Wu Liqi

Liqi Wu is a PhD student at SOAS, University of London, whose research lies at the intersection of climate change, human mobility, state obligations, and the capability approach. 

His work critically engages with the theoretical frameworks developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum to address the limitations of traditional redistributive justice. Rather than focusing solely on the formal allocation of rights or resources, his research explores how climate change affects individuals' substantive freedoms and real opportunities to make meaningful choices about whether to move or stay. He examines how international human rights law, and the climate regime should guide the interpretation of state obligations in building individuals’ capabilities to respond to environmental displacement and climate-induced migration, including through access to resources, protection from forced relocation, and legal pathways for cross-border mobility.  

Liqi holds an LLB from Hefei University of Technology (China), an MA from the University of Bristol (UK), and an LLM from Georgetown University (USA). His interest in climate-induced mobility began during his undergraduate studies and was further deepened through postgraduate research in international law and human rights.  Before beginning his PhD at SOAS, Liqi conducted a National Undergraduate Innovation Training Program in China, titled An Empirical Study of the Intellectual Property Protection Model for Intangible Cultural Heritage, under the supervision of Professor Wu Jiaojun. 

He has published two articles to complete this program: Protection and Reflection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China, Employee Law, ISSN 1008-9837, 2019 (01) and Intellectual Property Protection of Reproducible Intangible Cultural Heritage, China Academic Journals Full-text Database (Social Sciences), ISSN 1673- 176X, June 01, 2019.  He has contributed legal translations, commentary on current legal issues, and case analyses for the WeChat account: China America Law Review. He has also completed an internship at a large law firm in China.  Currently, Liqi is working on his PhD thesis, State Obligations on Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change: A Capability Approach.

• Climate change, 
• Human mobility, 
• State obligations, and the capability approach