Zhuang (John) Liu is an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong. He received a Bachelor of Laws and a Ph.D. from Peking University, and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from the University of Chicago.
Liu's interests include analyzing the role of courts and judicial behavior, as well as development law. He is one of the leading scholars in applying quantitative methods to study Chinese law. His research projects include work that takes advantage of a large dataset of judicial opinions in China to analyze and predict judges’ decisions, uses statistical methods to estimate judicial transparency in China, studies law and development with a combination of court data and economic data in China, and conducts experimental studies to reveal the hidden behavioral patterns of judges. Liu's work has appeared in several top-tier academic journals, including Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Legal Analysis, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and China Quarterly.
Liu helped establish the big data legal group at the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, which is now developing a structural database of Chinese court decisions to help scholars conduct empirical studies of the Chinese legal system. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching classes on artificial intelligence, data analytics and law.