Prof. Yun-chien Chang is Jack G. Clarke Professor in East Asian Law at Cornell Law School and also directs the Clarke Program in East Asian Law & Culture. He has served a visiting professor at New York University, the University of Chicago, St. Gallen University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University, and Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics. He has also conducted research at Free University of Berlin, University of Paris II, and University of Tokyo. Prof. Chang is a co-editor of Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and an Associate Reporter on American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property. Prof. Chang is President of Asian Law and Economics Association and a director of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies.
His current academic interests focus on economic, empirical and comparative analysis of private law (particularly property law), as well as empirical studies of the judicial system. Prof. Chang has authored and co-authored more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. His English articles have appeared in leading journals around the world, such as Journal of Legal Studies; Journal of Legal Analysis; Journal of Law and Economics; American Law and Economics Review; Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; Journal of Empirical Legal Studies; International Review of Law and Economics; European Journal of Law and Economics; I˙Con; the University of Chicago Law Review; Southern California Law Review; Notre Dame Law Review; Iowa Law Review and Supreme Court Economic Review, among others.
His monograph Private Property and Takings Compensation: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Analysis (Edward Elgar, 2013) was a winner of the Scholarly Monograph Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences. His second monograph Property Law: Comparative, Empirical, and Economic Analyses was published in June 2023 and will be widely reviewed. Prof. Chang (co-)edited Empirical Legal Analysis: Assessing the Performance of Legal Institutions (Routledge, 2014), Law and Economics of Possession (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Selection and Decision in Judicial Process Around the World: Empirical Inquires (Cambridge University Press, 2020), etc.
He authored several books in Chinese: Economic Analysis of Law: A Methodological Primer (Peking University Press, 2023), Compensation for Physical and Regulatory Takings of Land: Theory and Practice (Angle, 2013; 2nd edition, 2020), Economic Analysis of Property Law (Peking University Press, 2019), Empirical Legal Studies: Principles, Methods, and Applications (New Sharing, 2019; 2nd edition, 2022), Interpreting Private Law: A Social Scientific Approach (New Sharing, 2020), etc. He also (co-)edited The Empirical Legal Studies Reader I: Domestic Perspectives (The Law Press, 2020), The Empirical Legal Studies Reader II: International Perspectives (Contemporary China Publishing House, 2024 forthcoming), to name a few.
Prof. Chang sits on the editorial board of several leading journals, including Law and Social Inquiry (2024–2026), Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis (2024–), European Journal of Law and Economics (2019–), among others.
Prof. Chang’s academic achievements have won him the 2019 ALSA Distinguished Article Award, the Best Poster Prize at 2011 CELS, several research grants, among others.
Prof. Chang received his J.S.D. and LL.M. degrees from New York University School of Law, where he was also a Lederman/Milbank Law and Economics Fellow and a Research Associate at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, NYU.
张永健教授是美国康乃尔大学Clarke讲席教授、东亚法中心主任，美国纽约大学法学博士（J.S.D.），SSCI期刊Journal of Empirical Legal Studies的共同主编（Co-Editor），美国法律协会（ALI）财产法第四版整编法（Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property）之“协同法律纂修”（Associate Reporter），美国法实证研究协会（SELS）2022–2025的理事（Director），亚洲法经济学会会长（2023–2024）。他还担任SSCI期刊European Journal of Law and Economics的顾问编辑（Consultant Editor）、Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis编辑委员会成员。他曾为世界一流期刊Harvard Law Review、Journal of Legal Studies、Journal of Law & Economics、American Law and Economics Review、Law and Society Review、Law and Social Inquiry担任论文审查人。张永健教授曾任美国纽约大学、美国芝加哥大学、荷兰鹿特丹大学、瑞士圣加仑大学、以色列耶路撒冷希伯来大学、以色列海法大学法学院客座教授、访问学者，并曾于德国柏林自由大学、日本东京大学、法国巴黎第二大学从事短期研究。
他的主要研究领域为物权法、土地征收与管制、民事司法制度，并扩展至私法的其他部门，如信托法、（非）营利组织法、继承法、契约法、侵权法，研究方法兼采法经济分析与法实证研究，并有比较法视野。他喜欢与研究养成背景不同的学者合作，开拓学术研究可能性。他已经和中外法律学者、经济学者、统计学者、社会学者联名发表研究成果，对咀嚼数字与文字同样狂热，花在理解社会科学与贯通法学的时间相去不远。
张永健教授著有中、英文期刊与专书论文100馀篇，多发表于知名学术期刊。英文论文散见于Journal of Legal Studies; Journal of Legal Analysis; Journal of Law and Economics; Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; American Law and Economics Review; Journal of Empirical Legal Studies; International Review of Law and Economics; European Journal of Law and Economics; The University of Chicago Law Review; Minnesota Law Review; Southern California Law Review; Iowa Law Review 等顶尖期刊。中文论文则获刊于顶尖学报，如：《中外法学》（4篇）、《清华法学》、《环球法律评论》、《法律与社会科学》等等，并由Cambridge University Press、Edward Elgar、Routledge、Wolters Kluwer等出版中、英文（主编）专书20种。英文专书《Property Law: Comparative, Empirical, and Economic Analyses》 （剑桥大学出版社，2023）研究世界156个法域的物权法。《法经济分析：方法论20讲》（网投十大信誉排名出版社，2023）是颇受好评、深入浅出的方法导论。两本书的体裁与内容均是同类书籍中首创。