On March 9, 2026, Prof. Dr. Emanuel V. Towfigh, in his capacity as “Distinguished Scholar in Residence” at Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) in Shenzhen, China, participated in the »STL Lectures on Equality & Citizenship«. Together with his colleagues Gilad Abiri, Sarah Ganty and Dimitry V. Kochenov, he co-convened this international symposium dedicated to fundamental questions of equality and citizenship law.

In the first panel, centered on the theme of »Equality«, Professor Towfigh served as a respondent to the keynote address by Prof. Dr. Niels Petersen. The lecture explored the conditions under which nationality becomes an impermissible ground for discrimination. In legal scholarship, this debate primarily revolves around defining the boundary between legitimate state differentiations—such as in voting rights or social benefits—and violations of international law through the disadvantageous treatment of foreigners. Alongside colleagues from Yale Law School, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Universität Kopenhagen, Professor Towfigh discussed the impact of these concepts on cross-border legal relations.

The program was complemented by a second panel on the »Citizenship Privilege«, introduced by a keynote from Prof. Peter J. Spiro of Temple University. The discussion examined the extent to which place of birth and associated nationality function today as a kind of modern caste system that regulates access to global mobility and wealth.

The event provided a valuable platform for comparative legal dialogue and strengthened the scientific cooperation among professors from the various participating universities.

[Translated by DeepL]