To what extent are these treaties repeating paradigms established elsewhere? Are Asia approaches to rulemaking emerging? Are some Asian actors emerging as the makers of new international norms? And are some willing to break existing rules, whether made in Asia or elsewhere?
Event Recordings: Government Perspectives on Reform – The View from Asian Capitals
As global reform activities continue gaining momentum, what do Asian governments think about these efforts? Are they reflective of the concerns of Asian states? How are governments managing the simultaneous reform of existing treaties and the negotiations of new ones? How are ASEAN countries in particular addressing reform? Is there (or could there be) an ASEAN (or Asian) voice on these issues?
Event Recording: Reforming the International Law of Foreign Investment – State of Play in International Organizations
This Week in Asian Law
This week’s highlights include: China passes an Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law; Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal will decide if the joint enterprise principle may be used to prosecute persons not present at a riot or unlawful assembly; a Japanese woman in a same-sex relationship sues to obtain spousal benefits; a South Korean court dismisses a lawsuit against Japanese companies over wartime forced labor; a Taiwanese student brings a claim against Norway at the European Court of Human Rights after Norway registered him as Chinese.
This Week in Asian Law
This week’s highlights include: laws mandating child safety seats, blocking software on computers used by children, and other protective measures take effect in China; Hong Kong police seal off Victoria Park to block an annual vigil for those killed in China on June 3-4, 1989; Japan’s Diet moves to do away with imprisonment with hard labor; South Korea appoints a new prosecutor-general; Taiwan formally decriminalizes adultery.
East Asia Forum: Towards marriage equality in Japan
This Week in Asian Law
This week’s highlights include: China publishes the 2021 report on Rule of Law development; Hong Kong police ban a vigil commemorating the victims of June 4, 1989; the Tokyo High Court allows restrictions on a transgender official’s choice of restroom; the governor of Jeju Province discloses his cryptocurrency holdings; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court upholds a mandatory prison term for sellers of copyrighted DVDs.
This Week in Asian Law
This week’s highlights include: China tightens restrictions on private schools and requires them to pursue public welfare, not profit; an ordinance takes effect requiring Hong Kong public officers to take an oath to uphold the Basic Law; the Japanese government drops its plan to revise the immigration law after a Sri Lankan woman died in an immigration detention facility; the South Korean government considers allowing more foreigners to work as domestic workers; Taiwan’s president issues her first pardon to an indigenous Bunun man controversially convicted of weapons and poaching offenses.
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.
This Week in Asian Law
This week’s highlights include: China proposes to tighten automobile data security; the Hong Kong government proposes to criminalize doxing; Japan’s amendment to its referendum law advances in the Diet; the South Korean government is criticized for asking Google to take down far more content than other governments; Taiwan’s Control Yuan urges action to curb human rights abuses on fishing vessels flying the Taiwan flag.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China promulgates a law to punish restaurants and diners who waste food; Hong Kong’s executive researches a “fake news“ law; Japan’s Diet advances a bill that may make it easier to amend the Constitution; South Korea’s special corruption investigation agency releases controversial rules allowing it to preempt prosecutors; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court upholds most restrictions on indigenous hunting.
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China’s legislature amends the Food Safety Law, Advertising Law, and eight other laws; Hong Kong approves a controversial immigration bill that critics fear will give rise to ‘exit bans’; the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee joins an LGBTQ event and calls for an equality law; a South Korean ministry plans to allow children to take either of their parents’ surnames; Taiwan considers how to protect its fishing industry if Japan dumps radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean.
"Beijing’s Crackdown on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong" by Michael C. Davis
Event Recording: Divorce in China
Faculty Director José E. Alvarez elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China unveils an ambitous legislative plan for 2021; Hong Kong slides down on the world press freedom index; a Japanese court refuses to let a married couple enter different family names in the family register; a Seoul court rejects the request of 20 former “comfort women” for compensation from Japan; Taiwan passes an Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act.
Event Recording: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Anti-Trust
Angela Zhang discusses her new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation. Professor Zhang examines the unique ways in which China regulates and is regulated by foreign countries, revealing a “Chinese exceptionalism” that is reshaping global antitrust regulation.
Event Recording: Reforming the Global Public Health Regime: Asian Perspectives
This Week in Asian Law
USALI’s weekly round-up of legal news from Asia. This week’s highlights include: China’s anti-trust agency fines Alibaba $2.75 billion; a Hong Kong judge approves a settlement between HSBC and Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou giving her access to documents she seeks to fight extradition to the US; Japan considers increasing the penalty for online slander after the apparent suicide of a reality show performer; South Korea considers taking Japan to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to stop it from releasing treated radioactive water into the sea; Taiwan’s attorney general files an extraordinary appeal on behalf of a man on death row.
JILP: Biden's International Law Restoration by USALI Faculty Director José Alvarez
USALI Faculty Director and NYU Law Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law José Alvarez recently published an article in NYU Law’s Journal of International Law and Politics (JILP) entitled “Biden’s International Law Restoration,” in Volume 53, Number 2 – Winter 2021. JILP is a student-run publication devoted to commentary on contemporary issues in international and comparative law. JILP features articles on international legal topics by leading scholars and practitioners and notes, case comments, and book annotations written by journal members.
Read Biden’s International Law Restoration, 53 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 523 (2021).