I was majoring in physics at Princeton University when I took Thomas Nagel’s course, Philosophy 101, by accident. At the end of the semester, I switched my major to philosophy. My two Junior Papers and my Senior Thesis were written under the supervision of Nancy Cartwright, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon respectively. I was accepted into Oxford’s B.Phil. program in philosophy. Upon arrival in Oxford, I told Professor H. L. A. Hart of my interests in Philosophy of Law. Having accepted his advice, I switched into Oxford’s program in jurisprudence (a legal program) before the Term started. I took legal and philosophical subjects. In philosophy, I was tutored by John Mackie, John McDowell, Jonathan Glover, and John Finnis. I received my Ph.D. in philosophy at Cornell University, where I was supervised by Allen Wood.

I returned to Hong Kong to practice law as a junior barrister. Three years later, I taught philosophy at the Colorado College. Subsequently, I returned to Hong Kong to teach at Lingnan College briefly, before taking up my post at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

I was an academic visitor at All Souls College, Oxford (where I worked with Jerry Cohen), a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University (where I discussed my work with Allen Wood), a Visiting Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge (where I talked to many people, including Raymond Geuss), and as a Fulbright Visiting Senior Scholar at Harvard University (where I consulted Tim Scanlon).

I was a Visiting Fellow at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University during the Fall Semester of 2022-23. I am Emeritus Professor, Department of Philosophy, Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am also Affiliate Professor, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Centre for Bioethics. I am currently employed as Distinguished Professor of Southeast University (校長特聘教授), Nanjing, China.

My current research interest is in ethics, and in particular Scanlonian contractualism and how it bears on issues in practical ethics. My broader research interests include practical ethics (including bioethics), ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law.

• Practical Ethics
• Ethics
• Political Philosophy
• Philosophy of Law

Edited Books:

1. Hon-Lam Li, ed., Wrongful life (The Sixth Lanson Lecture in Bioethics by Jeff McMahan with Commentaries by Joe Lau, F. M. Kamm, and Johann Frick) (New York: Oxford University Press, accepted and forthcoming)
2. Hon-Lam Li, ed.,  Is Mandatory Retirement Morally Defensible?: Ethics, Economics, and Law in Ageing Societies(Oxford: Routledge, January 2026).
3. Hon-Lam Li, ed., Lanson Lectures in Bioethics (2016-2022): Assisted Suicide, Responsibility, and Pandemic Ethics(Palgrave Macmillan; February 2024).
4. Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2021).
5. Hon-Lam Li and Anthony Yeung, eds., New Essays in Applied Ethics: Animal Rights, Personhood and the Ethics of Killing (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Under review:

6. Hon-Lam Li, ed., The Slippery Slope Argument and Physician-Assisted Dying (The Seventh Lanson Lecture in Bioethics by Bonnie Steinbock with Commentaries by Paul Weithman, Derrick Au, Peter Tsu, and Mr. Justice Johnson M. H. Lam). Includes a substantial introduction by the editor.

Journal papers or book chapters:

Practical Ethics

7. Hon-Lam Li, “Introduction,” Wrongful life (The Sixth Lanson Lecture in Bioethics by Jeff McMahan with Commentaries by Joe Lau, F. M. Kamm, and Johann Frick) (New York: Oxford University Press, accepted and forthcoming).
8. Hon-Lam Li, “Ageing and Mandatory Retirement—Considerations from Economic, Legal, and Moral Perspectives,” in Is Mandatory Retirement Morally Defensible?: Ethics, Economics, and Law in Ageing Societies (Oxford: Routledge, January 2026), 115-131.
9. Stephen Ching and Hon-Lam Li, “Is Mandatory Retirement Always Efficient?” in Is Mandatory Retirement Morally Defensible?: Ethics, Economics, and Law in Ageing Societies (Oxford: Routledge, January 2026), 132-144.
10. Hon-Lam Li, “Introduction,” in Is Mandatory Retirement Morally Defensible?: Ethics, Economics, and Law in Ageing Societies (Oxford: Routledge, January 2026), 1-8.
11. Hon-Lam Li, “Epilogue,” in Is Mandatory Retirement Morally Defensible?: Ethics, Economics, and Law in Ageing Societies (Oxford: Routledge, January 2026), 175-182.
12. Hon-Lam Li, “The Concept and Conceptions of Personhood: The Fallacy of Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby’s Argument,” The American Journal of Bioethics, 24:1, 43-45, DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2023.2278558 (Link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2023.2278558)
13. Hon-Lam Li, “我們對絕症患者的責任 —— 契約主義與醫療協助死亡”（“What We Owe to Terminally Ill Patients: Contractualism and Medical Assistance in Dying”）, 《倫理研究》(Ethical Research, published in China), 7, pp. 77-92.
14. Hon-Lam Li (2021), “Rawlsian Political Liberalism, Public Reason, and Bioethics,” in Hon-Lam Li et al., eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2021), 3-57.
15. Hon-Lam Li (2021), “Replies to Farrell & Tham, and Fan,” in Hon-Lam Li et al., eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2021), 135-180.
16. Hon-Lam Li (2021), “Further Reflections,” in Hon-Lam Li et al., eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2021), 205-252.
17. Hon-Lam Li & Michael Campbell (2021), “Introduction,” Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2021), xiii-xxiii.
18. Hon-Lam Li (2020), “Public Reason as the Way for Dialogue,” The American Journal of Bioethics, vol. 20, no. 12, 29-31.
19. Hon-Lam Li, Nancy S. Jecker, Roger Yat-Nork Chung (2020), “Reopening Economies during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Tradeoffs,” The American Journal of Bioethics, vol. 20, no. 7, 136-138.
20. Roger Yat-Nork Chung, Alexandre Erler, Hon-Lam Li, Derrick Au (2020), “Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses,” The American Journal of Bioethics, vol. 20, no. 7, 114-116.
21. Hon-Lam Li (2020), Commentary on Sridhar Venkatapuram, “COVID-19 and the Global Ethics Freefall,” Hastings Bioethics Forum (online), March 25, 2020.
22. Hon-Lam Li (2020), Commentary on Sridhar Venkatapuram, “COVID-19 and the Global Ethics Freefall,” Hastings Bioethics Forum (online), March 23, 2020.
23. Hon-Lam Li et al., (2017), “The Challenge of ‘Head-Changing Technology’” Chinese Medical Ethics, vol. 30, no. 12, 1473-81 (in Chinese).
24. Hon-Lam Li (2017), “Contractualism and the Death Penalty,” Criminal Justice Ethics 36, no. 2 October 2017, 152-182, DOI: 10.1080/0731129X.2017.1358912.
    The fourth all-time “most read” article of the journal, Criminal Justice Ethics (as of 2023).
25. Hon-Lam Li (2016), “What We Owe to Terminally Ill Patients: The Option of Physician-Assisted Suicide,” Asian Bioethics Review, vol. 8, issue 3, September 2016, 224-243.
26. Hon-Lam Li (2015), “Contractualism and Punishment”, Criminal Justice Ethics, 34:2, 177-209, DOI: 10.1080/0731129X.2015.1067959.
    The fifth all-time “most read” article of the journal, Criminal Justice Ethics (as of 2023).
27. Hon-Lam Li (2013), “Engelhardt on the Family,” International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2013.
28. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “On Happiness,” World Policy Journal, Summer 2011, pp. 4-5.
29. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “Kant and Applied Ethics,” Wen-Sheng Wang, ed., The New Horizon of Chinese-language Philosophy, 2011. (in Chinese)
30. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “Abortion and Degrees of Personhood,” originally published in Public Affairs Quarterly, translated into Chinese and published in Chinese and International Philosophy of Medicine, VII:2, pp. 9-28.
31. Hon-Lam Li (2007), “Toward Quasi-vegetarianism,” in Hon-Lam Li and Anthony Yeung, eds., New Essays in Applied Ethics, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 64-90.
32. Hon-Lam Li (2007), “Introduction,” New Essays in Applied Ethics: Animal Rights, Personhood and the Ethics of Killing, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. pp. 1-26.
33. Hon-Lam Li (2002), “Animal research, Non-vegetarianism, and the Moral Status of Animals — Understanding the Impasse of the Animal Rights Problem,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2002, vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 589-615.
34. Hon-Lam Li (2002), “Animals and Utilitarianism,” in Lai Pan Chiu, ed., Life and Ethics –A Dialogue between Christianity and Confucianism. Hong Kong: Centre for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002.  (in Chinese)
35. Hon-Lam Li (1997), “Abortion and Degrees of Personhood: Understanding Why the Abortion Problem (and the Animal Rights Problems) are Irresolvable,” Public Affairs Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 1, January 1997, pp. 1-19. (A Chinese translation of this paper later published in International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine.)
36. Hon-Lam Li (1996), “Abortion and Uncertainty”, in Ethics in Business and Society — Chinese and Western Perspectives, ed. by G. K. Becker, Berlin & Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, March 1996, pp. 170-180.
37. Hon-Lam Li (2001), “The Problem of Animal Rights,” Chinese & International Philosophy of Medicine, Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, vol. 3, no. 4 (December 2001), pp. 101-115 (in Chinese).
38. Hon-Lam Li (1995), “The Problem of Abortion: A New Approach,” Philosophy and Public Norm, edited by Terence Hua Tai et al, Center for Humanities, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (specialty book no. 34), April 1995, pp. 1-27 (in Chinese)
39. Hon-Lam Li (1994), “Virginity, Evolution, and History—Anatomy of a Myth,” Values and Society: Hong Kong Lingnan College Collection in General Education for 1993 and 1994, Hong Kong: Lingnan College, 1997, pp. 22-30 (in Chinese)
40. Hon-Lam Li (1994), “Insider Trading and Capitalism: Why Insider Trading has to be Considered Wrong in Capitalism,” Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference of the Centre for the Business Values, ed., Sally Stewart, Gabriel Donleavy and Michael Santoro, The Centre for the Study of Business Value, Dept of Management Studies, University of Hong Kong, pp. 224-234, Hong Kong, June 1994.

Political Philosophy:

41. Hon-Lam Li, “Walzer on Justice and Interpretation,” in Contemporary Political Philosophy, ed. Ying Qi, China: Jiangsu People’s Publisher, 2010, pp. 195-224 (in Chinese).
42. Hon-Lam Li, “Marx, Capitalism, and Justice,” Nicholas Bunnin and Renzong Qiu, editors, Political Philosophy: General Discussion, Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Science Press, 2010, 22-30 (in Chinese).
43. Hon-Lam Li, “Economic Justice,” in ‘Institutional Issues Involving Ethics and Justice.” Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO. Editied by Robert Elliot.  17 pages.  Oxford, United Kingdom: Eolss Publishers [http://www.eolss.net], 2003.
44. Hon-Lam Li, “Walzer’s Theory of Distributive Justice,” Journal of Social Theory, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 413-443, 2001 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Global Publishing Co) (in Chinese).
45. Hon-Lam Li, “Historical Materialism, Democratic Market Socialism, and China,” in Joseph Chan & Man-to Leung, eds., Political Theories in China, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 283-311 (in Chinese).
46. Hon-Lam Li, “On the Supposed Demise of Marxism,” Journal of Philosophy Society, vol. 19, pp. 47-52, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 1997.

Philosophy of Law:

47. Hon-Lam Li, “Why We Don’t Have A Starvation Defence in Our Law?” Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences, No. 10, Autumn, November 1997 (Contemporary China Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong Press) (in Chinese).

Nietzsche:

48. Hon-Lam Li, “On Nietzsche’s Perspectivism”, Philosophy and the History of Science, Taiwan, vol. 3, no.1, April 1994, pp.71-83.

Philosophy of Science:

49. Hon-Lam Li, “On C. G. Hempel’s ‘Inductive Probabilistic Explanation’,” in EIDOS, Spring 1979, pp. 15-23.