Dr Yonit Manor-Percival

Dr. Percival specialises in the interface between law, society and corporations within the framework of the global political economy, with a focus on the People’s Republic of China (PRC). She completed her PhD research in international investment protection law at Queen Mary University of London. Her thesis employs a multidisciplinary approach, including critical and post-colonial theory, political economy and legal analysis, to unpack the PRC ‘harmonious world’ paradigm. The thesis examines this paradigm through the lens of the global and China’s own bilateral investment treaties program, considering the way it both challenges as well as reinforces the global neoliberal order.

Having graduated in modern Mandarin from Westminster University, she was awarded the British Council Scholarship (now known as the British Chevening Scholarship) to undertake postgraduate study in economics at Beijing University. Dr. Percival is fluent in Mandarin. Previously, she practiced as a solicitor in the City of London and Shanghai, specializing in international investment and trade law with emphasis on Chinese corporations in relation to their overseas activities. She is an arbitrator on the panel of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission.

Dr. Percival has taught on topics that include English company law and multinational enterprises (MNEs), Chinese political economy in historical perspective, bilateral investment treaties and state-investor arbitration, MNEs and the law, MNEs and human rights.

Current research interests include Chinese political economy and discourse, globalisation, international investment agreements, neoliberalism and its dynamic of power and resistance, and the interface between law and MNEs.