PhD Defence: The Quest for Robust Legitimacy in China’s Water Resources Management

On 21 January 2026 Tong Xu will defend her dissertation at Utrecht University, entitled: 'The Quest for Robust Legitimacy in China’s Water Resources Management.'

The most important finding of this research is revealing the distinctive and irreplaceable role that legal systems play in building legitimacy for environmental governance. Through examining the practices of China‘s water resources management, the research discovered that while environmental governing bodies have made progress in legitimacy building, these advances stem primarily from administrative reforms rather than improvements in the legal system itself. 

China’s existing legal system exhibits two critical limitations: first, an over-reliance on flexible but unstable administrative normative documents rather than formal legal frameworks; and second, insufficient capacity to coordinate the tension between rule-of-law compliance and effective problem-solving in urgent environmental situations. The research further demonstrates that these limitations cannot be adequately addressed through technological innovations or procedural improvements alone.
 

Based on these findings, the research proposes pathways with international applicability: utilizing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) to provide expertise for legislation, and employing integrated legal reasoning to enhance judicial authority. The core conclusion is that achieving robust legitimacy in environmental governance requires recognizing the unique function of legal systems:they serve not merely as governance tools, but as essential bridges connecting specialized knowledge, public trust, and institutional authority.

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