with Edinburgh Law School PhD student Yi-Chen Huang, ‘Report on Citizenship Law: Taiwan’, provides a general overview of Taiwanese citizenship.