Dr. Sida Liu

Biography

Professor Sida Liu received his LL.B. degree from Peking University Law School and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. He joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto in 2016, where he teaches sociology of law, while also holding a non-budgetary cross-appointment at the Faculty of Law. His research interests encompass the sociology of law, organizations, professions, criminal justice, globalization, and social theory. Liu has conducted extensive empirical research on China's legal reform, the legal profession, the globalization of corporate law firms, political mobilization of criminal defense lawyers, feminization of judges, and career mobility among law practitioners. His current project examines China's influence on the legal professions in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition to his empirical work, Liu writes on socio-legal theory and general social theory, particularly drawing from the traditions of Georg Simmel and the Chicago School of sociology. He is the author of the book 'Criminal Defense in China: Politics and Lawyers' Work' (with Terence C. Halliday, Cambridge University Press, 2016) and has published many articles in leading law and social science journals including the American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Theory, and Law & Society Review. Liu is a Faculty Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an affiliated scholar at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University School of Law, and the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during 2016-2017.

Research Interests