Jonathan Ocko, a historian of modern China and received my PhD in 1975 from Yale, where he worked with Jonathan Spence. Prior to coming to NCSU, he taught at Clark University in Worcester, MA and Wellesely College. In addition to teaching at NCSU, I also teach courses on Chinese Legal History and Chinese Law and Society at Duke School of Law, where he is an Adjunct Professor of Legal History. His current research focuses on two projects. First, I am completing a long-term study on concepts of justice in late imperial China. Second, I am conducting research on the intersection of economic and legal cultures with particular attention to whether one can see a legal consciousness in play when Chinese in late imperial and contemporary China established economic relationships. This second project draws on a careful reading of historical contracts and on interviews with contemporary entrepreneurs. Below is a sample of contracts with which he have been working.
