This Week in Asian Law
Yuan Gao
This Week in Asian Law

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.

NYU, NYU Law, Awards
Alexis Sanborn
Faculty Director José E. Alvarez elected to the ...

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.

Alexis Sanborn
ONLINE | Law, Justice and Human Rights in China ...

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.

USALI News, US-China Relations, Recent Events, NYU Law
Alexis Sanborn
Jerome A. Cohen receives an honorary degree ...

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.

China, US-China Relations
Guest User
“Was Helping China Build Its Post-1978 Legal ...

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.”

“Was Helping China Build Its Post-1978 Legal System a Mistake?”

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s legislature revises the State Secrets Protection Law and adds a vague new category of secrets; the Hong Kong Journalists Association urges the government to clarify the definitions of new domestic security crimes that it proposes to create; Japan’s prime minister vows to curb unethical political fundraising; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds a tenant-friendly law and rejects restrictions on fetal gender tests; Taiwan moves a step closer to making it easier for some foreign professionals to gain Taiwan citizenship.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s central government warns localities against imposing excessive fines and fees to compensate for falling tax revenues and shrinking income from sales of land use rights; eight defendants in Hong Kong plead guilty to plotting to plant bombs during the city’s 2019 protests; Japan’s immigration authorities seek to revoke the status of foreign permanent residents who repeatedly don’t pay taxes or break the law; South Korea threatens legal action against striking doctors; China’s coast guard boards a Taiwanese tour boat near Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands in the latest tension-raising incident in the Taiwan Strait.

This Week in Asian Law

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.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China releases cases to illustrate the liability rules for dog owners and caregivers; Hong Kong’s justice secretary says journalists who interview activists may be charged with abetting them; a Japanese court approves a transgender man’s official change of gender without undergoing surgery; a South Korean court acquits Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of financial crimes; Taiwan travel agents threaten protests after the government says it will reinstate a ban on tours to China.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China executes three persons in two separate high-profile murder cases; Hong Kong publishes a public consultation document setting out plans to create new national security crimes; foreign-born residents of Japan seek a court ruling that police racial profiling violates Japanese law; a South Korean court orders the state to compensate victims of human rights abuses at a former detention center during the era of military rule; Taiwan’s newly elected Legislative Yuan convenes and chooses a Kuomintang legislator as the new speaker, beginning a new era of divided government.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

A UN working group examines China’s human rights record during its fourth Universal Periodic Review; Hong Kong’s chief justice says threats of sanctions against Hong Kong judges are “repugnant to the rule of law”; a Japanese court sentences a man to death for carrying out a 2019 arson attack that killed 36 people in an animation studio; a South Korean court rules that a ban on rallies near the presidential office is unlawful; the Taiwanese government considers legalizing assisted reproduction for same-sex couples and single women.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate intervenes to protect a whistleblower; a prosecution witness in the Hong Kong trial of former publisher Jimmy Lai testifies that Lai instructed him to encourage people to join the 2019 protests; Japan’s Supreme Court agrees to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit over the eligibility of same-sex partners for public benefits; North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calls for a constitutional amendment to declare that South Korea is his country’s "primary foe."; a Taiwanese woman challenges height requirements for firefighters and police officers..

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Celebrating 25 Years of Japanese Public Interest Lawyers at NYU

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The U.S.-Asia Law Institute and Japanese Federation of Bar Associations celebrate 25 years of bringing Japanese public interest lawyers to NYU as visiting scholars. The program has “deepened our international sophistication beyond transactional law to include comparative perspectives on public interest lawyering,” says NYU Law Professor Emeritus Frank Upham.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s Supreme People’s Court recommends overhauling the system of collateral consequences for persons convicted of crimes; the 2024 agenda for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council includes a Safeguarding National Security Bill to supplement the existing National Security Law; Japanese prosecutors make their first arrests in an investigation into alleged financial reporting crimes by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction; South Korea’s Supreme Court orders Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. to compensate the victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial era; Taiwan Vice President Lai Ching-te wins the presidential election with 40% of the vote in a three-way contest, but the opposition takes over the legislature.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China sanctions a US research company and two analysts for reporting about human rights abuses in Xinjiang; Hong Kong prosecutors open the trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai by accusing him of using the newspaper to “promote hatred” of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities; the Tokyo High Court relieves the government of legal liability to evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown; the head of South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party is recovering after being stabbed in the neck at a political event; Taiwan considers joining the International Criminal Court.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s Supreme People’s Court releases more information about future disclosure of court judgments but questions remain; Hong Kong’s High Court opens the long-delayed trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai on national security and sedition charges; a Japanese court overrides the governor of Okinawa to approve a modified plan to relocate a US military facility on the island; South Korea’s Supreme Court dismisses a lawsuit in a case that launched the country’s #MeToo movement in 2018; Taiwan passes a law to protect its military facilities from espionage.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s Supreme People’s Court instructs lower courts to upload judgments to an internal database, raising concerns that even fewer judgments will be posted to the publicly accessible platform China Judgments Online; the Hong Kong government lifts a two-year limit on freezing the assets of persons accused under the National Security Law; in an landmark sexual assault case, a Japanese court convicts three former soldiers of assaulting a female colleague but gives them suspended prison sentences; South Korea's Supreme Court rules that intentionally and repeatedly making noise in order to harass one’s neighbors is punishable under the anti-stalking law; Taiwanese authorities detain 40 persons on charges of interfering with voting rights, including nine suspected of helping a foreign power to meddle in next month’s presidential and legislative elections.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

A Beijing court rules that AI-generated images can enjoy copyright protection; arguments conclude in the 10-month-long trial of 16 Hong Kong activists accused of conspiring to subvert state power by holding an unofficial primary election; Japan moves toward introducing electronic arrest warrants, interrogation records, and other records of criminal proceedings; a South Korean court orders Apple Inc. to compensate seven iPhone users for slowing down their devices after software updates; Taiwan allows foreign nationals who are inappropriately detained to seek state compensation.

This Week in Asian Law

This Week in Asian Law

China’s Supreme People’s Court releases guidance about application of foreign law when adjudicating foreign-related civil cases; a Hong Kong court hears final arguments in the trial of 16 pro-democracy activists charged with violating the 2020 National Security Law by holding an unofficial primary election; a court jails the head of Japanese non-profit organization for brokering organ transplants overseas for Japanese in need of transplants; South Korea’s conservative president vetoes more legislation approved by the opposition-controlled National Assembly; Taiwan accuses ten persons of spying for China, including several active-duty military personnel.

This Week in Asian Law

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

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

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

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.