Lecture: How has China historically approached questions of international law, and what does this suggest about its future role in shaping the international legal system? 

China’s emergence as an economic giant and potential superpower affords it the ability and motive to be a significant determinant of the international rules-based system that underpins global peace and prosperity. This role merits a re-examination of China’s own early history with international law, including its initial encounters with Western conceptions of international law and China's adaptation to this system.

This lecture will review historic Chinese attitudes towards international law and assess how these have evolved and adapted in modern times. By examining this history it will also attempt to shed light on China’s future approach to international law and how it may shape the international legal system to come. 

Bio: George Hampton is a New Zealand diplomat and the Senior Policy Adviser to the New Zealand Mission to the United Nations in New York. He previously served at the UN Security Council as a Peace and Security Expert and as Campaign Adviser to former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark during her candidacy for UN Secretary-General. 

Until 2014 Mr Hampton was Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Vienna and Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of New Zealand to Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. He was previously a political advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister and Private Secretary to New Zealand’s Cabinet Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control. His work in the New Zealand foreign service has included responsibility for Asia and Pacific affairs and international security.  

Mr Hampton was named one of 20 young strategists globally in Geo-economics and Geo-security by Johns Hopkins University and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He was selected by the New Zealand Leadership Institute as a Future Leader. In 2017 he was selected as a Carnegie New Leader by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He was previously selected as a New Zealand Future Leader by the New Zealand Leadership Institute.

Mr Hampton was a Fulbright Scholar to Columbia University, from which he graduated with a Master’s Degree in international economic policy and management. He holds Bachelor’s Degrees in law and history, and a First Class Honor’s Degree in diplomacy and international relations from the University of Canterbury.