Recorded on October 14, 2020.

About the Event
Tim Webster, a professor of law, has dedicated many years to exploring the law, sociology, and politics of East Asia's World War II reparations movements -- which are still ongoing 75 years after the war’s end. Why are the last surviving war victims in Asia and their families still pursuing claims for reparations? Professor Webster will give an overview of the major legal cases, settlement agreements, international treaties, efforts by civil society organizations, and political negotiations to allocate liability for World War II. He argues that the individualization of a right to reparation against both states and corporations represents an important step towards protecting human rights in armed conflict. At the same time, the reparations project may be fragmented into discrete, and potentially incongruous, claims, channels, and fora, undermining chances for a holistic resolution or lasting solution. 

Read his current article: The Price of Settlement: World War II Reparations in China, Japan and Korea

About the Speaker

Tim Webster is an associate professor of law at Western New England University School of Law. He writes about the intersection of international law and comparative law, focusing on East Asia. His most recent body of work examines World War II reparations in China, Japan and Korea. He has also published on international trade, international investment, international human rights, and international litigation. He is a member of both the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future, and the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. 

Before joining Western New England University, Webster was professor of transnational law, with tenure, at Case Western Reserve University. He also directed Case's Asian Legal Studies Program, and the Joint Program in International Commercial Law and Dispute Resolution with Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Chongqing, China). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris--Dauphine, National Taiwan University, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, and the IÉSEG School of Management (Paris). He began his academic career as a lecturer at Yale Law School and senior fellow at Yale's China Law Center. He clerked for a federal judge in Boston, and practiced international litigation in the Tokyo and New York offices of Morrison Foerster.