Martin Lavička received his bachelor’s degree in Chinese and Japanese philology at Palacký University Olomouc (PUO), the Czech Republic, master’s degree in International Relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, and in 2021, a Ph.D. in Political Science at PUO defending his dissertation The Right To Internal Self-Determination of the Uyghur Minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 1949–2019: Implications for the Evolution of Uyghur-Chinese State Relations. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc, teaching modern Chinese history, Taiwan history, and Chinese politics. His research focuses on the socio-legal aspects of China’s ethnic policies, religious freedoms, and the rule of law.

Martin joined the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies with his two-year OP-JAC MSCA-CZ project Chinese Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law (CLAW): Challenges for the International Legal Order. He will investigate the PRC’s strategies to challenge the concept of the rule of law to suit its national characteristics by inserting new meanings and phrases into the existing international legal order. He will also examine how China is trying to export its vision of the rule of law “with Chinese characteristics.”

Recent Publications:

Lavička, M. and J. Y. Chen. New Measures for Governing Religions in Xi’s China. China Report, 2023, 59(3): 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009445523118704.

Lavička, M. “Religious and De-extremization Regulations and Their Dissemination in the XUAR.” In Voiced and Voiceless in Asia, edited by Zawiszová, H. and M. Lavička, 155–177. Olomouc: Palacký University Press, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.5507/ff.23.24462691.06.

Lavička, M. Uyghur Community Matters in Light of Governmental White Papers. In Community Still Matters: Uyghur Culture and Society in Central Asian Context, edited by Mirsultan, A., E. Schluessel and E. Sulaiman, 259–310. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2022.

Lavička, M. Changes in Chinese legal narratives about religious affairs in Xinjiang. Asian Ethnicity, 2021, 22(1): 61–76.https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2020.1793100.