Urania
@uraniachiu.bsky.social
Socio-legal academic in criminal and medical law, judicial language and discourse; currently looking at the dis/ordered offender in common law sentencing. Previously: LSE, HKU, Exeter College Oxford. She/they. CV and publications: www.uraniachiu.com
Now published for those who want to read and perhaps build upon my analysis of 47 Democrats and national security adjudication in HK. Though it's been a year since the judgment, my conclusions about HK courts' 'national security first' approach and the HKSAR as an 'insecurity state' remain true ...
December 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Now published for those who want to read and perhaps build upon my analysis of 47 Democrats and national security adjudication in HK. Though it's been a year since the judgment, my conclusions about HK courts' 'national security first' approach and the HKSAR as an 'insecurity state' remain true ...
Reposted by Urania
The tragic fire in Tai Po has deeper roots: Hong Kong's market-driven, capitalist system that promotes predatory business interests over working people's safety. Read our latest on how Hongkongers are supporting each other through mass mutual aid:
lausancollective.com/2025/tai-po-...
lausancollective.com/2025/tai-po-...
Tai Po in flames - Lausan
How Hongkongers are reviving mass action and mutual aid in the wake of the deadly fires in Tai Po.
lausancollective.com
November 30, 2025 at 5:53 AM
The tragic fire in Tai Po has deeper roots: Hong Kong's market-driven, capitalist system that promotes predatory business interests over working people's safety. Read our latest on how Hongkongers are supporting each other through mass mutual aid:
lausancollective.com/2025/tai-po-...
lausancollective.com/2025/tai-po-...
In 2018, I conducted an empirical study of the law & practice of ‘conditional discharge’ (CD) for psy patients in HK, arguing that it grants overbroad powers to professionals with few safeguards. 7 years later, there is finally judicial affirmation of the right to access to justice for CD subjects:
Urania Chiu—Blog: Revisiting conditional discharge
Urania Chiu—Socio-legal academic in criminal and medical law, judicial language and discourse.
www.uraniachiu.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
In 2018, I conducted an empirical study of the law & practice of ‘conditional discharge’ (CD) for psy patients in HK, arguing that it grants overbroad powers to professionals with few safeguards. 7 years later, there is finally judicial affirmation of the right to access to justice for CD subjects:
Reposted by Urania
Labour's anti-asylum policies are already fundamentally inhumane and discriminatory. Applying them retrospectively is pure cruelty though. It serves absolutely no purpose. Meanwhile it will increase the costs and bureaucracy of an already dysfunctional Home Office.
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
November 24, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Labour's anti-asylum policies are already fundamentally inhumane and discriminatory. Applying them retrospectively is pure cruelty though. It serves absolutely no purpose. Meanwhile it will increase the costs and bureaucracy of an already dysfunctional Home Office.
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
Reposted by Urania
Remember, while the UK government prattled on about 'cancel culture' they cultivated the real threats to academic freedom. Forcing universities to be dependent on internationalization through broken funding models and failing academic staff.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show - BBC News
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Remember, while the UK government prattled on about 'cancel culture' they cultivated the real threats to academic freedom. Forcing universities to be dependent on internationalization through broken funding models and failing academic staff.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
Reposted by Urania
We’re so excited to be interviewed for @oxfordcsls.bsky.social’s “Talking about Methods” podcast. We discussed assembling a global collection that foregrounds the possibilities, tensions and hopes of re-writing judgments from queer and other critical perspectives.
Listen to and share the podcast. 📻
Listen to and share the podcast. 📻
Nuno Ferreira and Senthorun Raj on The Queer Judgements Project
open.spotify.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:35 PM
We’re so excited to be interviewed for @oxfordcsls.bsky.social’s “Talking about Methods” podcast. We discussed assembling a global collection that foregrounds the possibilities, tensions and hopes of re-writing judgments from queer and other critical perspectives.
Listen to and share the podcast. 📻
Listen to and share the podcast. 📻
If anyone is curious about the quality of 'debate' preceding the vote on HK's same-sex partnership registration bill (which seeks to provide very limited rights to a very limited group of same-sex couples):
Junius Ho, a lawmaker known for his fiery statements against LGBTQ rights, was among the majority of lawmakers who voted against the same-sex partnerships bill.
In full: tinyurl.com/22mq3d9s.
Photos: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
In full: tinyurl.com/22mq3d9s.
Photos: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
September 11, 2025 at 9:49 AM
If anyone is curious about the quality of 'debate' preceding the vote on HK's same-sex partnership registration bill (which seeks to provide very limited rights to a very limited group of same-sex couples):
Also fresh off the press is this report on (the failure of) HK's same-sex partnership reg bill by @jessiepang.bsky.social @reuters.com, featuring a very brief comment by me to the effect that what happens next is a political (between the Gov and LegCo) rather than legal question (for the judiciary).
How significant is Hong Kong's veto of its same-sex partnership bill?
Hong Kong's Legislative Council on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed limited legal rights for same-sex couples who had registered their marriage or relationship overseas, drawing disappointment from LGBTQ groups and activists.
www.reuters.com
September 11, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Also fresh off the press is this report on (the failure of) HK's same-sex partnership reg bill by @jessiepang.bsky.social @reuters.com, featuring a very brief comment by me to the effect that what happens next is a political (between the Gov and LegCo) rather than legal question (for the judiciary).
Fresh off the press on Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies @oxfordcsls.bsky.social—my review of Cressida Auckland's monograph, Values and Disorder in Mental Capacity Law (OUP 2024):
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/values-in-mental-capacity-law/
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/values-in-mental-capacity-law/
Putting ‘Values’ Back in Mental Capacity Law - Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
In this post for A Good Read, Dr Urania Chiu reviews Cressida Auckland’s monograph, Values and Disorder in Mental Capacity Law (Oxford University Press, 2024).
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk
September 11, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Fresh off the press on Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies @oxfordcsls.bsky.social—my review of Cressida Auckland's monograph, Values and Disorder in Mental Capacity Law (OUP 2024):
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/values-in-mental-capacity-law/
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/values-in-mental-capacity-law/
Reposted by Urania
Had a great time talking to Linda Mulchay of Oxford Centre for Sociolegal Studies about Law, Arab Drama and Translation
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/looking-at-l...
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/looking-at-l...
Looking at Law and Legal Phenomena through the Lens of Arab Cinema and Drama - Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Dr Fatima Ahdash (Hamad Bin Khalifa University) about looking at law through the lens of Arab cinema and drama.
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk
September 10, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Had a great time talking to Linda Mulchay of Oxford Centre for Sociolegal Studies about Law, Arab Drama and Translation
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/looking-at-l...
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/looking-at-l...
Sharing this again as appeals by the prosecution and multiple defendants are being heard this week.
I've written—a while ago now—a comment on the '47 Democrats' verdict and sentencing judgment, which will appear in the forthcoming edition of Journal of Criminal Law. My usual focus on judicial interpretation and the *discourses* they draw on re 'constantly arising security risks and threats’. AOM:
(PDF) Taking a 'common law' approach to national law: National security adjudication and sentencing in Hong Kong after '47 Democrats'
PDF | In June 2020, the National Security Law took effect in Hong Kong. A sui generis piece of legislation which was directly promulgated by Beijing in... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
July 14, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Sharing this again as appeals by the prosecution and multiple defendants are being heard this week.
Found out recently that my lead-authored work on sentencing under the National Security Law has been cited by UKVI in the country information note on HK for the purpose of assessing asylum claims. Things are pretty grim at the moment but it's heartening to see that the work you do have real impact.
Country policy and information note: Hong Kong national security legislation, China, April 2025
www.gov.uk
July 7, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Found out recently that my lead-authored work on sentencing under the National Security Law has been cited by UKVI in the country information note on HK for the purpose of assessing asylum claims. Things are pretty grim at the moment but it's heartening to see that the work you do have real impact.
I've written—a while ago now—a comment on the '47 Democrats' verdict and sentencing judgment, which will appear in the forthcoming edition of Journal of Criminal Law. My usual focus on judicial interpretation and the *discourses* they draw on re 'constantly arising security risks and threats’. AOM:
(PDF) Taking a 'common law' approach to national law: National security adjudication and sentencing in Hong Kong after '47 Democrats'
PDF | In June 2020, the National Security Law took effect in Hong Kong. A sui generis piece of legislation which was directly promulgated by Beijing in... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
June 9, 2025 at 7:05 PM
I've written—a while ago now—a comment on the '47 Democrats' verdict and sentencing judgment, which will appear in the forthcoming edition of Journal of Criminal Law. My usual focus on judicial interpretation and the *discourses* they draw on re 'constantly arising security risks and threats’. AOM:
Reposted by Urania
Biological sex is not visible. It cannot be determined solely by visible markers. Defining sex by biology is a licence for the worst forms of racism, misogyny and bullying.
April 18, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Biological sex is not visible. It cannot be determined solely by visible markers. Defining sex by biology is a licence for the worst forms of racism, misogyny and bullying.
Reposted by Urania
My article is finally out in the Human Rights Law Review (part of a symposium on Next-Generation Thinking on the CRPD) where I argue that the CRPD is a queer document!
'The CRPD is Here and queer! A lesson in queering human rights law' academic.oup.com/hrlr/article...
'The CRPD is Here and queer! A lesson in queering human rights law' academic.oup.com/hrlr/article...
The CRPD is Here and queer! A lesson in queering human rights law
Abstract. This article argues that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a queer document. The Convention tackles the issues
academic.oup.com
April 15, 2025 at 3:16 PM
My article is finally out in the Human Rights Law Review (part of a symposium on Next-Generation Thinking on the CRPD) where I argue that the CRPD is a queer document!
'The CRPD is Here and queer! A lesson in queering human rights law' academic.oup.com/hrlr/article...
'The CRPD is Here and queer! A lesson in queering human rights law' academic.oup.com/hrlr/article...
Working on my presentation for the @slsauk.bsky.social conference next week—excited to talk about my PhD research for the 1st time since completion AND for the 1st time to criminal lawyers. Looking forward to discussing the role of disorder in sentencing and what 'abnormality' means in criminal law.
April 12, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Working on my presentation for the @slsauk.bsky.social conference next week—excited to talk about my PhD research for the 1st time since completion AND for the 1st time to criminal lawyers. Looking forward to discussing the role of disorder in sentencing and what 'abnormality' means in criminal law.
Reposted by Urania
Thrilled!
The Morrigan Blog - a feminist blog that looks at exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality articulate with questions of law and justice - is up and running!
Thks @illanwall.bsky.social for the set up!
#FeministLegalWork #Feminism #LegalFeminism
Pls repost!
dflw.ie/how-to-join/
The Morrigan Blog - a feminist blog that looks at exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality articulate with questions of law and justice - is up and running!
Thks @illanwall.bsky.social for the set up!
#FeministLegalWork #Feminism #LegalFeminism
Pls repost!
dflw.ie/how-to-join/
The Morrigan Blog - Doing Feminist Legal Work
Named for the mythic Irish triple goddess, The Morrigan is a feminist blog, dedicated to exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality articulate with
dflw.ie
January 23, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Thrilled!
The Morrigan Blog - a feminist blog that looks at exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality articulate with questions of law and justice - is up and running!
Thks @illanwall.bsky.social for the set up!
#FeministLegalWork #Feminism #LegalFeminism
Pls repost!
dflw.ie/how-to-join/
The Morrigan Blog - a feminist blog that looks at exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality articulate with questions of law and justice - is up and running!
Thks @illanwall.bsky.social for the set up!
#FeministLegalWork #Feminism #LegalFeminism
Pls repost!
dflw.ie/how-to-join/
Reposted by Urania
This article has been a long time in the crafting.
It is much of what I have to say about why we, as humans, make law.
And what we expect of it.
Thanks to the many readers and reviewers who gave it their time and the excellent @esclh.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
It is much of what I have to say about why we, as humans, make law.
And what we expect of it.
Thanks to the many readers and reviewers who gave it their time and the excellent @esclh.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Why the rule of law? A historical perspective
Why do we expect law to bring about better and more just societies? Around the world, systems of accountability are weak and dictators find ways to avoid the constraints of both national and intern...
www.tandfonline.com
January 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
This article has been a long time in the crafting.
It is much of what I have to say about why we, as humans, make law.
And what we expect of it.
Thanks to the many readers and reviewers who gave it their time and the excellent @esclh.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
It is much of what I have to say about why we, as humans, make law.
And what we expect of it.
Thanks to the many readers and reviewers who gave it their time and the excellent @esclh.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Urania
What can de-colonial border thinking tell us about the complex and contested border between mental health and capacity law? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
No man's land: Troubling the borders of mental health and capacity law
Border thinking is a de-colonial strategy that interrogates epistemic and biopolitical aspects of borders, and examines everyday bordering practices. …
www.sciencedirect.com
January 7, 2025 at 9:57 AM
What can de-colonial border thinking tell us about the complex and contested border between mental health and capacity law? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Just got my 'beg for the degree' letter so here goes: I'm done w/ the DPhil! The long (& corporate) post is on LinkedIn, but I thought I'd also share this here, w/ my acknowledgments, because I really want to highlight the importance of institutional & community support in my being able to do this.
December 19, 2024 at 7:45 PM
Just got my 'beg for the degree' letter so here goes: I'm done w/ the DPhil! The long (& corporate) post is on LinkedIn, but I thought I'd also share this here, w/ my acknowledgments, because I really want to highlight the importance of institutional & community support in my being able to do this.
Women have always been present but are only recognised when they're politically useful. The 2019 MeToo rally was full of 'we need to protect OUR women' rhetoric and when women have spoken up re sexual violence WITHIN the movement they're largely ignored because of the 'need to keep a united front'.
Back in HK in August 2019, there was one whole rally that was predominantly women, with victims of sexual assaults - allegedly at the hands of the police - sharing their expeirences. Women have always been present in the square.
This picket, designed by the Feminist-Queer Network for Saving Democracy, reads, “Women have always been present in the square.”
December 15, 2024 at 10:23 AM
Women have always been present but are only recognised when they're politically useful. The 2019 MeToo rally was full of 'we need to protect OUR women' rhetoric and when women have spoken up re sexual violence WITHIN the movement they're largely ignored because of the 'need to keep a united front'.
Reposted by Urania
Really enjoyed doing this podcast with the wonderful Linda Mulcahy for the Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies Talking about Methods series frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/disability-s... #AcademicSky
Learning from Disability Scholarship - Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Dr Flora Renz (Kent Law School) about learning from disability scholarship in socio-legal research. Flora invites listeners t...
frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk
December 12, 2024 at 12:33 PM
Really enjoyed doing this podcast with the wonderful Linda Mulcahy for the Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies Talking about Methods series frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/disability-s... #AcademicSky
Reposted by Urania
"contextualize our critique of China's further crackdown on Hong Kong activists in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians ... a forceful recognition of the US' hypocrisy that sees officials condemning the kangaroo courts of HK while supplying an endless stream of arms to Israel"
Read our collective analysis of the trial of the "HK 47":
lausancollective.com/2024/mass-ja...
lausancollective.com/2024/mass-ja...
Mass jailing of Hong Kong's pro-democracy candidates shows Beijing's fear of mass militancy - Lausan
Beijing cannot tolerate those who expose the fraudulence and hypocrisy of its sham rule of law.
lausancollective.com
November 29, 2024 at 3:45 AM
"contextualize our critique of China's further crackdown on Hong Kong activists in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians ... a forceful recognition of the US' hypocrisy that sees officials condemning the kangaroo courts of HK while supplying an endless stream of arms to Israel"
Reposted by Urania
The LGBTQ community in Hong Kong saw a landmark victory on Tuesday as the city's top court upheld housing and inheritance rights of same-sex married couples after government appeals against lower court rulings.
In full: https://buff.ly/41b86vM
Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
In full: https://buff.ly/41b86vM
Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
November 26, 2024 at 4:08 AM
The LGBTQ community in Hong Kong saw a landmark victory on Tuesday as the city's top court upheld housing and inheritance rights of same-sex married couples after government appeals against lower court rulings.
In full: https://buff.ly/41b86vM
Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
In full: https://buff.ly/41b86vM
Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP.
Finally the end to a...something week. Sharing one of my best photos, of Simpkin (Hertford cat) confronting Walter (Exeter) circa 2022, before the Exeter Library closed for renovation & when S regularly harrassed/visited W on his turf. Certainly one for the history books @catsofoxford.bsky.social
November 23, 2024 at 8:04 AM
Finally the end to a...something week. Sharing one of my best photos, of Simpkin (Hertford cat) confronting Walter (Exeter) circa 2022, before the Exeter Library closed for renovation & when S regularly harrassed/visited W on his turf. Certainly one for the history books @catsofoxford.bsky.social