Bio

Professor Shen’s research and teaching focus on the evolution of constitutional law through historical and comparative lenses. His main research project focuses on the role of international organizations in the drafting process of national constitutions, especially in post-authoritarian and transitional contexts. This project examines how international organizations’ involvement in domestic constitutional reform leads to unintended consequences in domestic politics, triggering backlashes against international norms and frustrating the realization of democratic principles through constitutional texts.

In addition to this project, he is interested broadly in how the reality of constitutional politics challenge the liberal democratic aspirations of constitutionalism, including how indigenous nations strive for self-determination through constitutional reform under conditions of restrained sovereignty and also how constitution’s preambles express exclusive ideas surrounding ethnicity, religion, and national historical narratives in contrast to the inclusive promises found in the rest of their texts.

Prior to joining CSU Law, he taught US constitutional law and comparative politics at Occidental College as well as at UT-Austin as a graduate student Instructor. His work has been featured in the Handbook of Law and Political Systems and in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science. He has worked on issues pertaining to appellate law and post-conviction Writs of Habeas Corpus at an internship at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, Texas and also worked on issues of international criminal law at an internship in the prosecutor’s office at the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.