In recent years, amid intensifying geopolitical tensions and conflicts, the effectiveness of international law and particularly the UN Charter’s obligation that all states settle their disputes peacefully is widely contested.  The International Court of Justice (ICJ), by contrast, has attracted more litigants than ever before as well as high profile requests for advisory opinions that have drawn the participation of unprecedented numbers of states seeking to participate in the judicial process.  While the world’s attention focuses on the election of a new UN Secretary-General, the same political organs responsible for that selection – the UN General Assembly and Security Council – are engaged in electing or re-electing a number of judges to a Court that is now seen as the favored international venue for ‘strategic litigation.’  One of those candidates, Paik Jin-Hyun, a former president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and an experienced arbitrator for international disputes, will share his views on why the judicial interpretation of international law remains popular when that law is itself under severe challenge. 

Singapore now ranks with Paris and London among the top-3 venues for international arbitration, despite being much newer on the scene.  Lucy Reed, President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre Court, a prominent arbitrator and international lawyer, will explore the reasons, which include government commitment, supportive legislation, first-rate courts, Maxwell Chambers, SIAC, and a truly international outlook.

China’s legal service sector is growing rapidly, including not only commercial law offices but publicly funded legal aid and innovative free legal advice platforms. At the same time, the regime has largely suppressed the country’s human rights lawyers. What is going on? Hualing Fu, dean of the law faculty at the University of Hong Kong and visiting professor at NYU School of Law, will share his research into an emerging new sector that he calls “public legal services,” which the party-state is developing in order to ensure that social disputes are resolved speedily in line with regime interests. In the process, Chinese lawyers may be transitioning backward from legal professionals to state legal workers.

The Constitutional Courts of South Korea and Taiwan have been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks as they are asked to arbitrate bitter power struggles between the elected branches – power struggles in which the justices themselves have been targeted. Two eminent constitutional scholars – Chaihark Hahm of Yonsei Law School and Jiunn-rong Yeh of National Taiwan University – will explain the background to the current crises and reflect on the role of courts in protecting democracy at times of deep partisan divisions.

The National Security Law, which was imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, takes precedence over local law and has profoundly affected civil liberties and the right to fair trial. Does international law no longer matter in Hong Kong? Carole Petersen, professor of law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, finds that in cases not affecting Beijing’s core interests, local judges still rely on international and comparative sources and still rule against the local Hong Kong government. This has been particularly evident in strategic litigation to advance the rights of the LGBT community. Petersen concludes that if the local government is serious about trying to rebuild Hong Kong’s international reputation, then it should accept and fully implement these rulings.  

An obscure reef in the South China Sea has become the latest flashpoint in China’s long-running campaign to dominate the South China Sea. Since last summer, the Chinese Coast Guard has repeatedly employed water cannons, lasers, and acoustic weapons and rammed Philippine Navy and Coast Guard vessels to prevent them from resupplying military personnel positioned at Second Thomas Shoal. Jay Batongbacal, a lawyer and professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, will discuss how this tiny maritime feature became a potential conflict site, why a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in the Philippines’ favor has not ended the dispute, and how international law can continue to be effective in the face of Chinese attacks.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has recently started highlighting the importance of promoting “foreign-related rule of law,” a new category of law that knits together Chinese and international law to govern China’s offshore activities. One place to look for foreign-related rule of law in action is in Chinese-invested overseas special economic zones, which some foreign scholars view as extraterritorial zones under Chinese power and law.

Many debates exist about the nature of China’s engagement with the international “rule-based” order and whether the arrangements underpinning the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will be formalized into hard laws. Our speakers will demonstrate how China’s provincial governments re-interpret the BRI to generate a new international economic agenda largely driven by regional interests.

Twenty years after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US and other member states are questioning China’s commitment to the institution and to the multilateral liberal trading order.

Guest speaker Jonathan Odom will join NYU Law School Adjunct Professor Peter Dutton to discuss the fast-moving events in the South China Sea and maritime East Asia. They will discuss the conflicting claims to water space, resources, and islands and ask whether international law can be invoked to reduce tensions.