Made in China: From Africa to Saipan: What Happens When Chinese Construction Firms ‘Go Global’?

For the past several years, I have been deeply engaged with a case involving the exploitation of thousands of Chinese workers by Chinese construction firms on the island of Saipan—part of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). This essay explores the extent to which Professor Ching Kwan Lee’s findings and conclusions about overseas Chinese construction firms, drawn from her fieldwork in Zambia (Lee 2017), are consistent with the events that transpired in Saipan. More specifically, the Saipan and Zambia cases are used to examine three issues: labour conditions at Chinese construction firms and the role that state- or private-ownership plays; the plight of Chinese migrant workers on these overseas projects; and, what avenues may be available for contesting such abuses.

Event Recording: Property Law as Housing Policy in Postwar Japan

Japan's welfare state has received much less attention than its industrial policy and rapid economic growth. In this talk, USALI visiting scholar Colin Jones argues that for decades Japan's welfare state was far more substantial than is commonly understood. He directs us to look beyond the familiar set of welfare institutions, as he traces the rise and fall of robust protections for renters that were structured into Japanese property law.

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.

SCMP: A decade after Chinese human rights lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei were disbarred, much has changed – for the worse

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, liberal democracies and lawyers around the world must advocate for persecuted human rights lawyers in China, who are subject to arrests, prison sentences, disbarments and enforced disappearances.

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

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

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.”

[Event Recap & Videos] Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia

[Event Recap & Videos] Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia

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.

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.

USALI Updates Regarding COVID-19

USALI Updates Regarding COVID-19

In accordance with NYU policy concerning COVID-19 health precautions, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute is canceling or postponing our normally scheduled Asia Law Weekly lunch talks, visiting scholar presentations and other public activities through March 27th. We will announce the status of programs scheduled for later dates as the situation evolves. We appreciate your understanding.

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.

2020 Summer Internships at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute

  2020 Summer Internships at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute

Every summer, USALI seeks several interns from NYU Law School and other law schools to join our vibrant community and support the legal research of the Institute. We look for candidates who have excellent research and writing ability, demonstrated capacity to contribute to team projects, the ability to work independently, and with a genuine interest in the legal, social, and political challenges of Asia. We also welcome candidates with language ability in any of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Korean to apply. 

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.