Areas of Expertise

• Civil Rights and Discrimination
• Comparative and Foreign Law
• Constitutional Law
• Family Law
• Fourteenth Amendment
• Gender and the Law
• Human Rights Law
• International Human Rights
• Race and the Law
• Sexuality and the Law

Biography

Holning Lau is the Willie P. Mangum Distinguished Professor of Law. He is an internationally recognized expert on international and comparative approaches to equality rights, especially in the contexts of sexuality, gender, and family life. His writing has appeared in a range of forums including leading law reviews, interdisciplinary journals, books, and mass media outlets. At UNC, he teaches International Law of Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, and Family Law. He also teaches at Duke University.

In 2018-2019, Lau served as an independent consultant to the International Commission of Jurists and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, supporting their work on sexual orientation and gender identity issues in Myanmar. From 2016-2018, he served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development at UNC School of Law. From 2013-2015, Lau was president of the ACLU of North Carolina’s Board of Directors. He came to UNC in 2009, after serving as an associate professor at Hofstra University, where he also co-directed Hofstra’s LGBT Rights Fellowship Program. Prior to that, he worked at UCLA’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy. He has served twice as a visiting fellow at the University of Hong Kong. He has also worked for the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Lau received his J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and served on the staff of the Chicago Journal of International Law. At the University of Chicago, he was named a Stonewall Scholar for excellence in his work related to LGBT rights and was awarded the Ignacio Martín-Baró Award for the best human rights paper by a professional or master’s degree student. He completed his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.

Education

• B.A., University of Pennsylvania
• J.D., University of Chicago

Selected Publications

Gender Recognition as a Human Right, in CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF NEW HUMAN RIGHTS: RECOGNITION, NOVELTY, RHETORIC (A. von Arnauld, K. von der Decken & M. Susi, eds., forthcoming 2020).
SSRN

From Loving to Obergefell: Elevating the Significance of Discriminatory Effects, 25 VA. J. SOC. POL'Y & L. 317 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination, 2(2) BRILL RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN COMPARATIVE DISCRIMINATION LAW (2018).
SSRN | BEPress

American Equal Protection and Global Convergence (with H. Li), 86 FORDHAM L. REV. 1251 (2017).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress

Marriage Equality and Family Diversity: Comparative Perspectives from the United States and South Africa, 85 FORDHAM L. REV. 2615 (2017).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress

Comparative Perspectives on Strategic Remedial Delays, 91 TUL. L. REV. 259 (2016).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link

Shaping Expectations about Dads as Caregivers: Toward an Ecological Approach, 45 HOFSTRA L. REV. 183 (2016).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link

The Language of Westernization in Legal Commentary, 61 AM. J. COMP. L. 507 (2013).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein

Grounding Conversations on Sexuality and Asian Law, 44 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 773 (2011).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link

Human Rights and Globalization: Putting the Race to the Top in Perspective, 102 NW. U. L. REV. 2021 (2008).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress

SSRN Author Page