Dr Francine Hug has been working on projects pertaining to Modern Slavery in Nepal, AI in legal education, practice, and research, Practical Legal Training (PLT) reforms, and a seed fund grant on regulatory fragmentation in Pacific cyber infrastructures.

Her research projects focus on energy and technology investments in the Asia-Pacific region and the tensions between international economic law, environmental & energy laws, cybersecurity laws, and Indigenous rights. 

Previously, she was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong focusing on China’s coal phase-out and Southeast Asia’s Just Energy Transition Partnerships. She was also Visiting Scholar at East-West Centre (USA) researching on the impact of energy and technology investments on Indigenous rights in the Pacific.

Francine holds a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore, authored the monograph China’s Free Trade Agreement Strategies: Securing the Chinese Developmental State and Socialist Market Economy (Springer 2024), and published in the Journal of World Energy Law & Business, Georgetown Environmental Law Review, and Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

Prior to academia, Francine worked as Senior Economic Officer at the Embassy of Switzerland to China, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. She further served in non-governmental organisations in Tanzania, Haiti, Peru, and South Africa, and gained experiences at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Olympic Committee, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Singapore Institute of International Affairs.