"Like many campaigns in the Chinese Communist Party's history, this [one] is ad hoc in nature and not a systemic legal reform.”
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China begins its annual plenary meetings of the legislature and a consultative body; Hong Kong charges 47 people under the National Security Law for holding a primary election; Japan advances legislation to criminalize stalking by GPS; a South Korean transgender woman discharged from the army after sex-change surgery is found dead; the chief justice of Taiwan’s Supreme Court makes a public apology over a corruption scandal.
Event Recording: How Novel is China’s Use of International Economic Law
Law Professors Fabio Morosini and Michelle R. Sanchez-Badin examine empirical data from Chinese investments in Brazil’s energy sector and find many similarities between China and Brazil in their choice of legal tools. What really sets China apart is the size of its economy, and therefore the greater impact its actions have on the existing legal order.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China launches a National Database of Laws and Regulations; Hong Kong’s chief executive says the electoral system needs reform; Japanese officials say China’s new Coast Guard Law is escalating tensions; South Koreans are accusing sports and entertainment celebrities of having been bullies at school; some academics in Taiwan call for stiffer punishment of professors who take unauthorized grants from China.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China and Hong Kong take BBC World News off the air, Hong Kong Bar Association and immigrant protection groups express concern over proposed change to immigration rules, Japan’s new COVID-19 measures face pushback, South Korea considers introducing a system to register births to resident foreigners, Taiwan may enshrine animal rights in its constitution.
Event Recording: China’s Overseas Investment and Environmental Accountability
This Week in Asian Law
Event Recording: China and the WTO
Hong Kong: The End of Delusion
As the Hong Kong and Beijing governments continue their assault on civil society in the territory — through tactics ranging from arbitrary arrests and attacks on the legal profession to the gutting of liberal studies and the inculcation of loyalty to the CCP in the guise of "patriotism," neither "China experts" at large, nor professedly left-leaning academics, have engaged in any critical self-reflection on their culpability in Hong Kong's demise, writes Alvin Y.H. Cheung.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China’s judicial interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law; Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; Japan to fine COVID restrictions violators; South Korea impeaches a sitting a judge for the first time; Vietnam concludes its Communist Party Congress by giving General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong an unprecedented third term.
China Brief: The Rollback of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong
Event Recording: US-Asia Relations in the Biden Administration
Event Recording: Making Hong Kong China
The people of Hong Kong riveted the world’s attention in 2019 by pouring into the streets to demand the autonomy, rule of law, and basic freedoms they were promised. Beijing responded on June 30, 2020, by imposing a new National Security Law aimed to snuff out protests. We will hear from Michael Davis, who has taught human rights and constitutional law in Hong Kong for over three decades and is the author of the recently published book, Making Hong Kong China: The Rollback of Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China’s congress releases seven draft laws or amendments for public comment; China says it will not recognize BNO passports held by Hong Kong residents as travel documents; Japan’s ruling party drops the idea of criminally prosecuting non-cooperative COVID-19 patients; a North Korean ambassador defects to South Korea; South Korea’s Constitutional Court allows a controversial new corruption investigation body to stand; Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan is accused of lowering ethical standards as judges are implicated in a corruption scandal; Vietnam’s Communist Party general secretary maneuvers for a third term.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include China’s legislature considers a draft Legal Aid Law; civil servants in Hong Kong are required to sign a loyalty pledge; Japan’s Cabinet approves giving the government more powers to fight Covid-19; North Korea seeks to impose a penalty for anyone caught enjoying South Korean entertainment; Taiwan’s Supreme Court remands the criminal case against eight Sunflower movement activists to the High Court for retrial; a record number of delegates to attend Vietnam’s National Party Congress.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights are : China’s Communist Party issues a Plan on Building Rule of Law (2020-2025); Hong Kong’s new chief justice talks about impartial adjudication; Japan proposes criminal penalties for COVID-19 patients who refuse hospitalization; a Korean court confirms former President Park Geun-hye’s sentence; Taiwan’s judicial corruption case; and concerns from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights over Vietnam’s imprisonment of three journalists.
Nikkei Shimbun: Have Prosecutors Changed?
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s news is led by a fascinating sample of cases in which Chinese courts are already applying provisions of the new Civil Code. Other highlights: Hong Kong police arrest 53 pro-democracy activists pursuant to the National Security Law; Japan witnesses a record high number of changed gender registrations; a Korean court orders Japan to pay damages to “comfort women”; Taiwan faces calls to limit the collection and use of data from its cell-phone based COVID quarantine system. Vietnam sentences three independent journalists to more than 10 years in prison for criticizing the government.
Politico China Watcher: "China 2021: Experts make their one big prediction"
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.