Volume 4, Number 9
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Legal Dialogue, Chinese Style

Legal scholars in China generally refrain from criticizing official policies in public. Qin (Sky) Ma writes that scholars’ response to the feared shutdown of the China Judgments Online (中国裁判文书网) at the end of 2023 was a noteworthy deviation from the norm. It showed that the space for critical discourse, though constrained, is not entirely closed and that strategic engagement by scholars can have impact. 

Volume 4, Number 8
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Feminization of Poverty and Women's Leadership

Poverty is often the face of a woman. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, hopes that this year’s meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will help make women the face of anti-poverty solutions.

Volume 3, Number 24
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The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act: ...

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.

Volume 3, Number 20
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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.

Volume 3, Number 19
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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.

Japan

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The Nippon Steel Decision Is Not About Japan

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President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel was criticized as a bid for union support in an election year. Based on information that has come out in subsequent litigation, we now know that the committee charged with reviewing the transaction did identify national security concerns that were rooted in factors unique to the global steel market and Nippon Steel.  

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Why America’s Steel Industry Needs Nippon Steel: An Investor’s Reflections

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President Donald Trump’s proposal to allow Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel could produce a genuine victory out of the embarrassing saga of the past year. Andrew McDermott, a long-term investor in Japan, says the key question in any new deal will be whether the terms allow Nippon Steel to deploy its management strengths and show Americans the path back to their manufacturing glory days. For this, we need to once again value real engineering over financial engineering.

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Why Blocking the Nippon Steel Deal May Seriously Harm US-Japan Relations

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By Bruce Aronson

A December 18 deadline looms for the US government to decide if it will allow or block Japanese company Nippon Steel from buying once-mighty, now troubled U.S. Steel. Bruce Aronson writes that the Japanese government and business community are deeply concerned by the prospect of a rebuff on national security grounds. With the presidential election over, it’s time for Americans to focus on the possible harms to US-Japan relations and US outgoing investment if Washington blocks the deal.

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Manufactured Threat? Assessing Nippon Steel’s Plan to Buy U.S. Steel

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By Bruce Aronson

Economic nationalism is one of the few things that can unite Democrats and Republicans these days. Politicians in both parties have spoken out against Nippon Steel’s planned purchase of former giant U.S. Steel. But does the transaction truly pose a threat to US interests? Is steel still a strategic industry or does it merely evoke nostalgia for an industrial past?  What national security or economic interest is at stake?  After all, Japan is our most important ally in the Asia-Pacific region. And what kind of reviews must be passed for the deal to go through? Bruce Aronson assesses the proposed transaction.

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Is Japan (Finally) Back?

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The Japanese stock market enjoyed an impressive rally this year, with the Nikkei 225 Index gaining well over 20% and achieving its highest level in three decades. Is Japan (finally) back? Bruce Aronson writes that a lasting recovery will depend upon how deeply corporate governance reforms have taken root and what policies have been adopted to counter the drag of an aging society.

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Lessons from Toshiba: Corporate Governance in the Era of Activist Shareholders

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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.