Philip McConnaughay

Philip McConnaughay is an American legal scholar and academic administrator known for his work in international commercial dispute resolution, arbitration, and transnational legal education. He serves as Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at the Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) in Shenzhen and is a former vice-chancellor of Peking University's Shenzhen Graduate School. He is among the few foreign nationals to have held a senior leadership role at Peking University.

Prior to joining Peking University, McConnaughay served as dean of Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law, as founding dean of Penn State's School of International Affairs, and as a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, College of Law. Before entering academia full-time, he was a partner at the international law firm Morrison & Foerster, where he practiced in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Education McConnaughay received his B.A. and J.D. (Juris Doctor) degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Career

Early Career and Legal Practice Immediately after law school, McConnaughay served as a Law Clerk to The A.Y. Kirkland of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. He then joined Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco as an associate. The dispute is frequently cited for its innovative procedural structure, combining arbitration, mediation, and negotiation to manage a complex multinational commercial conflict. While serving as dean, McConnaughay established a new campus of the law school at Penn State's flagship University Park campus and served as founding dean of Penn State's School of International Affairs. Both programs involved innovative approaches to accreditation, distance learning, and interdisciplinary study. STL had been established in 2008 with authorization from China’s State Council to create an American-style legal education program in China. The school initially sought accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA), but after the ABA declined to extend accreditation jurisdiction outside the United States and Puerto Rico, STL refined its mission.

His scholarship bridges theory and practice, drawing on his experience as both a law firm partner and academic leader. His published articles analyze topics such as party autonomy in arbitration, the management of complex multinational disputes, comparative approaches to commercial regulation, and the institutional development of dispute-resolution mechanisms in emerging economies.

In addition to his journal articles, McConnaughay has edited and contributed to scholarly volumes addressing human rights legislation in Africa , the values governing research at major U.S. research universities , and international arbitration and dispute settlement in Asia. These edited collections bring together leading scholars and practitioners to examine evolving norms in international trade, arbitration, and economic governance. ;“The Scope of Autonomy in International Contracts and its Relation to Economic Regulation and Development,” in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (2001); “Rethinking the Role of Law and Contracts in East-West Commercial Relations,” in the Virginia Journal of International Law (2001);

His later scholarship has focused increasingly on arbitration’s role in economic development and institutional design. In “The Role of Arbitration in Economic Development and the Creation of Transnational Legal Principles,” published in the Peking University Transnational Law Review (2013), and “The Potential of Private Commercial Arbitration for Facilitating Economic Growth in Less Developed Countries,” an invited chapter in the proceedings of the 2016 Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (Kluwer, 2017), McConnaughay argues that arbitration mechanisms can contribute to the national legal infrastructure essential for economic development and the emergence of transnational legal norms.

He has also written extensively on legal education reform in China and Asia. His co-authored chapters with Colleen B. Toomey include “Preparing for the Sinicization of the Western Legal Tradition: The Case of Peking University School of Transnational Law,” published in Legal Education in Asia: From Imitation to Innovation (Brill, 2017), and “China and the Globalization of Legal Education: A Look into the Future,” included in The Globalization of Legal Education (Oxford University Press, 2022).

The scholarly treatises McConnaughay has edited include International Commercial Arbitration in Asia (with Tom Ginsburg; Juris Press, 2002; 2nd ed. 2005)