Is the realignment/reform of investment treaty law having an effect of international law more generally? On regional integration in Asia? What areas of reform are not being addressed in ongoing efforts? How does investment treaty reform link with other areas of reform, both domestic and international?
Event Recording: Investment Treaty Reform in Asia: Rule Makers, Takers or Breakers?
USALI Co-hosts U.S.-China Legal Aid Dialogue
China’s legislature is expected to approve the country’s first Legal Aid Law later this year. The current draft, which has passed its first reading, could expand the pool of criminal defendants eligible for legal aid – and increase demand for lawyers. Below are links to transcripts of presentations that four Chinese legal experts made at the U.S.-China Legal Aid Dialogue co-hosted by the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at NYU and the National Institute of Legal Aid at the China University of Political Science and Law in April 2021. The transcripts were originally published in the journal Renmin Fazhi or People’s Rule of Law.
Event Recording: The Rise of China and International Law
Recorded October 21, 2020
One of China’s leading scholars writing about international law from a Chinese perspective, Professor Cai Congyan, will talk about the ways in which an increasingly wealthy and powerful China has evolved from “selective adaptation” of existing international legal norms to “norm entrepreneurship.”
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: Paul Mozur & Josh Chin: Journalists in the Crossfire
Event Recording: A Discussion of the U.S.-China Technology Relationship & The Politics of Data
In this webinar recorded on May 22, 2020, Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America, spoke with Professor Jose Alvarez, USALI’s lead faculty advisor, about the struggle among governments to determine who can access our digital data and how it can be used.
Event Recording: M. Butterfly 2.0: The Evolution of EU-China Relations
In this webinar recorded on May 13, 2020, Theresa Fallon, director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies, and Peter Dutton, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and USALI senior fellow, discussed how China’s growing economic leverage in Europe and recent “wolf warrior” diplomacy are pushing the European Union and its member states to take geopolitics more seriously and choose a side in the U.S.-China rivalry.
CFR: Is Hong Kong Still Autonomous? What to Know About China’s New Laws
Jerome A. Cohen receives an honorary degree from Yale
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.
[Event Recap & Videos] Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia
![[Event Recap & Videos] Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55d21ffee4b0d22e803fdca1/1586463384478-ENEPAM1QO46DNAIGMIAW/Eli.JPG)
On April 1, 2020. Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin and USALI staff Allen Clayton-Greene, Amy Gao, Yin Chi, and Eli Blood-Patterson introduce the U.S.-Asia Law Institute's (USALI) program: "Preventing and Redressing Wrongful Convictions." Through this program, international experts, including individuals who themselves had been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, shared their experience and state-of-the-art expertise with the Asian criminal justice community concerning the root causes of wrongful convictions and measures that can be adopted to prevent them and redress them.
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.
ASEAN and the South China Sea: Vietnam's Role as Chair
On November 4, the ASEAN chair’s gavel was passed to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam at the closing ceremony of the grouping’s annual summit in Bangkok. Vietnam will serve as the chair of ASEAN, the most important international organization in Southeast Asia, through 2020.
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.
Judicial Activism in Taiwan
USALI’s guest speakers from East Asia often inspire reflection on our own legal and judicial debates from new angles. At a special seminar at USALI on November 1, Chief Justice Tzong-Li Hsu and Justice Jau-Yuan Hwang of Taiwan’s Constitutional Court made a case for judicial activism, which has become a mostly pejorative term in the United States. Chief Justice Hsu argued that Taiwan’s Constitutional Court should “serve as mediator for opposing political forces in the process of transition.”
Harvard Book Event: Taiwan and International Human Rights
From Professor Jerome A. Cohen’s Blog:
I'm delighted to announce the publication of a new edited volume, Taiwan and International Human Rights: A Story of Transformation. I admire the hard work of my co-editors and dear friends, Professors Bill Alford of Harvard and LO Chang-fa, former Taiwan Constitutional Court Justice and National Taiwan University Law Dean, that made this book possible.
Student Scholars Program Accepting Applications for 2019 - 2020 Year
The U.S-Asia Law Institute (USALI) is currently accepting applications for its annual Student Scholars program, an exciting year-long opportunity to produce independent research related to the Institute’s ongoing projects.
The selection process is competitive, and successful student scholars will meet regularly as a group to discuss important legal issues facing the region, meet with the Institute’s world-renowned visiting scholars and receive guidance and support from USALI staff. Students are expected to commit time to the Institute each week and contribute to the work of the Institute.
Katherine Wilhelm: USALI's New Executive Director
Implications of the Hong Kong Extradition Bill with Affiliated Scholar Alvin Cheung
Hong Kong has been in the news over the controversy and protests surrounding the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill proposed by the Hong Kong government. Our very own Alvin Cheung has been analyzing the situation across a number of platforms.
Workshop in China: International Approaches to Sexual Harassment Law
From June 1 – 2, 2019 the U.S.-Asia Law Institute held “International Approaches to Sexual Harassment Law” in partnership with Sichuan University Law School, Chengdu, China. The workshop was structured to explore comparative means of addressing anti-discrimination cases, litigation, mechanisms and standards throughout the world for the purpose of strengthening understanding of international approaches.