South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s unexpected and short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024 presented severe challenges to the nation’s legal and political systems. Eungi Hong writes that the responses of other institutions, especially the courts, may serve as a testament to the resilience of South Korea’s Constitution and democracy.
One of the most complicated issues in contemporary international relations is the status of the self-governing island of Taiwan and its government in Taipei, formally called the government of the Republic of China. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute is hosting a series of speakers to address Taiwan’s status. We began with a talk by Richard Bush, a nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution who led US engagement with Taiwan from 1997 to 2002 as chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan. In his October 30, 2024 online talk at NYU Law, Bush explained the genesis and significance of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
February 16, 2025-February 22, 2025
A coordinated operation by the Thai, Chinese, and Myanmar governments achieves the release of hundreds of foreign nationals forced to work in telecoms fraud operations in Myanmar; Hong Kong’s Democratic Party studies measures to dissolve itself; a court in Japan convicts a would-be assassin of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and sentences him to ten years in prison; criminal proceedings begin against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as he continues to battle impeachment; Taiwan praises and China condemns the US Department of State for removing a statement on its web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence.
February 9, 2025-February 15, 2025
China’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate issue new typical cases; the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association sues her former employer, the Wall Street Journal; President Donald Trump’s comments that Nippon Steel would invest in US Steel instead of pursuing a takeover reportedly took both companies by surprise; South Korea’s opposition-led National Assembly calls on Acting President Choi Sang-mok to completely fill the bench of the Constitutional Court as it hears the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol; Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature votes to impose new requirements to initiate the recall of elected officials.
February 2, 2025-February 8, 2025
China files a WTO complaint against the US in response to President Trump’s 10% tariff on Chinese imports; the long-running national security trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai resumes after a lunar new year break with the prosecutor challenging Lai’s credibility; Japan’s National Police Agency says the number of reported crimes rose in 2024 due to increased investment fraud and social media scams but remains below historic highs; South Korea’s Constitutional Court schedules the start of its impeachment trial of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo; partisan groups in Taiwan submit petitions to launch recall campaigns against each other’s legislators.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
