Chinese universities conduct a nationwide audit of retracted academic papers; Hong Kong courts sentence more defendants in cases stemming from the 2019 protests; LGBTQ activists in Japan advocate for equal marriage rights on Valentine’s Day; South Korea convicts three former police officers for destroying evidence linked to a fatal crowd crush in Seoul on Halloween 2022; Taiwan solicits public input for the next phase of its Open Government National Action Plan.
USALI Faculty Director José E. Alvarez has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious learned societies in the United States. He is among 252 new members announced on April 22, and one of only five law professors who were chosen.
This 10-session seminar will introduce the legal system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – in practice as well as theory – with an emphasis on institutions, norms, procedures, personnel and ideology relating to constitutional law, criminal justice and human rights. We will view the contemporary legal process against the background of China’s legal traditions and pre-Communist efforts to develop a modern legal system. We will also consider the relevant experiences of Chinese societies in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Pioneering scholar of Chinese law, Professor Jerome Alan Cohen has taught and mentored countless others in a field he helped establish in this country. A courageous voice for those whose voices have been silenced, Professor Cohen defends human rights around the globe. Bold trailblazer and advocate, for using his many talents to create a more just world, Yale is proud to present Professor Jerome Alan Cohen with his third Yale degree, Doctor of Laws.
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.”
This week’s highlights include: Shanghai’s Pudong New Area gains special legislative powers; a Hong Kong court opens the first trial under the National Security Law; Japan’s Supreme Court says that requiring married couples to register the same surname is constitutional; a South Korean court schedules a hearing date for the comfort women’s appeal; Taiwan denies that data from a COVID contact-tracing SMS service is being used in criminal investigations.
This week’s highlights include: China’s Supreme People’s Court issues Online Litigation Rules; Hong Kong police arrest five senior executives of a leading newspaper; two Americans plead guilty in Japan to helping Carlos Ghosn flee prosecution; South Korea’s governing party seeks to impose punitive damages for disinformation and misinformation; Taiwan tries to attract foreign professionals with tax breaks and other incentives.
The American Foreign Law Association (AFLA) gave its 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award in International Law to Jerome A. Cohen, founding director emeritus of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute.
The association presented the award on June 16 at its annual meeting. Its announcement said the honor recognized Professor Cohen’s “decades of major contributions to a better understanding of Trans-Pacific, international, and human rights law.”
Professor Cohen pioneered research and teaching about China’s contemporary legal system in American law schools in the 1960s. He taught at Harvard Law School from 1964 to 1979 and at New York University Law School beginning in 1990. He also is Of Counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he long represented foreign companies in contract negotiations and dispute resolution in China, Vietnam, and other countries in East Asia. Professor Cohen served for several years as C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he currently is an adjunct senior fellow.
Is the realignment/reform of investment treaty law having an effect of international law more generally? On regional integration in Asia? What areas of reform are not being addressed in ongoing efforts? How does investment treaty reform link with other areas of reform, both domestic and international?
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?
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’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.
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’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.
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’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.
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.
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.
