Melbourne visiting fellow Wilson Lui in conversation
Wilson Lui studied law in Hong Kong and Cambridge and linguistics at Oxford before becoming a doctoral candidate at Melbourne Law School. He has taught courses in Hong Kong and Melbourne, and is also a research fellow at the Centre for Private Law at the University of Hong Kong. In the context of an exchange program between Melbourne Law School and Max Planck Law, he conducted research on state immunity at the Institute in April and May 2026.
Lui has already published several works, including books and journal articles, in the fields of private international law (PIL) and arbitration. In his dissertation project, he reconceptualises state immunity—traditionally treated as a doctrine of public international law—as a problem of PIL. “I want to show that state immunity, as it is practised today, is best understood and analysed within the broader frameworks of jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of court judgments and arbitral awards. Through examining the foundations and limits of state immunity, I hope to offer greater conceptual clarity to its contemporary application through PIL.”
Another focus of his research is the development of PIL in Asia. “There are areas of Asian PIL for which Western literature lacks helpful answers. As examples one can point to interregional conflict-of-law rules within China and conflict-of-law issues arising in the highly pluralistic Asian family law regimes.” According to Lui , conflict-of-law solutions are needed that adequately address the specific political, social, and cultural contexts of Asia. “The newly emerging Asian codifications in PIL, as well as the growing body of Asian comparative material and scholarly literature, play an important role in this regard.”
In Hamburg, Lui was able to intensify his analysis in both of these areas. “I am very happy to have had the opportunity to conduct research here. Before I came to the Institute, I had already heard a lot about the library. The selection of literature and resources I found here is truly impressive. I was also able to exchange ideas with staff researchers and other visiting scholars, which was equally valuable for my work.”
Wilson conducts his research in his three native languages, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Also, he has acquired proficiency in other European languages, including French and German. He has long been interested in the intersection of law and language. After completing his law degree, he therefore went on to earn a master’s degree in linguistics, philology, and phonetics. “Law is created, interpreted and applied through language. The way we express legal concepts can decisively influence how disputes are framed, argued, and resolved,” says Wilson, who also teaches courses on legal language. “Hong Kong’s bilingual legal system gives rise to difficult questions about how legal concepts are translated and adapted across English and Chinese. These issues provide me with constant academic inspiration.”
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Marlena Staak
