Advancing Our Mission Despite A Pandemic
As the year-end nears, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute faculty and staff extend our heartfelt greetings and sincere hopes that all of you are well. Over the many years that we have worked to build bridges between the legal communities of Asia and the United States, a special USALI community has emerged, made up of faculty, students, alumni, project partners, visiting scholars, and “regulars” at our weekly talks. The past year has tested all of us in ways we never anticipated, and we are sustained by the prospect of reuniting with many of you in person in a brighter new year.
January 2020: Members of the USALI team at a plea bargaining workshop in China.
The year 2020 was slated to be a time of transition for USALI even before the pandemic. We knew that founding Faculty Director Jerome A. Cohen would be retiring from NYU Law at the end of June, one day before celebrating his 90th birthday, to be succeeded by José E. Alvarez. We were planning a gala gathering at the law school. Then COVID-19 arrived. It nipped at our heels as we executed one last trip to China in early January 2020 to hold workshops about plea bargaining. The weeks that followed were full of program cancellations.
Since then we have rebounded and are advancing our mission despite the pandemic. We moved our programs online and now reach larger, more far-flung, and more diverse audiences than ever. Thanks to teleconferencing, our speaker lineup is no longer limited to those with resources and time to travel to NYU. We are featuring more young scholars and more speakers Zooming in from around the globe. And we are publishing timely analysis on our website.
We’ll be honest: the pandemic has hurt our income, and we’ve had to take painful cost-cutting measures. Nonetheless, in 2020, USALI continued to provide an essential public service by educating important constituencies about developments in Asian legal systems and societies, bolstering legal reform efforts with comparative research and international expertise, and nurturing the current and next generation of scholars and practitioners who will set the direction of legal reform in the future.
Informing the public conversation
Our Asia Law Weekly speakers addressed the critical issues of the day. Take a look at the video recordings on our website to hear distinguished speakers addressing globalization, public and private international law, US-China relations, and more. Our mini-series about COVID-19 featured rich discussions about the future of the WHO and how the pandemic has stress-tested the legal and political systems of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
In October, USALI launched a bimonthly online essay series called USALI Perspectives. As with our speaker series, our goal is to amplify and enrich existing conversations about domestic, comparative and international law in East Asia. We welcome submissions from rising scholars as well as established members of the “invisible college” of international lawyers.
We also know how much work it takes to stay on top of legal news from East Asia. So we created This Week in Asian Law, a weekly blog with links to legal news reports.
Advancing research
We continue to promote original research on Asia-related legal topics. Our first virtual workshop in March convened more than a dozen leading experts on the Law of the Sea. This ongoing project seeks to identify the circumstances in which interstate maritime disputes are successful resolved. Case summaries written by the participants are published on our website, along with an interim report. A second-phase report will be completed shortly.
Although most of our visiting scholars admitted for the 2020-2021 academic year postponed their residency for one year, we are fortunate to have one visiting scholar at NYU. Yuki Hatsutani, on leave from a judgeship in Osaka, Japan, completed an LL.M. at NYU Law School in May and stayed on as a visiting scholar.
Supporting legal reform efforts
In May and June, we held a series of online “master classes” in U.S. evidence law for Asian partners interested in how the US uses live witnesses in criminal trials. While the live programs were invitation-only, we used the recordings to produce our first training videos, which are now available to all on our website. The videos are being distributed in China by the BOOLAW School, a legal education platform.
Part 1: U.S. Evidence Rules for Non-U.S. Experts (Overview)
Featuring Professor Tucker Carrington of the University of Mississippi Law School and USALI Senior Research Scholar Ira Belkin: an introduction to the basic principles of U.S. evidence law.
—-
In early December, we will hold an online forum for members of “innocence” programs in Japan, mainland China, Taiwan, and the United States to share updates about their work. This is the fifth year that USALI has organized cross-border exchanges among legal professionals who work to exonerate wrongfully convicted persons and prevent new wrongful convictions. This event is open to the public.
Leadership change
Upon the occasion of Jerry Cohen’s retirement from full-time teaching, the NYU School of Law announced the establishment of an endowed chair in his name. Two days later, the government of Taiwan honored Jerry by awarding him the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. On October 6, we and the law school held a virtual celebration of Jerry’s career and the key themes of his work that included participation by such luminaries as former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, former President of the International Court of Justice Hisashi Owada, and former President of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-hyun. Post-retirement, Jerry continues to speak and write full-time about important developments in Asia and support USALI at every opportunity.
USALI’s new faculty director, José E. Alvarez, a leader in the field of international law, has been instrumental in attracting international law speakers and writers to our platforms.
Looking to 2021
The change of US administration in January 2021 brings the prospect of a reset in relations with the world including “strategic competitor” China and traditional ally Japan, as Professor Alvarez prognosticated in a recent essay and series of talks. As the year progresses, USALI will look to you, members of our community, for new interdisciplinary insights and innovative reforms. With your help, USALI will continue to be a reliable source of expert analysis grounded in hard facts.
We need your support to continue facilitating U.S.-Asia engagement to promote rule of law. We hope you will participate in our programs, share your insights with us, and importantly, include us in your year-end giving. We depend entirely on grants and gifts to sustain USALI’s staff and programs. You can make a donation to USALI by check or through NYU Law's secure donation site. Thank you!