Yucong Wang

Dr Yucong Wang is a researcher in international economic law and public international law. She examines opportunities to reduce the risk of investor-State disputes centred on the inherent tension between public and private rights. All States – especially Developing States – are increasingly reliant on foreign investment while also expanding their expectations of being able to legislate freely in ever more fields to advance public interests. Dr Wang examines challenging topic areas within international investment law, including the extent to which States may regulate in the fields of protection of human rights, public health and safety, cultural heritage, and terrestrial and marine environments, without being exposed to liability for indirect expropriation of foreign investments.

Yucong completed her LLB at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing in 2011. She has completed three postgraduate law degrees: LLM(Advanced) (European and International Business Law) at Leiden University (2012); LLM (International Economic and Business Law) at Kyushu University (2015); and an LLD at Kyushu University (2018). From 2013 to 2014 she was an administrator and research assistant at Zhejiang University School of Law in Hangzhou. Yucong moved to Australia in 2019 and taught for three years at the School of Law, University of Wollongong before joining University of Newcastle in 2023.

Yucong’s recent publications include ‘The Protection of Public Morals as an Exception to Indirect Expropriation: Opening the Floodgates to New, Eclectic Moral Crusades?’ in Melbourne Journal of International Law (2022); ‘Free Trade Agreements and Marine Species Sustainability: United States Files Environmental Complaint against Mexico to Protect Vanishing Vaquita’ in Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy (2022); and ‘Arbitral Procedure in Annex 3 of the London Protocol’ in Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (2022).