The publication of Jerome A. Cohen’s long-awaited memoirs, Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law, celebrates an incredible person – an able diplomat, legal practitioner, advocate, scholar, and teacher. His “life in the law” is a record of someone to whom others owe much, sometimes their lives.
Jerome A. Cohen, professor emeritus of law at New York University and founding director of the law school’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute, who passed away on September 22, 2025, introduced the study of China’s legal system into American law schools. Through his writings, teaching, private diplomacy, and public advocacy, he was an influential advocate for human rights and the rule of law in China and across East Asia as the region emerged from colonialism and post-war authoritarian rule to become an economic powerhouse.
One of the most complicated topics in contemporary international relations is the status of the self-governing island of Taiwan and its government in Taipei, formally called the government of the Republic of China. In this May 6, 2025 talk, Bing Ling, a professor at the University of Sydney Law School, explains the legal basis for China’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan; what actions might invoke use of the PRC’s Anti-Secession Law, either to use force against Taiwan or simply bring criminal charges against Taiwanese who oppose unification; and the urgent need for the governments in Beijing and Taipei to resume talks.
October 5 - October 11
China announces new controls on the export of rare earths and related technologies, prompting the United States to announce new tariffs on Chinese goods of 100 percent; a Hong Kong court opens the criminal trial of the father of exiled activist Anna Kwok; former Japanese death row inmate Iwao Hakamata files a ¥600 million claim against the central and prefecture governments for misconduct and failure to act; South Korean investigators indict the 82-year-old leader of the Unification Church on bribery and other charges; Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan proposes rules to govern the broadcast of court proceedings amid a partisan debate over court transparency.
September 28-October 4
China hands down death penalties to members of a crime group that targeted Chinese citizens in telecoms fraud schemes from a base in Myanmar; Hong Kong police plan to install tens of thousands of surveillance cameras in public spaces that will use AI-powered facial recognition; the Unification Church in Japan agrees to compensate three former believers, resolving the first of nearly 200 claims that have been lodged over its aggressive money-raising; South Korea announces stricter rules for international adoptions and President Lee Jae Myung apologizes for the government’s past lax management; Taiwan says it will not accept US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s proposal that half of the semiconductors Taiwan currently supplies to the US be made in the US.
September 21-September 27
China says it will not seek any new “special and differential treatment” as a developing country member of the World Trade Organization but will retain its current benefits; Hong Kong legislators approve a bill setting minimum standards for the city’s tiny subdivided apartments; a Japanese court says it is unconstitutional to require gender reassignment surgery in order to legally change one’s gender; former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declares his innocence at the start of a second trial on charges related to his December 2024 declaration of martial law; South Korean authorities arrest the head of the Unification Church as part of a widening corruption probe; a Taiwan court sentences four former Democratic Progressive Party personnel who were convicted of leaking sensitive information to Chinese military intelligence officials.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
