Hong Kong’s National Security Law came into effect three years ago this month. One of the Special Administrative Region’s leading legal scholars, Johannes Chan, takes stock of the law’s devastating impact on civil society, freedom of speech, and the legal system itself. He warns that the impending trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai will be a trial of the independence of the judiciary and the integrity of the legal system.
The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act: Investor Protection or Geopolitics?
Tamar Groswald Ozery argues that risks to investors may actually be worsened by US enforcement of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which was enacted in the name of investor protection. Ozery describes the HFCA as part of a geopolitical agenda of decoupling, but says it is backfiring by enhancing the Chinese government’s control over Chinese issuers.
A Long-Term Vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific
The Shared Challenge of Regulating Online Platforms
Concentrated Power
The High Price of Lying in US-China Relations
Following the recent Chinese balloon incident, both Washington and Beijing would do well to recall lessons from a failed CIA espionage mission in China 70 years ago, says Jerome A. Cohen. US refusal to acknowledge the CIA’s role resulted in its own agent, John T. Downey, spending almost 21 years in a Chinese prison. The most obvious lesson: how counterproductive it is for governments to engage in lying.
The Future of CEDAW
Rangita de Silva de Alwis, who joined the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in January 2023, shares her vision for future development of the jurisprudence of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Opposing Forced Labor in Xinjiang
In Search of a Rule of Law Model? Try Japan
Of Dialogues and Prisoner Lists
As China prepares to resume bilateral human rights dialogues with Western governments, a human rights advocate reflects on what such dialogues can achieve. Experience tells us that dialogues cannot immediately solve China’s human rights problems, but they can increase transparency — especially about prisoners of conscience.
The Pacific Alliance Treaty Organization: A Proposal
As the pandemic subsides and public confidence in his presidency grows, President Biden should consider how his administration might advance peace, prosperity, and stability in the world. Establishing a Pacific Alliance Treaty Organization (PATO) would advance all three. PATO would provide for collective security and embed key governance principles in a contested region.
Vietnam’s Closing Legal Space for Civil Society
Reassessing Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal
On December 23, Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal issued its final, written judgment in the case against Khieu Samphan, affirming his convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity, and other international crimes, as well as his life sentence. The judgment brought to a close the tribunal’s judicial proceedings and marked the improbable achievement of a measure of justice for the millions of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. Unfortunately, a narrative has emerged among international human rights organizations and commentators that dismisses its achievements and focuses on its flaws.
Adaptive Protection: Strengthening ASEAN’s Human Rights Regime through Scrutiny
Human rights advocates frequently criticize the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for addressing human rights through soft rather than hard law mechanisms. Yet as ASEAN’s human rights system evolves, there are grounds for optimism that it is gradually developing scrutiny mechanisms that increase human rights protection.
The United States and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
Taiwan’s Citizen Judges Act: Part III
The Long Road to Ending Gendered Violence in China
In June 2022, a group of men violently attacked four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, China, after one of the women rejected a pickup attempt. Video of the attack went viral. What happened next revealed the problem at the heart of gendered violence in China: instead of acknowledging the role gender played in the attack, authorities treated it as a case of gang criminality.
Lessons from Toshiba: Corporate Governance in the Era of Activist Shareholders
The most significant, long-running corporate governance scandal in the history of Japan may finally be coming to a head. Following a series of misdeeds and clashes with activist investors over the past seven years, Toshiba Corporation, an icon of the Japanese business establishment, is in negotiations to sell itself to a Japanese private equity fund.
Decoding the Supreme People’s Court’s Services and Safeguards Opinions
Over the past seven years, the Supreme People’s Court has issued almost 30 documents that contain the phrase “judicial services and safeguards.” These documents have received little attention but they represent what is becoming the SPC’s most important function in the Xi Jinping era: translating Chinese Communist Party policies into guidance for lower-level courts.