China’s evolving role at the International Labor Organization (ILO) shares many similarities with its expanding influence at other United Nations agencies.
CFR Publication: Why Does the WHO Exclude Taiwan?
U.S.-Asia Law Institute Leadership Change
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.
USALI Visiting Scholars Program: Now Accepting Applications
Transitional Justice in Taiwan: Changes and Challenges
Taiwan’s experience with transitional justice over the past three decades suggests that dealing with historical injustice is a dynamic and fluid process that is fundamentally shaped and constrained by the balance of power and socio-political reality in a particular transitional society. This Article provides a contextualized legal-political analysis of the evolution of Taiwan’s transitional justice regime, with special attention to its limits and challenges.
South China Morning Post: An independent inquiry is still the only way to end the protests and keep Hong Kong’s story from ending tragically
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.
China's Challenge to the International Human Rights Regime
Human rights in China is an important research field that the USALI is actively engaged in. Dr. Yu-Jie Chen, our affiliate scholar and a Global Academic Fellow at Hong Kong University Faculty of Law, has just published an article on “China’s Challenge to the International Human Rights Regime” (NYU Journal of International Law and Politics, vol. 51, no. 4, 2019).
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.
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.
Webcast recap: “Jack Downey, Sino-American Relations and International Law — Lessons for Today"
By Jerome A. Cohen
I gave a talk entitled “Jack Downey, Sino-American Relations and International Law — Lessons for Today" at the Woodrow Wilson Center today in Washington, DC. It was in memory of the late distinguished historian of Sino-American relations Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and reviewed the case of my Yale college classmate Jack Downey, a CIA agent whose plane was shot down in China November 29, 1952.
The Taiwan Relations Act: Charting a Stable Course for the U.S. & Asia
The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) is a model of legal ingenuity spurred by political necessity. Jimmy Carter inherited Richard Nixon’s challenge, which was to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nixon took the first step in February 1972 with his famous trip to Beijing, where he, Henry Kissinger, and China’s leaders concluded the Shanghai Communiqué. The Communiqué gave ambiguous assurance to China about Taiwan.
Gelatt Dialogue 2018 Video Highlights
In November 2018, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute hosted our 24th Annual Timothy A. Gelatt Memorial Dialogue on the Rule of Law in East Asia. The theme to the forum was “East Asia, America & International Law'“ with noted speakers from Asia and the United States to discuss human rights, intergovernmental and territorial disputes, and international tribunals.
Discussing China's Belt & Road Initiative
On August 31, USALI affiliated scholar, Aaron Halegua, presented his research on worker exploitation in Saipan and labor abuses along China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The conference, held in Brussels, was hosted by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and co-organized by Dr. Maria Adele Carrai, a former visiting scholar (2014-2015) and Global Hauser Fellow (2016-2017) at NYU Law School.
Gelatt Dialogue 2017: Watch & Read
On November 6, 2017 the U.S.-Asia Law Institute held its 23rd Annual Timothy A. Gelatt Memorial Dialogue on the Rule of Law in East Asia. This year’s theme - “China and International Law: Human Rights, Sovereignty, and Maritime Disputes” - focused on China's approach to international law during the Xi Jinping era as seen through the Communist Party's human rights record, Taiwan-Mainland cross-strait legal problems, China's maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas and the erosion of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong. This all-day event will feature speakers from China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong as well as the United States.
NYU Law receives $5 million gift from the Government of Japan
NYU School of Law has announced a grant of $5 million from the Government of Japan for an endowment of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute (USALI) to ensure its long-term sustainability and to promote the use of international law to resolve conflicts and disputes in Asia.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his mission to China
Experts explore implications of Philippine arbitration award at 2016 Gelatt Memorial Dialogue
On November 10, Jerome Cohen, professor of law and co-director of the US-Asia Law Institute (USALI), convened a panel of international experts for the annual Timothy A. Gelatt Memorial Dialogue on the Rule of Law in East Asia. The topic was “Implications of the Philippine Arbitration Award,” focusing on the outcome of a recent dispute between the Phillipines and China over sovereignty in the South China Sea.
The area has emerged as a major flashpoint in international relations, not only for countries in the region, but also for its potential to spark a showdown between the US and China. Cohen has written on the outcome of the Philippine arbitration and spoken on the situation in the South China sea more generally. Please click this link to access Professor Cohen's Wall Street Journal article "The Wisdom of the Hague's South China Sea decision" or click this link to listen to Professor Cohen's talk "Working Towards Peace in the South China Sea."
The first panel, “The Path to a Just and Lasting Peace in the South China Sea,” was introduced by Paul Reichler, counsel for the Philippines at the law firm Foley Hoag. He spoke about details of the arbitration and its implications. The second panel focused on exclusive economic zones, which confer the right to marine resources around a landmass. The discussion was introduced by Professor Bernard Oxman, director of the Graduate Program in Maritime Law at the University of Miami.
The Gelatt Dialogue was established in 1994 by the US-Asia Law Institute in memory of the former NYU law professor and avid Asian law scholar.
Please click this link to view Professor Cohen's biography or click this link to visit the U.S.-Asia Law Institute's website.
Watch Video of the Panels
The Path to a Just and Lasting Peace in the South China Sea (2h, 26min)
When is an island entitled to an EEZ? (1h, 59min)
Published on December 6, 2016