This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

May 25, 2025-May 31, 2025

China and Japan report progress in talks to lift China’s ban on importing Japanese seafood; Hong Kong hosts a signing ceremony for the new treaty-based International Organization for Mediation; a Japanese court orders the government to compensate three businessmen wrongly accused of exporting goods capable of producing biological weapons; the front-runner in South Korea’s presidential election campaign proposes amending the constitution to make it harder to impose martial law; Taiwan’s Executive Yuan finalizes a controversial set of proposed legal and administrative measures designed to counter Chinese infiltration.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

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.

USALI and Asian American Scholar Forum Announce 2025 Fellowship Recipient

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. 

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

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.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

May 4-10, 2025

China’s Foreign Ministry denies that the government requires its companies to illegally collect or store data; a retired New Zealand Supreme Court judge is nominated to join Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal; Japanese legislators push the operators of social media platforms to take steps to counter election-related misinformation and disinformation; a council that represents South Korean judges will hold an emergency meeting to discuss concerns over judicial independence; Taiwan’s government proposes legislation to tighten supervision of child care providers to guard against abuses.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

April 27, 2025-May 6, 2025

China’s legislature approves a law to bolster the private sector and unveils the draft of a comprehensive environmental code; Hong Kong authorities accuse the father and brother of an exiled democracy activist of breaking the law by trying to help her access funds from an insurance policy; Japan’s opposition parties propose legislation that would allow married couples to choose whether to use one family name or separate names; South Korea’s Supreme Court orders a retrial of presidential front-runner Lee Jae-myung on changes of violating the election law; Taiwan’s government revokes the citizenship or permanent residency of about twenty persons as it enforces a widely ignored ban on holding dual Taiwanese and mainland official IDs.

NYU Shanghai, USALI Collaborate on Foreign-related Rule of Law

Leading legal scholars, practitioners, and policymakers gathered at NYU Shanghai for a Foreign-related Rule of Law Workshop that was co-hosted by the U.S.-Asia Law Institute (USALI). The workshop focused on current challenges and institutional innovations in the field of foreign-related rule of law, a broad category encompassing the full array of laws – both domestic and international – that govern China’s interaction with the world.  

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

April 20, 2025-April 26, 2025

China’s State Council strengthens implementation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law; Hong Kong authorities gazette a bill that would ban e-cigarettes; a Japanese court orders Amazon to compensate a Japanese distributor for failing to remove competing counterfeit Chinese products from its platform; South Korean prosecutors accuse former President Moon Jae-in of accepting bribes from an airline during his time in office; Taiwan’s Supreme Court throws out the death sentence given to a man convicted of abducting and murdering a Malaysian university student.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

April 13, 2025-April 19, 2025

China accuses the US National Security Agency of hacking infrastructure of the Asian Winter Games, held in Harbin in February; the Hong Kong government moves to tighten control over trade unions based on national security concerns; Japan’s Fair Trade Commission orders Google to stop forcing smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its apps; a South Korean court begins the criminal trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on insurrection charges; Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says sixty-two active-duty military personnel have been found to hold Chinese residency permits, and as a result are now barred from handling intelligence and confidential data.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

April 6, 2025-April 12, 2025

The Chinese government responds to rising US tariffs with higher tariffs of its own, warning: “We don’t back down”; Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal loses another overseas non-permanent judge; leading members of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party confirm that Chinese officials ordered the party to dissolve; a Japanese legislative commission debates whether and how to address online disinformation and misinformation; South Korea’s acting president fills the Constitutional Court’s nine-member bench; partisan turmoil continues on the floor of the Taiwan legislature.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

March 30, 2025-April 5, 2025

China responds to new US tariffs with reciprocal tariffs plus a wide array of sanctions and investigations against US companies; Hong Kong’s new police commissioner promises action against pockets of “soft resistance”; political parties in Japan negotiate changes to draft legislation on active cyberdefense in an effort to address privacy concerns; South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously upholds the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol; three staff members of Taiwan’s ruling three Democratic Progressive Party are being investigated on suspicion of spying for the Chinese Communist Party.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

March 23, 2025-March 29, 2025

Chinese authorities release five Chinese employees of the American due diligence firm the Mintz Group after holding them for two years without trial; a Japanese court strips the Unification Church of its status as a religious organization; the clock is ticking in the impeachment trial of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the Constitutional Court continues its deliberations; Taiwan’s Executive Yuan approves a proposal to establish a Personal Data Protection Commission.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

March 16, 2025-March 22, 2025

Chinese Communist Party-run news media continue to denounce plans by a Hong Kong company to sell ports on either end of the Panama Canal, arguing that the canal is a Chinese national security interest; Hong Kong’s Legislative Council approves a cybersecurity law; the city of Tokyo prepares to implement Japan’s first ordinance aimed at curbing harassment of public-facing workers by irate customers; South Korea’s Constitutional Court says it will rule in the impeachment trial of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo next week; Taiwan’s executive puts forward another slate of nominees to fill the bench of its Constitutional Court.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

March 9, 2025-March 15, 2025

China calls for stronger legal measures against Taiwan independence; Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal makes plans to live-stream some hearings; Japan’s government considers moves to speed up criminal retrials to correct injustices; police in South Korea increase security measures in anticipation of a Constitutional Court ruling next week in the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol; Taiwan President Lai Ching-te proposes legal and economic measures to counter Chinese infiltration of Taiwan’s society.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

March 2, 2025-March 8, 2025

China’s National People’s Congress opens its annual plenary session; Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeals overturns the convictions of three former organizers of the city’s annual Tiananmen vigil for refusing to provide information to police; a fourth Japanese high court rules that failure to legally recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional but denies damages to the plaintiffs; South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves a detention center after 52 days of captivity but his impeachment and criminal trials continue; Taiwan authorities consider making it harder for emigres from Hong Kong and Macau to become eligible for permanent residency in Taiwan.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

February 23, 2025-March 1, 2025

Western governments and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees condemn Thailand’s deportation of 40 Uyghur asylum seekers to China; a Hong Kong court convicts former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting of rioting during the 2019 Yuen Long MTR incident and sentences him to 37 months in prison; a Tokyo court finds a former Chinese employee of Japan’s state-run research body guilty of giving confidential data to a Chinese company; South Korea’s Constitutional Court wraps up its hearings in the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol; a Taiwan court acquits a retired rear admiral and three other defendants of charges that they accepted money from China to develop spy networks in Taiwan.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

February 16, 2025-February 22, 2025

A coordinated operation by the Thai, Chinese, and Myanmar governments achieves the release of hundreds of foreign nationals forced to work in telecoms fraud operations in Myanmar; Hong Kong’s Democratic Party studies measures to dissolve itself; a court in Japan convicts a would-be assassin of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and sentences him to ten years in prison; criminal proceedings begin against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as he continues to battle impeachment; Taiwan praises and China condemns the US Department of State for removing a statement on its web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

February 9, 2025-February 15, 2025

China’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate issue new typical cases; the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association sues her former employer, the Wall Street Journal; President Donald Trump’s comments that Nippon Steel would invest in US Steel instead of pursuing a takeover reportedly took both companies by surprise; South Korea’s opposition-led National Assembly calls on Acting President Choi Sang-mok to completely fill the bench of the Constitutional Court as it hears the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol; Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature votes to impose new requirements to initiate the recall of elected officials.