This Week in Asian Law
Yuan Gao
This Week in Asian Law

Chinese universities conduct a nationwide audit of retracted academic papers; Hong Kong courts sentence more defendants in cases stemming from the 2019 protests; LGBTQ activists in Japan advocate for equal marriage rights on Valentine’s Day; South Korea convicts three former police officers for destroying evidence linked to a fatal crowd crush in Seoul on Halloween 2022; Taiwan solicits public input for the next phase of its Open Government National Action Plan.

NYU, NYU Law, Awards
Alexis Sanborn
Faculty Director José E. Alvarez elected to the ...

USALI Faculty Director José E. Alvarez has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious learned societies in the United States. He is among 252 new members announced on April 22, and one of only five law professors who were chosen.

Alexis Sanborn
ONLINE | Law, Justice and Human Rights in China ...

This 10-session seminar will introduce the legal system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – in practice as well as theory – with an emphasis on institutions, norms, procedures, personnel and ideology relating to constitutional law, criminal justice and human rights. We will view the contemporary legal process against the background of China’s legal traditions and pre-Communist efforts to develop a modern legal system. We will also consider the relevant experiences of Chinese societies in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

USALI News, US-China Relations, Recent Events, NYU Law
Alexis Sanborn
Jerome A. Cohen receives an honorary degree ...

Pioneering scholar of Chinese law, Professor Jerome Alan Cohen has taught and mentored countless others in a field he helped establish in this country. A courageous voice for those whose voices have been silenced, Professor Cohen defends human rights around the globe. Bold trailblazer and advocate, for using his many talents to create a more just world, Yale is proud to present Professor Jerome Alan Cohen with his third Yale degree, Doctor of Laws.

China, US-China Relations
Guest User
“Was Helping China Build Its Post-1978 Legal ...

From USALI Faculty Director Emeritus  Jerome A. Cohen: “Here’s a draft of a new article that in a way is my Apologia Pro Vita Sua. There have been some debates about whether those of us who tried to help China build its legal system in the decade beginning in 1979 committed a mistake. I offer my thoughts in the article from a frank, close-up, first-hand perspective. I hope they will be useful for people thinking about our China policy and for anyone interested in recent Chinese history.”

“Was Helping China Build Its Post-1978 Legal System a Mistake?”

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 stretches out 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.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

February 2, 2025-February 8, 2025

China files a WTO complaint against the US in response to President Trump’s 10% tariff on Chinese imports; the long-running national security trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai resumes after a lunar new year break with the prosecutor challenging Lai’s credibility; Japan’s National Police Agency says the number of reported crimes rose in 2024 due to increased investment fraud and social media scams but remains below historic highs; South Korea’s Constitutional Court schedules the start of its impeachment trial of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo; partisan groups in Taiwan submit petitions to launch recall campaigns against each other’s legislators.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

January 26 - February 1, 2025

The Chinese government says it is willing to accept its citizens if they are deported by the United States as long as their nationality is confirmed; Hong Kong officials condemn as political grandstanding the US House of Representatives’ re-introduction of a Hong Kong Sanctions Act; Japanese supporters of a female prosecutor who says she was raped by a senior prosecutor present a petition calling for an independent inquiry; South Korean prosecutors indict President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection; Taiwan President Lai China-te sends a letter to Pope Francis.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

January 19-January 25

Chinese courts hand down death sentences to two men who separately carried out murderous attacks on Japanese residents in China; Hong Kong national security police question staff of the respected Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute in connection with the institute’s exiled former deputy; Japan’s government says that same-sex couples are covered by 24 laws normally reserved for legally recognized marriages; South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attends hearings in his impeachment trial before the Constitutional Court; Taiwan President Lai Ching-te reluctantly signs a controversial law that hobbles the Constitutional Court as his party seeks to have the law declared unconstitutional.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

January 12-January 18

China’s Supreme People’s Court interprets the marriage and family law in an effort to resolve contentious issues such as child custody; former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai appeals his 2022 fraud conviction; a Japanese district court orders the government to compensate a detainee for positioning a surveillance camera in his cell; South Korean investigators seek a court warrant to formally arrest President Yoon Suk Yeol; legislators from Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party petition the Constitutional Court to review controversial amendments that could paralyze the court itself.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

January 5-January 11

A Chinese court sentences the maker of a documentary film on the 2022 “white paper” protests; a Hong Kong appeals court hears arguments from former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China that they did not receive a fair trial; Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sue the US government, the head of a rival steelmaker, and a union chief; South Korean law enforcement authorities meet to discuss making a second attempt to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol; 90 Taiwanese academics publish an open letter decrying the legislature’s passage of a controversial amendment to the Constitutional Court Procedures Act.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

December 29 - January 4

Chinese prosecutors press charges against 39 persons accused of running one of the largest telecom scam operations in the Myanmar-China border region; the president of Hong Kong’s legislature defends its record of green-lighting government proposals; Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. reportedly prepares to file a lawsuit after US President Biden blocked its planned acquisition of U.S. Steel; South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, facing impeachment and possible criminal charges for declaring martial law, fights back with the support of loyalists in the security forces; a Taiwan court orders former Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je and three co-defendants in a corruption case to be returned to detention.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

December 22 - December 28

China’s legislature says it will rein in courts that are holding original shareholders liable for company debts even after transferring their shares; Hong Kong police add six names to a wanted list of exiled political activists; the upper house of Japan’s parliament approves restrictions on controversial political funds; South Korea’s National Assembly impeaches the acting president in a deepening political crisis; Taiwan’s legislature rejects all seven of President Lai Ching-te’s nominees for the Constitutional Court, effectively paralyzing the court.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

December 15 - December 21

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies that the government operates secret police stations abroad; Hong Kong’s chief executive supports using ballot boxes that will scan voters’ ballots in next year’s legislative election; Japan’s lower house agrees to abolish controversial policy activity funds that lawmakers can spend without disclosure; South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol defies summons from investigators seeking to question him about his attempt to impose martial law; Taiwan’s opposition parties pass controversial legislation to constrain the Constitutional Court, raise the threshold for recalls, and channel tax revenues to local governments.

Girding for 2025

As we reflect on developments in East Asia in 2024 through the lens of law and legal processes, one thing is clear: the United States in 2025 must pay more attention to the growing domestic political instability of its allies, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. South Korea’s brief flirtation with martial law grabbed attention, but it has suffered legislative logjam for months. So has Taiwan, and similar prospects loom for Japan.