Taisu Zhang
I work on comparative legal history, focusing on property rights in Modern China and Early Modern Western Europe. My dissertation will most likely explore land transaction institutions in the late-Qing and early Republican eras, comparing them with relevant laws and customs in 16th and 17th Century England. I hope to uncover some of their sociopolitical and cultural roots, while also identifying their basic economic consequences. Outside of history, I also work on theories of comparative law, property law, and modern Chinese law. Both my B.A. (History and Mathematics) and J.D. are from Yale, where I have spent most of my adult life. Peter Perdue is my advisor in the History Department.
