Grant Award Presentation
“East Asia Prog
ram Moynihan Graduate Student Grant”
Awardee: Mercy Renci Xie\, J.D. ca
ndidate\, Syracuse University
Supporting Disability Rig
hts in Competing-Interest Scenarios \;Experimental Evidence on the Eff
ect of Law from China
Survey experiments show that Americans a
re more likely to support pro–human rights policies when they know that su
ch policies align with international legal standards. It remains unclear w
hether such positive effects persist in Asian societies. In addition\, alt
hough disabled people account for 16% of the world’s population\, none of
the existing studies has tested the effect of the Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)\, the international human rights trea
ty that protects the rights of disabled people. As the first of its kind\,
this talk presents findings from an online survey experiment in China tha
t tests nondisabled people’s support for disability rights in scenarios in
volving conflicts with public safety. The study evaluates how different le
gal information influences attitudes\, including references to China’s dom
estic disability law and the CRPD\, which China ratified in 2008. This pre
sentation discusses the preliminary outcomes of the survey experiment and
the possibilities and limitations of rights/law discourse in bringing mean
ingful social change for marginalized groups in Asia generally\, and in Ch
ina in particular. \;
Mercy Renci X ie is a juris d octorate candidate at the College of Law\, Syracuse University. Her resear ch explores whether and how law can bring meaningful social change for mar ginalized groups by using both quantitative and qualitative research metho ds. As a disabled person\, her current project examines the effects of int ernational and domestic disability law in shaping disabled people\, non-di sabled people\, and other stakeholders\, including institutions\, in Asian societies. Her work will appear in the Columbia Human Rights Law Revi ew. \;