The U.S.-Asia Law Institute celebrated the forthcoming publication of Professor Emeritus Jerome Cohen’s memoirs with a book talk and reception attended by dozens of colleagues, students, and mentees from across his lengthy career, along with several generations of family members.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought a massive acceleration of the trade war with China that he began during his first term and that President Biden deepened. So far, Trump’s focus has been on tariffs, not exclusive to China. Biden introduced a complex array of US export, import, investment, and sanctions regimes more narrowly targeting China, each with distinct but overlapping rules. The resulting trade regime is difficult for American companies to follow and also increasingly relies upon cooperation and enforcement by other countries. Transshipment restrictions have become an onerous element of both US and Chinese measures. Particularly affected are East Asian countries that are usually regarded as US partners but rely on trade with both superpowers. Christina Davis, a professor of Japanese politics at Harvard University and director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and Pasha Hsieh, professor of law at Singapore Management University, will discuss the economic and political impact that US-Chinese rivalry is having on these countries, how much agency they have to comply or abstain from the superpower struggle, the impact on regional trade patterns, and whether these smaller countries may help lead the way back to a more unified rules-based trade order.

The Constitutional Courts of South Korea and Taiwan have been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks as they are asked to arbitrate bitter power struggles between the elected branches – power struggles in which the justices themselves have been targeted. Two eminent constitutional scholars – Chaihark Hahm of Yonsei Law School and Jiunn-rong Yeh of National Taiwan University – will explain the background to the current crises and reflect on the role of courts in protecting democracy at times of deep partisan divisions.