Can US Courts Provide Remedies for Forced Labor in Asia
Friday, April 17, 2026
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern)
Furman Hall 334 and via Zoom
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About the event:
In 2003, the U.S. Congress added a civil liability provision to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) permitting victims to seek damages from those who engaged in or benefitted from forced labor and human trafficking. Over the last 20 years, labor advocates have sought to use this statute to hold accountable companies who rely on forced labor inside the United States or occurring overseas, including in Asia. Cases have been filed against U.S. companies using workers trafficked from China or importing shrimp peeled by Cambodian migrants in Thailand, tuna caught by Indonesian fisherman, and equipment made by Chinese prisoners. Three experts will discuss recent cases brought under the TVPRA based on forced labor in Asia, and will explain the debate among federal courts over extending civil liability under the TVPRA to overseas actions.
About the speakers:
Agnieszka Fryszman is the founder and chair of the Human Rights practice at Cohen Milstein. She represents victims of forced labor and human trafficking in U.S. courts, work that has resulted in the National Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, and the Human Trafficking Legal Center’ss Human Trafficking Advocate of the Year Award. She is currently the 2025-2026 Robert F. Drinan, S.J, Chair in Human Rights at Georgetown Law School.
William S. Dodge is the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at George Washington University Law School. He currently serves as a Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law. Professor Dodge has written extensively about TVPRA cases at the Transnational Litigation Blog (www.tlblog.org) and has filed amicus briefs addressing its extraterritorial reach.
Aaron Halegua is the founder of a boutique employment law litigation firm in New York City that has advocated for and represented Chinese, Filipino, and other forced labor victims in New York, Georgia, New Mexico, California, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was named the Human Trafficking Legal Center’s Litigator of the Year for his work recovering $6.9 million for seven Chinese construction workers trafficked to Saipan. Aaron is also a research fellow at Oxford University and the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at the NYU School of Law.