Dr Zhen Chen
Zhen Chen started her research as a MSCA Postdoctoral fellow at Edinburgh Law School since May 2026. Her project is titled The Repatriation of Human Remains (RHR): Bringing Ancestors Home Under Private International Law (PIL).
The RHR project investigates the legal obstacles surrounding the cross-border restitution, classification, and repatriation of human remains, contributing to contemporary debates on decolonization, cultural heritage governance, human dignity, and transnational justice. Its three research questions are: 1) What is the legal status of human remains? 2) Who has standing to sue? and 3) When is a restitution claim time-barred? By criticizing the limitations of traditional approaches in classifying human remains and strict PIL rules, the project will propose alternative solutions to ensure origin communities’ access to justice and facilitate the return of human remains to their origin communities.
Zhen Chen holds a PhD in Private International Law from Groningen University (the Netherlands) and a Master's degree in International Law from Wuhan University. Her doctoral research focused on comparing consumer protection rules in European and Chinese Private International Law, which has been cited by EU policymakers.
She has built a strong research profile in PIL, European law, and comparative law, by publishing a monograph titled Tourists, Consumer Contracts and Private International Law in China (Springer, 2025), one book chapter, and 11 peer-reviewed articles (7 open access, 3 award-winning) in leading law journals, including the European Law Review, European Review of Private Law, Journal of Private International Law, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, Information & Communications Technology Law, and the Chinese Journal of Comparative Law.
Her article Is a Mummy a Person or a Property: The Classification and Choice of Law of Cultural Objects in Private International Law argues that a mummy should be classified as a transitional existence between a person and a property. If the classification of a mummy has to be confined to the traditional dichotomy, a mummy can be regarded as a quasi-person or a special kind of property. Following this new classification, a new choice-of-law rule should be established. This article won the Young Academic Award and was featured on the Open Access Highlights of Groningen University. In 2024, Zhen Chen won a research grant for a three-month visit at Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (MPI Hamburg) to further her study on repatriating human remains.
As a member of several academic associations, Zhen Chen has participated in and presented at 26 international conferences, including five invited talks on human remains restitution, held in the EU, UK, USA, Canada, and China. She also serves as a reviewer for three international journals on European property law, transnational, and comparative law.
Zhen Chen is multilingual in Chinese (native), English (advanced), and Dutch (A2).
Beyond her academic career, Zhen is also an artist. She has created over 150 acrylic paintings and exhibited her work in prestigious venues, including the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague and Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam. Most of her paintings are exhibited in the Law Faculty of Groningen University.
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ORCID: Zhen Chen