ran.xi@unsw.edu.au
Ran Xi
PhD Candidate
J.D. (UC Davis), B.A. (SISU)
Ran Xi is a PhD candidate at UNSW Law & Justice. Her research examines the relationship between law, regulation, and technological change, with particular interest in how legal and regulatory frameworks shape emerging technologies and how the ideas, expectations, and narratives surrounding those technologies, in turn, influence regulatory choices.
Before joining UNSW, she was an assistant professor of law at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, where she taught courses including the Introduction to American legal system, Legal Research and Reasoning, and Entertainment Law. Ran holds a J.D. from the University of California, Davis and a B.A. in English Literature from Shanghai International Studies University. She is admitted to practise law in New York and China. She previously worked as a legal extern at California Lawyers for the Arts and as a judicial extern at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Find Ran's ORCID here: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3400-7849
Research Topics
Empowering Stakeholders: A Polycentric Regulatory Framework for Autonomous Driving
Ran’s research examines the regulation of autonomous driving in Australia and the structural weaknesses of existing legal frameworks. Drawing on science and technology studies and systems theory, the project investigates how legal, technical, and social systems interact and why regulatory failures occur.
Supervisors: Bronwen Morgan, Kayleen Manwaring, Lu Wang
Areas of Interest: technology regulation, regulatory theories, AI governance, STS, systems theory
Email
- Publications
- Selected presentations
- Techno-Pragmatic Governance, 43 WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL 419 (2026), l https://wilj.law.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/662/2026/07/43.4_Xi.pdf
- A Systems Approach to Shedding Sunlight on AI Black Boxes, 53 HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW 441 (2025), https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr/vol53/iss2/5/
- On Emerging Technologies: The Old Regime and the Proactivity, 8 CARDOZO INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW REVIEW 75 (2025), https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ciclr/vol8/iss1/4/
- Application-oriented: A Polycentric Framework for Non-Fungible Tokens, 50 RUTGERS COMPUTER & TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL 205 (2024)
- The Adjudication Business, 4 SUFE LAW REVIEW 69 (Chinese translation of Professor Pamela Bookman’s article originally published in the Yale Journal of International Law)
- Presenter, The Paradigm Shift in Autonomous Vehicle Regulation: Legal Responses to Conflicting Interests, Annual Conference of the China Society of International Economic Law (Nov. 2025)
- Presenter, Textual Analysis and Legal Reasoning in U.S. Case Law, Shanghai Bar Association (Feb. 2025)
- Presenter, Introduction to American Legal Research Skills, Shanghai Bar Association (Mar. 2024)