A person walking through an open landscape under a cloudy sky

Peter Bo Zhang

I am a writer and researcher exploring how legal and scientific institutions govern nonhuman life across past and present.

I am trained in history at University of Cambridge and law at University of Toronto.

Research
Constructive Scienter
On how the common law assigns responsibility when humans act via nonhuman intermediaries.
Urban Pollution and Contagious Diseases in Jiangnan, 1850–1900
In Brian Lander and Peter Lavelle, eds., China’s Environmental History: A Reader (New York: Columbia University Press, 2026).
Animals and the Relational Life of Law: Indigenous Legal Traditions and Stray Animal Governance
In Anne Wagner, ed., International Handbook of Legal Languages and Communication: From Texts to Semiotics (New York: Springer Nature, forthcoming).
Writing
“Counting Fish is a Kind of Prayer”
PRISM international 64.3, Earthkeeper issue, forthcoming.
“Internal Notes on Acceptable Dishes”
Food& Magazine Food & Censorship issue, forthcoming.
“流浪动物照料者为何受罚” (“Why Do Chinese Courts Penalize Caretakers of Stray Animals?”)
Caixin Weekly 《财新周刊》 Issue 17; English version at Brooks Institute May 2026.
“How China’s Smart-City AI Is Moving Into Environmental Control”
The Diplomat November 2025.
Review of Liz P. Y. Chee, Mao’s Bestiary: Medicinal Animals and Modern China
Animal History October 2024.
Speaking
“Neither Person nor Thing: Algorithmic Accountability, Nonhuman Governance, and Constitutional Politics of TechnoPower”
Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures October 2026.
“Reflections on Rewriting Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents)”
Animal Law & Advocacy Conference October 2026.
The Living Corpus of Indigenous Harvest Rights
University of Toronto February 2026.
Animals as Fiduciary Beneficiaries? A Reconceptualization of the Crown’s Fiduciary Duty
Massey College November 2025.
Animals, Pollution, and Epidemics in Early Modern China
Durham University June 2023.
Beyond the Epidemic Villain: Animals, Pollution, and Epidemics in Early Modern China
University of St. Andrews June 2023.
Animal Space in the Qing Empire
University of Cambridge March 2023.
Miasmic Vapour, Epidemic qi, and Contagion
York University February 2023.
Legal Consciousness and Realpolitik in Early Imperial China
University of Cambridge June 2022.
Legal Consciousness and Realpolitik in Early Imperial China
International Society for Chinese Law & Society June 2021.