The American Society of International Law is awarding its highest honor to U.S.-Asia Law Institute Faculty Director José E. Alvarez in 2024.
This Week in Asian Law
China releases 12 typical cases on the construction of a barrier-free environment; the University of Hong Kong cancels a talk by Jimmy Lai’s British lawyer; Human Rights Watch issues a report criticizing the treatment of women imprisoned in Japan; South Korea’s sentencing commission considers increasing the punishment for stalking crimes; Taipei prosecutors decline to prosecute Elon Musk for smoking marijuana in a 2018 online video.
This Week in Asian Law
China joins the Hague Apostille Convention, simplifying foreign document authentication; the Hong Kong government appeals a recent court ruling that same-sex couples enjoy rights of inheritance; the Japanese branch of the Unification Church says it will create a fund to compensate persons harmed by the group’s fundraising practices; North Korea responds angrily to the end of South Korea’s ban on sending anti-regime leaflets across the border into the North; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court rules that individual doctors may advertise their practices.
This Week in Asian Law
Chinese officials describe investigations of Foxconn Technology Group as “normal law-enforcement activities”; Hong Kong’s Democratic Party will be absent from December’s district council elections for the first time since its establishment in 1994.; Japanese prosecutors demand two-year sentences for three former members of the Ground Self-defense Force accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague; South Korea’s Supreme Court acquits former Coast Guard leaders of involuntary manslaughter for botching the rescue after a 2014 ferry disaster; Taiwan’s Cabinet approves draft legislation that would allow five types of public servants to form special associations similar to unions.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s legislature releases a draft amendment to the Law on Guarding State Secrets that would make it harder for state employees with access to classified information to travel overseas; Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal upholds a ruling in favor of equal inheritance rights for same-sex couples; Japan’s Supreme Court says it is unconstitutional to require transgender persons to be sterilized in order to change their legal gender; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds a law banning same-sex relations within the armed forces; the Chinese operations of Taiwan’s electronics manufacturer Foxconn are reportedly being investigated by tax and land administration authorities in China.
Former President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Ma Ying-jeou, Speaks at NYU Law
This Week in Asian Law
China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee meets to consider the controversial draft Patriotic Education Law, revisions to the Charity Law, and other legislation; Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal rules that same-sex couples who are legally married abroad should have the same rights to rent and own public housing as heterosexual couples; Japan’s Supreme Court rules that the disparity in the value of votes in the 2022 election for the Upper House of the legislature was constitutional; South Korean prosecutors investigate allegations that the Moon Jae-in administration manipulated official economic data; Taiwan’s Labor Ministry proposes increasing the penalty for hiring illegal migrant workers.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Supreme People’s Court issues guidance to improve the legal environment for private business; four UN human rights experts express concern about enforcement of Hong Kong’s National Security Law; the Japanese government says it will move to dissolve the Japanese branch of the Unification Church; South Korea protests China’s suspected repatriation of a large number of North Koreans; Taiwanese legislators are drafting a law to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges.
This Week in Asian Law
Chinese lawyer and writer Guo Feixiong is reported to be seriously ill in prison after hunger striking; Hong Kong police arrest six more suspects in connection with alleged fraud at the Dubai-based cryptocurrency trading platform JPEX; Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates changes its name to Smile-Up and says it will compensate victims of sexual abuse by its late founder; South Korea’s Constitutional Court again upholds the country’s male-only military conscription system; Taiwan investigates four local companies suspected of helping China's Huawei Technologies to build semiconductor facilities.
This Week in Asian Law
The deeply indebted real estate company China Evergrande Group discloses that its founder and chairman has been criminally detained; Hong Kong demands more transparency from virtual assets trading platforms following fraud allegations at JPEX; Japan’s Supreme Court considers whether to eliminate the surgery requirement for changing one’s legal gender; South Korea’s Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional a ban on sending anti-regime leaflets across the border into North Korea; Taiwan’s highest administrative court rules that surgery should not be required to change one’s legal gender.
This Week in Asian Law
China is expected to decide soon whether to arrest a Japanese businessman detained since March on suspicion of espionage; a Hong Kong district court gives prison terms to six more persons convicted of participating in a particularly violent clash with police in November 2019; Japan’s Children and Family Agency publishes a report about its efforts to initiate mandatory background checks for adults who work closely with children; South Korea’s National Assembly votes to lift opposition leader Lee Jae-mung’s immunity to arrest as prosecutors investigate corruption allegations; Taiwan’s Executive Yuan advances a new minimum wage scheme.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Education Ministry issues new rules to eliminate unauthorized off-campus tutoring; the head of the Hong Kong Bar Association says any US sanctions against local judges could harm the city’s legal system; a district court in Japan says same-sex couples are not entitled to spousal benefits from a government employer; a South Korean court jails the vice president of a Korean chip company for leaking semiconductor technology to China; Taiwan’s Central Election Commission clarifies the rules for independent candidates in the January 2024 presidential election.
This Week in Asian Law
Legal experts express concern over proposed revisions to China’s Public Security Administrative Punishments Law; a Hong Kong court says the government has a constitutional duty to provide a framework for legal recognition of same-sex relationships; Japan’s Supreme Court orders Okinawa prefecture to approve a central government plan to relocate a US military base on the island; South Korean medical associations challenge a new law requiring surveillance cameras in operating rooms; a Taiwan court again quashes the efforts of Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je to bring criminal defamation charges against US author Ethan Gutmann.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee releases draft revisions to the Public Security Administrative Punishments Law; Hong Kong police allege that a Cantonese language-promotion group violated the National Security Law by publishing a fictional essay describing a decline in the city’s freedoms; investigators report that the late founder of Japan's biggest boy band talent agency, Johnny Kitagawa, sexually abused boys for decades; South Korean right-wing groups sue e-commerce giants Naver and Coupang and two online vendors for selling T-shirts featuring the smiling face of North Korea’s leader; Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan says courts are trialing the use of generative AI to draft judgments.
This Week in Asian Law
China bans imports of Japanese seafood as Japan begins the slow release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean; Hong Kong’s High Court agrees to rehear the government’s arguments for a civil injunction against the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”; Japanese legislators consider revising special laws that govern the former state monopoly telecoms company NTT; South Korea considers allowing military conscripts to serve in the police force in response to public concerns about crime; a Japanese city assemblyman and his Taiwanese partner register their marriage in Taiwan.
This Week in Asian Law
A report published by China’s Supreme People’s Court says the crime of picking quarrels and causing trouble (寻衅滋事行为) has been abused; Hong Kong’s High Court proposes to delay former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai’s national security trial until December; Japan considers requiring background checks for sex crimes for job candidates at schools and nursery schools; the UN Security Council hears criticisms of North Korea’s human rights abuses but takes no action; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court says cases that ping-pong between the Supreme Court and lower courts may continue to be assigned to the same Supreme Court judge for greater efficiency.
This Week in Asian Law
The Cyberspace Administration of China releases draft rules to restrict businesses’ use of facial recognition technology; Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal hears its first challenge to the sentence handed down in a national security case; a Japanese court orders a medical school to compensate a 32-year-old applicant whom it rejected due to his age; South Korea’s government considers revising its criminal laws in response to a spate of public stabbings and online threats of copycat actions; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court says judges must have more room to exercise discretion when sentencing persons convicted of manufacturing, transporting, or selling Category 1 narcotics.
This Week in Asian Law
China proposes restricting minors to two hours of cell phone internet access daily; Hong Kong's stock exchange stops requiring companies to describe their China-related risks in listing applications; UN human rights experts report “alarming” allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse at Japan’s top male talent firm; a US State Department report says South Korea fails to comply with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in cases involving US children; Taiwan amends three laws that address sexual harassment and gender equality.
This Week in Asian Law
China says that 90% of criminal cases are being disposed of through its new guilty plea system; Hong Kong’s High Court rejects the government’s application for an injunction against the protest song Glory to Hong Kong; the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights makes its first official visit to Japan; South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturns a parliamentary effort to impeach the interior minister for crowd control failures that resulted in 159 deaths last year; Taiwan revises its Gender Equity Education Act to better protect sexual harassment victims in education settings.
This Week in Asian Law
A Chinese court sentences well-known citizen rights’ activist Hao Jinsong to nine years in prison; Hong Kong police question more family members of exiled pro-democracy activists; Japan’s Supreme Court vacates a lower court decision that would have barred employers from rehiring retirees at steeply reduced salaries; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds the constitutionality of changes in the way proportional representation seats are allocated to parties in the National Assembly; a Taiwan court concluded the first criminal case decided by a mixed bench of professional and lay judges since the Citizen Judges Act took effect on Jan. 1.