Japan’s overseas generosity in the form of aid has been a big part of its positive global image. It led the world in ODA for the entire 1990s in terms of total amount. But Hiroaki Shiga warns that Japan is increasingly using its aid program to counter China’s growing geopolitical influence, and in the process is adopting some negative features of Beijing’s approach.
Eight years since its founding, the China International Commercial Court does not (at least not yet) loom large in the competitive landscape of international commercial courts. Older courts in London, Singapore, and Dubai handle much larger caseloads each year. But Susan Finder writes that the CICC is a work in progress, and tracking its development can yield insights about the ambitions of China’s judiciary.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development identifies ensuring equal access to justice for all as one of its specific goals, aligning with the rights proclaimed in multiple international human rights treaties. Taking “equal access to justice” as an entry point, Yizhi Huang’s article compares the 2030 Agenda and international human rights treaties across three dimensions: background, content framework, and monitoring mechanisms. It argues that it is necessary to integrate the human rights mechanisms with the 2030 Agenda and coordinate both approaches in order to enhance judicial protection for vulnerable groups and achieve judicial justice for all.
March 01 - March 07
China’s National People’s Congress begins its annual plenary session by hearing a government work report that acknowledges slowed economic growth and focuses on rolling out AI and other advanced technologies; the lawyer for Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai says he will not appeal his national security conviction or twenty-year prison sentence; the Tokyo High Court approves disbanding the Unification Church in Japan for systematically coercing its followers to donate money; South Korea announces immigration reforms designed to expand access for skilled foreign workers as it grapples with a shrinking labor force; Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai again refuses to countersign bills approved by the opposition-controlled legislature, extending a constitutionally dubious practice.
February 22 - February 28
China joins in calls for the US to stop bombing Iran and return to negotiations; the Hong Kong Court of Appeal overturns former publisher Jimmy Lai’s lease fraud conviction as he begins a twenty-year sentence for national security offenses; Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raids the offices of Microsoft Japan on suspicion of anti-competitive conduct; South Korea’s legislature approves controversial legislation that criminalizes intentional misapplication of law by judges and prosecutors and allows litigants to appeal finalized Supreme Court rulings to the Constitutional Court; Taiwan’s intelligence agency completes a decades-long declassification process that raises a curtain on surveillance of political opposition during the martial law era.
February 15 - February 21
China’s Communist Party is denying promotions or even dismissing some officials because they have adult children living overseas; Hong Kong police announce plans to add facial recognition capabilities to their expanding network of CCTV cameras; Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takichi warns of Chinese “coercion” and pledges to strengthen the country’s defenses; a South Korean court sentences former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison for insurrection; the leaders of Taiwan’s legislature pledge to prioritize review of a controversial special defense budget after stalling action for weeks.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
