Peter A Allard School of Law

Faculty Profile: Professor Li-Wen Lin

Liwen Photo

Dr. Li-Wen Lin is an Assistant Professor at the Allard School of Law, where her research and teaching interests focus on comparative corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship, and empirical analysis of law. Dr. Lin’s research has been profiled in international news media such as the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and Radio Free Asia. She is an invited researcher at CRETA of National Taiwan University. Prior to entering academia, Professor Lin was a consultant at a Forbes Global 2000 company.

What do you enjoy most about teaching and academia?

I think academic teaching is probably the only profession in the world where you are paid to learn new knowledge and to engage in thought-provoking conversations with smart people. Learning and sharing new ideas is super fun. I see not only research but also teaching as creative work. I love transforming complex materials into simple easily accessible information. I teach Business Organizations, which is a large subject. I also teach Law and Empirical Evidence, which is a challenging subject to teach as it has a strong component of statistics and most lawyers are uncomfortable to deal with it. Over the years, I have been really enjoying to know that students love the way of how I have made the courses accessible, interesting and useful.

How did you first become interested in comparative corporate governance and corporate social responsibility?

My interests in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance originated from my work experience prior to entering academia. I was an in-house consultant in a large multinational company whose labour practices were often studied in the textbooks of corporate social responsibility. My experience gave me insights to offer perspectives somewhat different from what was commonly said in academic literature. That sparked my interest to write a law dissertation on CSR and eventually led to the pursuit of a PhD in sociology, seeking to explore beyond legal methods. I am interested in economic sociology, examining how different societies arrange their economic relations. I draw on sociological theories and methods to shed light on why and how different jurisdictions have different corporate law arrangements.          

What research topics are currently of particular interest to you?

My current research focuses on recent legal innovations of corporate social responsibility around the world.  The legal innovations range from global supply chain practices, information disclosure, corporate governance structure, directors’ fiduciary duties, to general CSR mandates. I examine the various practices in Canada, USA, France, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, etc. With my extensive academic research, I am planning to write a CSR legislation guidebook for policymakers’ reference.

I am also venturing into the area of entrepreneurship law. I am currently investigating the role of law in promoting entrepreneurship. I explore how China incubates its tech startups and how its legal norms differ from Silicon Valley’s. I am now collaborating with my colleague Professor Camden Hutchison at Allard to investigate whether and how law may promote or hinder Vancouver’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Our long-term goal is to empirically identify some meaningful legal factors helpful to the growth of entrepreneurship.       

What advice would you give students from the Allard School of Law entering the legal profession?

Don’t be tempted to just take courses that help your “marketability.” Try to take some courses that might not look useful for your current career plan. It is very likely that such not-so-useful courses will be part of your best memories at law school.

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