Dissertation Title: Divergent Organizational Changes in Legal Institutions: The Development of Specialized Trial Organizations in China

Committee: Andrew Abbott (chair), Marco Garrido, Tom Ginsburg (Law School), Side Liu (Faculty of law, the University of Hong Kong)

My dissertation examines the divergent organizational development of specialized trial organizations (STOs), including specialized tribunals and specialized courts, in the fields of environmental law and intellectual property law (IP) in China. Specifically, the study explores how STOs in two legal fields operate to address the interaction between legal and scientific knowledge related to environmental protection and IP rights. It investigates how these practices, as a form of professional legal knowledge production, influence the emergence and changes of STO organizational form within these two legal fields. The findings from these inquires shed light on China’s legal reforms aimed at enhancing judicial specialization since 2014 under Xi Jinping Administration. Additionally, they offer new insights into the dynamics of judicial decision-making that shape changes of organizational forms within legal institutions over time.