Siqi Lu is a PhD researcher at the University of Mannheim. Her research interests lie at the intersection of fundamental rights theory, transnational legal pluralism, and blockchain governance.

Siqi's work at ACIL will focus on her thesis project on fundamental rights beyond the state within blockchain-based systems. Blockchain networks unsettle a basic premise of rights doctrine: they operate transnationally and polycentrically, and participants can be excluded or overruled by coded governance without any state actor involved. Against this background, the project asks what freedom under law consists of when conceived independently of the state. It further aims to identify the anchor points at which state and state-like regulators can still engage with such environments in order to fulfil their protective obligations.