“Iron is the country.” Tetsu wa kokka nari. That is what Japan’s first prime minister, Prince Ito Hirobumi, said in 1901, channeling nineteenth century German statesman Otto von Bismarck, when the first blast furnace of Yahata Steel Works, Nippon Steel’s main antecedent company, was fired up. But that hardly applies to the United States and its iron and steel sector today, writes Paul Sheard.
China’s legal service sector is growing rapidly, including not only commercial law offices but publicly funded legal aid. In this Feb. 21, 2025 talk at NYU Law School, Hualing Fu, dean of the law faculty at the University of Hong Kong and visiting professor at NYU Law, shares his research into the emerging new sector of “public legal services,” in which the government funds lawyers to resolve social disputes at an early stage. Dean Fu argues that pro bono work in China can serve as a tool of political control, allowing the government to frame disputes in its preferred terms and ensure they are resolved quickly, without any group mobilization.
May 18, 2025-May 24, 2025
China’s Private Economy Protection Law takes effect; Hong Kong journalists say the city’s tax authorities are targeting independent news outlets for audits; US President Donald Trump announces his approval of a partnership between Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel that appears to still be in negotiation; prosecutors in Taiwan accuse local leaders of the opposition Nationalist (KMT) Party of fraud in collecting signatures for recall elections of Democratic Progressive Party legislators.
The U.S.-Asia Law Institute (USALI) at NYU School of Law and the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) are pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025 USALI-AASF Fellowship. This joint program allows law students to engage in legal research and advocacy at the intersection of national security, science and technology, civil rights, and justice.
May 11, 2025-May 17, 2025
The US and China deescalate their trade war with an agreement to cancel some tariffs and suspend others for 90 days; a Chinese court sentences a Japanese man to twelve years in prison for alleged espionage; Hong Kong enacts new national security-related legislation to facilitate Beijing directly exercising jurisdiction over selected Hong Kong national security cases; South Korea’s Democratic Party seeks to rescue its presidential candidate from his legal woes by changing the law under which he is charged; Taiwan’s ruling party asks the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of opposition-enacted measures that substantially reduce central government revenues.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
