Criminal Law

Institute News: USALI holds book talk with Innocence Project’s Chris Fabricant

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute hosted Chris Fabricant, director of strategic litigation at The Innocence Project, for a virtual talk about his new book, Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System. The Taiwan Innocence Project and Innocence Project Japan co-hosted the event on June 8, 2022.

"Beijing’s Crackdown on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong" by Michael C. Davis

This essay examines how Beijing’s escalating crackdown on Hong Kong has systematically imposed authoritarian policies that undermine international human rights and the rule of law, abandoning China’s commitments both to the Hong Kong people and to the international community.

Conversation about Evidence Rules in the US and China

Recorded on April 5, 2021 (Chinese Language Only)
In this program hosted by无讼学院(Wusong Network Technology), USALI Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor Ira Belkin, Research Scholar Amy Gao, and Professor Guo Zhiyuan from China University of Political Science and Law introduce a five-part bilingual course on the U.S. Evidence Rules produced by USALI and currently being offered for free in China by Wusong. Professor Belkin explains why we made the course and its key takeaways. Professor Guo discusses the relevance of the US evidence rules for China. The three-way conversation was livestreamed in China on April 5.

Kyoto Congress 2020: Japan’s Criminal Justice System: from a Comparative Law Perspective.

This panel, as part of Kyoto Congress 2020 and organized by Japan’s Ministry of Justice presents a range of views and the discussion considers some fundamental issues concerning Japan's criminal justice system that underlie currently debates in Japan, such as balancing the (1) civil law inquisitorial tradition with a focus on "finding the truth" and the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into society with (2) increasing demands for greater emphasis on, and practical implementation of, rights of criminal defendants provided in the constitution. Notably, USALI Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson participated as a panelist in this event.

Watch here: http://www.un-congress.org/Session/View/ef0678bc-7b8e-437b-af96-10dffcafc810

The Asia Pacific Journal: Comparative Reflections on the Carlos Ghosn Case and Japanese Criminal Justice

The arrest and prosecution of Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn, together with his dramatic flight from Japan, have focused unprecedented attention on Japan’s criminal justice system. This article employs comparison with the United States to examine issues in Japanese criminal justice highlighted by the Ghosn case.

Event Recording: Celebrating Jerry Cohen & Six Decades of U.S.-Asia Cooperation in Law

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute celebrated its founder and director emeritus, Professor Jerome A. Cohen, and his unique contributions to U.S.-Asia mutual understanding and cooperation in the field of law. 2020 marked Jerry Cohen’s 90th birthday and his official retirement from teaching at NYU – although not his retirement from writing, speaking, advocacy, and devotion to the U.S.-Asia Law Institute.

Event Recording: Criminalizing China

In this webinar recorded on April 29, 2020, Seton Hall University Professor Margaret K. Lewis warns that the Department of Justice’s China Initiative is dangerously over-inclusive.

Event Recording: Carlos Ghosn and Japan’s 99% Conviction Rate

The presentation considers Japan's justice system through the lens of the high-profile case of Carlos Ghosn, former chairman and CEO of Nissan and Renault, who fled Japan for Lebanon in December 2019 after a little over a year spent in custody while being investigated by Japanese authorities.

Carlos Ghosn and Japan’s ‘99% Conviction Rate’

Carlos Ghosn and Japan’s ‘99% Conviction Rate’

USALI Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson’s article on Japan’s criminal justice system was featured in The Diplomat. This article examines Japan’s criminal justice system from a comparative perspective and reveals the nuance behind an often-cited statistic.

Beijing News: It is imperative to lower pretrial detention rates and expand the implementation of non-incarceration measures.

Beijing News: It is imperative to lower pretrial detention rates and expand the implementation of non-incarceration measures.

BJNews (Reporter: Wang Jun) Unnecessary detention has long been a problem in judicial practice in China. Zhang Jun, the Chief Prosecutor of the People’s Procuratorate (the SPP), during an address to the national chief prosecutors conference today (January 18, 2020), said that the rates of arrest and pretrial detention must be further decreased, and that it is imperative to expand implementation of non-incarceration measures.

Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson talks about Carlos Ghosn's attack against Japan's criminal justice system on Bloomberg TV

Bruce Aronson, affiliated scholar at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute of New York University School of Law, talks about Carlos Ghosn's attack against Japan’s criminal justice system. “I was brutally taken from my world as I knew it,” the former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA said in Beirut. Aronson, who is an outside director of Japanese Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. and has been tenured professor of law at universities in the U.S. and Japan, speaks on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia."

Further reading: The Diplomat: Is Nissan a Japanese Company? by Affiliated Scholar Bruce Aronson.

Original interview on Bloomberg.

Event Recap: Exonerated! From Central Park to East Asia

Event Recap: Exonerated! From Central Park to East Asia

Wrongful convictions occur in every jurisdiction, and legal professionals around the world should collaborate to redress and prevent them. That was the message of ‘Exonerated! From Central Park to East Asia,’ a speaker event held at the law school on Tuesday, October 8, 2019 by the U.S.-Asia Law Institute (USALI) and co-sponsored by the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law and Asia Law Society.

Announcing the Innocence Film Festival from Taiwan Innocence Project

Announcing the Innocence Film Festival from Taiwan Innocence Project

To spread awareness of the problem of wrongful convictions, the Taiwan Innocence Project will be hosting its first “Innocence Film Festival” from December 11 through December 15, 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan, featuring 18 domestic and foreign documentary and fact-based dramas that depict miscarriages of justice in Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Iceland, the Philippines and other countries. See the trailer and poster below. More details will be made public soon.