Dr Bob Zhao

Biography

Dr Xiaobo (Bob) Zhao is currently a senior lecturer in Law at the School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ). He is teaching across a range of courses including Australian Tort Law, Media Law and Environmental Law related courses.His student-centred pedagogy aims to scaffold first year law students to cultivate early independence in their study of law. At UniSQ, Dr Zhao has developed 5 innovative elective courses for undergraduates (LLBs) and postgraduates (JDs) since 2016, including LAW8713 Sustainable Environmental Governance, LAW8714 Water Resources Law, LAW8752 Sustainable Development Law Project, LAW3477 Chinese Law and Society and LAW3484 Media Law.

Dr Zhao is a leading expert in environmental law with a national and international recognition, his research interest focuses on climate change litigation, frontier issues of Chinese environmental law, contaminated land law and Australian tort law. Dr Zhao has published intensively in the above areas. Dr Zhao is the author or co-author of the following law books:

(1) Contemporary Australian Tort Law (with Kyriakakis Joanna; Popa Tina et al, by Cambridge University Press, 1st edition 2019; 2nd edition 2024), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009348782 (2nd ed), ISBN: 9781108626255;

(2) Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China (with Prof Xi Wang & Prof Noeleen McNamara (ed.), by Springer, 2023, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26526-6), ISBN: 978-3-031-26525-9;

(3) Foreign Environmental Law (with Prof Shuyi Wang et al, China Social Sciences Press, 2023, ISBN: 978-7-5227-2220-7;

(4) Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China: Lessons Learned from the US and UK (1st edition, 2013; 2nd edition, 2019, by Springer); DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-59557-2 (2nd edition);

(5) On contaminated land legislation in Japan (《日本土壤污染防治立法研究》, Law Press China, 2018, ISBN: 7519719510;

(6) The Trans-Pacific Partnership: a quest for a twenty-first century trade agreement (English - Chinese translation, Lim, C. L., Elms, Deborah K. and Low, Patrick (ed.), Cambridge University Press, with Dr Lingling He, Law Press China, 2016. ISBN: 9787511892928.

Dr Zhao’s monograph ‘Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China: Lessons Learned from the US and UK’ is held by 378 libraries worldwide, including Harvard Law School Library, Yale University, MIT, Imperial College London (WorldCat). It is also the recommended reading (monograph) for global contaminated land law in the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Law (Lees et al, Oxford University Press, 2019). His journal article ‘Analysis on the Exception Clauses of CERCLA with Referential Experience for China’s Legislation’ ranked as the top 5 most-cited law papers of the CSSCI social science journal Humanities & Social Sciences Journal of Hainan University (IF 1.46) since 1983.

Dr Zhao’s research has attracted competitive funding from various organisations, including the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the Chinese Law Society, the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Government, and the Chinese Ministry of Justice. At UniSQ, he served as the chief investigator for the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Joint Action Program 2023: 'A Comparative Study of Legal Pathways to Secure the Target of Net Zero Carbon Emissions in China and Australia.' Dr Zhao is the co-applicant and co-investigator (with Professor Wenping Ye), for the Chinese National Social Science Fund Project in 2023: ‘Research on the Allocation of Environmental Judicial Power from the Perspective of Environmental Governance Modernization’, Project Number 23BFX096, where he leads the sub-project on environmental litigation. He was the co-investigator for the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Foundation Program ‘Research on Legal Issues of Implementing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in China After 2012’, with Professor Xiaoyi Jiang et al, Project No.11YJC820045, certification No. 2016JXZ0371. Dr Zhao has also led several competitive research programs in his previous appointment at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SHUFE), including the Pujiang Scholar research grant 2013 (Project No. 13PJC058); the Chinese Law Society Fund project 2013: Towards Sustainable Ecological Remediation, Project No. CLS CD217; and the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) Program 2013-2014, Comparative Study of Contaminated Land Legislation, Project No. 2013 [1792].

Dr Zhao has served as a Steering Committee member for the international legal symposium 'Environment and Human Rights: Legal Paradigms Symposium', hosted by the School of Law and Justice UniSQ in 2022. He has been invited to present at esteemed domestic and international conferences, such as the Shanghai Judicial Forum on Frontier Issues 2022 & The Sixth Chongming World-Class Ecological Island Judicial Symposium in 2022, the Environmental Law Study Forum of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law (keynote speaker) in 2019, and the 13th Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Conference in 2016.

Dr Zhao has been an active contributor to national and international environmental organisations. He has been the academic committee member of the Academy of Environmental Law of IUCN and the Chinese Society for Environmental Science since 2012. He is the senior research fellow of the Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL) WHU and the ESG Policy and Law Research Center SHUFE. Dr Zhao is dedicated to fostering the next generation of researchers in his field. He is the principal supervisors and associate supervisors for PhD students, Master in Laws (LLMs) and Juris Doctors (JDs), with more than 15 successful completion over the past decade. He also chaired the panel of Confirmation of Candidature (CoC) for PhD candidate at UniSQ. Dr Zhao is a regular reviewer for prestigious law publishers, including Cambridge, Springer, Wiley, MDPI and Brill, to review book proposals and journal articles.

Employment

Expertise

Comparative Environmental Law, Tort Law, Climate Change Litigation, Comparative Environmental Law, Chinese Environmental Law, Contaminated Land Law

Teaching

LAW1126 Torts

LAW5126 Advanced Torts

LAW3484 Media Law

LAW6484 Advanced Media Law

LAW8717 International Environmental Law

LAW8713, Sustainable Environmtal Governance

LAW8752, Sustainable Development Law Project

Fields of Research

• 480799. Public law not elsewhere classified
• 489999. Other law and legal studies not elsewhere classified

Professional Membership