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I obtained my MPhil and PhD in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, an LLB from the University of London, and an LLM from Yale Law School. Prior to joining ³Ô¹ÏÍø in 2022, I was the Head of the School of English at the University of Hong Kong, where I also previously served as the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts. My teaching and research span the disciplines of law and linguistics. 

• Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship (2021-2022)
• Faculty Research Output Prize (2020)
• Luce East Asia Fellow, National Humanities Center (2020-2021)
• Outstanding Teaching Award (Team) – Leader of the BA&LLB curriculum team, awarded by the Teaching Excellence Award Scheme, HKU (2018-2019)
• Outstanding Young Researcher Award – awarded by the University Research Committee, HKU (2017-2018)
• Universitas 21 Fellowship (2016-2017)
• Visiting Scholar, Harvard Yenching Institute (2013-2014)

Leung, J. (2022) Shortcuts and Shortfalls in Meta’s Content Moderation Practices: A Glimpse from its Oversight Board’s First Year of Operation 1(2): 55-73. Comparative Law and Language.

Leung, J. (2021) The Audience Problem in Online Speech Crimes. Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law 9(2): 189-234.

Liu, Y. and Leung, J. (2021) Corpus Insights into the Harmonization of Commercial Media in China: News Coverage of Migrant Worker Issues as a Case Study. Discourse, Context & Media 41.

Ng, E., Leung, J. and Looper, K. (2021) Public Interpretation Services for Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong. Equal Opportunities Commission. Available at

Leung, J. (2021) The Life and Death of a Protest Anthem at the Frontier of a New Cold War. Law Text Culture Vol. 24.

Yeung, M. and Leung, J. (2020) Litigating without speaking legalese: the case of unrepresented litigants in Hong Kong. The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law 26(2): 231-256.  

Chan, R. and Leung, J. (2020) Why are lexical tones difficult to learn? Insights from the incidental learning of tone-segment connections. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Volume 42, Issue 1, pp. 33-59.  

Leung, J. (2019) . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Leung, J. (2019) Interpretive Violence and the ‘Nationalization’ of Hong Kong Law: Notes on the Oath-taking Controversy. Law and Literature. Vol 31, Issue 2, 221-238.

Leung, J. (2019) Does the World Need More Canada? Legal Multilingualism and Strategic Pluralism. Sherbrooke Law Review / Revue de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Volume 47(no. 2-3): 193-226.

Leung, J. and Durant, A. (Eds.) (2018) . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chan, R. and Leung, J. (2018) Implicit Knowledge of Lexical Stress Rules: Evidence from the Combined Use of Subjective and Objective Awareness Measures. Applied Psycholinguistics 39(1): 37-66.

Leung, J. (2018) Language Rights. Monika Rathert & Jacqueline Visconti (eds.) . Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter. 54-82.

Leung, J. (2017) Publicity Stunts, Power Play, and Information Warfare in Mediatised Public Confessions. Law and Humanities 11(1): 82-101.

Durant, A. and Leung, J. (2017) Pragmatics in legal interpretation. In Barron, A., and Gu, Y. and Steen, G. (eds.) . Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge. 535-549.

Yeung, M. and Leung, J. (2017) “You have to teach the judge what to do”: Semiotic gaps between unrepresented litigants and the common law. Semiotica 216: 363-382.

Durant, A. and Leung, J. (2016) . London and New York: Routledge.

Leung, J. (2016) Negotiating Language Status in Multilingual Jurisdictions: Rhetoric and Reality. Semiotica 209: 371-396.

Yeung, M. and Leung, J. (2015) An empirical study of lay comprehension of Chinese legal reference texts in Hong Kong. International Journal of Speech, Language and Law 22(1): 79-110.

Leung, J. (2015) Lay Litigation Behaviour in Postcolonial Hong Kong Courtrooms.     

Language and Law / Linguagem e Direito 2(1): 32-52.

Yeung, M. and Leung, J. (2015) Removing linguistic barriers to justice: a study of official reference texts for unrepresented litigants in Hong Kong. International Journal of the Semiotics of Law 28(1): 135-153.

Leung, J. and Williams, J. (2014) Cross-Linguistic Differences in Implicit Language Learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 36(4): 733-755.

Wan, M. and Leung, J. (2014) Introduction. Law Text Culture 18: 1-5.

Leung, J. (2014) Critique of Law in a Martial Arts Thriller: the Peril of Emotions, Limits of Rationality, and Pluralistic Laws. Law Text Culture 18: 56-81.

Leung, J. (2014) The Object of Fidelity in Translating Multilingual Legislation. Semiotica 201: 223- 238.

Chan, R. and Leung, J. (2014) Implicit learning of L2 word stress regularities. Second Language Research. 30(4): 463-484.

Leung, J. (2014) Translation Equivalence as a Legal Fiction. In Sin, KK, Wagner, A., and Cheng, L. (eds.) . Farnham: Ashgate. 57-69.

Xia, X. and Leung, J. (2014) L1-based prototypicality effects in L2 vocabulary learning. In Filipović, Luna and Pütz, Martin (eds.), . Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 287-308.

Leung, J. (2013) Cross-Jurisdiction Appropriation of the Equal Authenticity Principle. Journal of Legal Pluralism, 45(2): 209-226.

Leung, J. (2012) On the Edge of Reason: Law at the Borderline. In Wan, M. (Ed.) . Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge. 128-141.

Xia, X. and Leung, J. (2012) Category typicality effects in foreign language acquisition: The role of L1-based typicality in L2 semantic organization. In Tizón-Couto, D., Tizón-Couto, B., Pastor-Gómez, I. and Rodriguez-Puente, P. (eds), . Bern: Peter Lang. 247-278.

Leung, J. (2012) Judicial Discourse in Cantonese Courtrooms in Postcolonial Hong Kong: The Judge as a Godfather, Scholar, Educator and Scolding Parent. International Journal of Speech, Language and Law. 19(2): 239-261.

Leung, J. and Williams, J. (2012) Constraints on Implicit Learning of Grammatical Form-Meaning Connections. Language Learning, 62(2): 634-662.

Leung, J. (2012) Statutory Interpretation in Multilingual Jurisdictions: Typology and Trends. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(5): 481-495.

Leung, J. and Wan, M. (2012) Constructing the Meaning of Obscenity: an Empirical Investigation and an Experientialist Account. International Journal of the Semiotics of Law, 25(3): 415-43.

Wan, M. and Leung, J. (2012) A tale of many newspapers: perversion, criminality, and scopophilia in Hong Kong’s reportage on the Edison Chen scandal. In Wagner, A. & Sherwin, R. K. (Eds.), . Dordrecht: Springer. 873-889.

Leung, J. and Williams, J. (2011) The Implicit Learning of Mappings between Forms and Contextually-Derived Meanings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33(1): 33-55.

• Equal Opportunities Commission (2018-2020)
• General Research Fund, Research Grants Council (2017-2021)
• General Research Fund, Research Grants Council (2012-2015)
• The Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom) and the Research Grants Council (Hong Kong) Joint Research Scheme (2009-2012)

“Lost in Citations” Podcast (2022)

Panel of Judges, Student of the Year Awards 2021/22 for the Linguist (English) category, South China Morning Post (2021-2022)

“Language, Law, and the Limits of Digital Autonomy” Podcast. (2021)

Guest post: COVID-sensitive kanji. Center for Intercultural Dialogue. Available from:  (2021)

CNN: “US lawmakers want to stop calling Xi Jinping a President. But will he care?”  (September 2020)

DigiSVET: “The challenges of free speech are even greater during a pandemic: Is it permissible to write on social media that covid-19 is just another flu?” (Slovenian) (July 2020)