Lucas Christopher Brang | Historian and China expert

I am a historian of international law and diplomacy in East Asia, with a parallel focus on political and legal debates in contemporary China. My work bridges historical and present-day perspectives, exploring both long-term developments and current dynamics in Chinese and international politics.

Since September 2024, I have been a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Freiburg, where I teach in the Departments of Chinese Studies and Political Science. Before that, I spent over a decade at the University of Cologne, including as a Marie Curie global research fellow at the Graduate School for the Humanities. I have also held visiting positions at Columbia University in New York, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Göttingen, and the University of Tokyo, where I was a JSPS postdoctoral research fellow.

Trained in both Chinese studies and law, I have written extensively on the intersection of constitutionalism and political ideology in contemporary China. I am particularly interested in how legal debates in a one-party state evolve in response to shifting ideological and geopolitical environments—and how these factors are in turn used to justify restrictions on civil rights and the rule of law.

My historical research explores the development of international law and its influence on self-determination, economic integration, and armed conflict, from a global and comparative perspective. My current book project, tentatively titled The Rise and Decline of Chinese Legal Internationalism (1900–1960), offers a revisionist account of China’s role in shaping the modern international order.

I have also written for wider audiences on contemporary Chinese political discourse, including a recent essay in Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik that explores the global New Right and its connections to China. My commentary—such as on the influence of Carl Schmitt in China—has been cited in outlets like the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Beyond academia, I interned at the German Foreign Office in Berlin, focusing on cultural diplomacy, and have worked as a freelance translator from Chinese to German.

If you’re interested in my research or would like to connect for other reasons, please feel free to get in touch via the contact form.