Beginning in the 1950s, Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) has been an important instrument for Japanese diplomacy.  However, this cold war strategy has evolved over the past two decades, in large part due to the rise of China, to include both national security challenges and the promotion of universal values.  How will Japanese ODA policy respond to the current challenge of striking a balance between promoting universal values and avoiding offense to recipient governments?  Can Japan play a special role as the developed world’s “ambassador” to the Global South? 

Nippon Steel’s planned purchase of former giant U.S. Steel is currently the most important and controversial topic in US-Japan economic relations.  Regardless of whether the purchase is ultimately allowed to proceed, the public opposition from leaders of both American parties raises important questions for the future. What effect could this have on other Japanese FDI into the US and broader US-Japan cooperation? Is there a risk of reciprocity when US companies seek to make acquisitions in Japan? To what extent does it represent a significant broadening of the definition of “national security” against the background trend of de-globalization and the reshoring of supply chains? William Chou, deputy director of the Japan Center at the Hudson Institute, and Hiroyuki Nishimura of Nikkei will put the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel acquisition in context in a panel discussion with NYU Law Adjunct Professor Bruce Aronson and NYU Law Professor Jose Alvarez (moderating).

What is the status of Taiwan under international law? In the second of our speaker series “Taiwan Legal,” Peter Dutton, senior research scholar at the Paul Tsai China Center of Yale Law School, will unpack arguments about who has sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and adjoining small islands that its government controls. If Taiwan’s status is unsettled, does international law still recognize its government’s right of self-defense and the right of its friends to defend it?

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute begins a series of guest talks called Taiwan Legal to address questions about the status of Taiwan in international and domestic law. The first speaker will be Richard Bush, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan. He will explain the genesis and meaning of the Taiwan Relations Act, a 1979 US law that is frequently referenced but apparently not often read. Bush frequently talks about the TRA, which was enacted 45 years ago. In his account, the TRA is not the functional equivalent of a defense treaty but has great significance despite saying “less than meets the eye.” Read more.

Professor Jose Alvarez provided tips and advice on what law reviews and other publishers are looking for in articles on the subject of international law.  This is an insider’s look at what it takes to be published in both student-edited and peer-reviewed journals. 

The National Security Law, which was imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, takes precedence over local law and has profoundly affected civil liberties and the right to fair trial. Does international law no longer matter in Hong Kong? Carole Petersen, professor of law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, finds that in cases not affecting Beijing’s core interests, local judges still rely on international and comparative sources and still rule against the local Hong Kong government. This has been particularly evident in strategic litigation to advance the rights of the LGBT community. Petersen concludes that if the local government is serious about trying to rebuild Hong Kong’s international reputation, then it should accept and fully implement these rulings.  

Private law scholars have viewed Anglo-American common law as the core infrastructure of modern capitalism the world over. But what happens when rising powers like China with very different legal and political systems begin investing abroad on a vast scale? Our speaker, Matthew Erie, associate professor at the University of Oxfordr esponded to this question by launching a six-year project, called China, Law, and Development, and inviting scholars around the world to participate in gathering empirical evidence about the legal underpinnings of China’s worldwide investments, and whether or how China has disrupted prior assumptions about the relationship between law and development. In this talk, he will introduce the concept of “law as infrastructure” to make sense of the strategies and challenges of the People’s Republic of China. Rather than a “clash of civilizations” or a world remade in China’s image, law as infrastructure points to a process of layering, assembling, and bundling different laws and legal regimes including new law that is integrated within existing frameworks, epistemic communities, and institutions, as well as the creation of new infrastructures in emerging sectors such as renewable energy.

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute kicks off its 2024-2025 programs by taking a close look at a problem right here at home: racial profiling of Asian Americans, including at universities. During the Trump administration, the Department of Justice created the China Initiative, a program presented as safeguarding universities and businesses from economic espionage. In practice, it raised widespread concerns of racial profiling of Chinese American and immigrant academics and researchers, many of whom were accused of failing to disclose routine academic activities – but not of espionage or national security breaches. Although the program ended in 2022, there are ongoing efforts to revive it. The Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), a new civil rights advocacy organization created in response to the China Initiative, reports that Asian American researchers and scholars continue to face bias and heightened scrutiny in their working and living environments. AASF Executive Director Gisela Perez Kusakawa will discuss the current challenges faced by Asian American researchers, scholars, and students from Asia, the chilling effect this has, and the need for legal scholars to help develop innovative solutions to the tensions between national security and American values.

China's LGBT community has achieved significant progress this century in winning greater social acceptance. But serious obstacles remain. Come hear what advocates are doing to promote acceptance in the workplace and advance women's reproductive rights in China's diverse family structures. Join us for a conversation with one of the key organizers of ShanghaiPRIDE and a public interest lawyer to hear their advocacy stories and reflections on the current challenges and opportunities facing the community.

China’s success in cultivating Big Tech firms has enabled it to emerge as a formidable rival to the United States in the digital sphere. But in the past few years, the Chinese government has embarked on a massive regulatory crackdown, targeting its largest tech corporations such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Meituan. Many Western experts have viewed this tech crackdown as an assault on private businesses, causing doubt among investors about whether Chinese firms are still investable. Professor Angela Zhang will go beyond the headlines to unravel the dynamic complexity of China’s regulatory governance. Drawing insights from her newly published book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, she will introduce the dynamic pyramid model of regulation, an analytical framework that demystifies Chinese regulatory governance. She will examine the impact of the tech crackdown on the administrative state, the competitive landscape, and global tech rivalry. And she will peer into the future by examining China’s strategy for regulating generative artificial intelligence. 

Materials from China’s Xinjiang region including cotton and polysilicon, permeate global supply chains. All products made with such materials are presumptively banned from the United States under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which took effect almost two years ago. Ned Levin, an attorney who has investigated forced labor in China and represents Uyghur asylum seekers in the United States, will explain how the UFLPA came about, how it works, the steps the US government has taken to enforce this massive and unprecedented new mandate, and reactions from companies and trade groups.

Chinese companies that operate in the US face an increasingly complex legal and political landscape. Rising geopolitical tensions between China and the US make it difficult for Chinese multinationals to comply with the laws of both countries. But they are reluctant to leave the US, having made substantial investments here. In Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the U.S. Legal System, Ji Li uses interviews and survey data to tell the story of how Chinese companies develop in-house legal capacities, engage with US legal professionals, and navigate litigation in US courts. 

One of the missions of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute is to facilitate scholarly exchanges between the US and East Asian countries, with Japan as one of our most important partners. USALI is part of a wider effort at NYU School of Law to be an international law school and foster scholarly conversation across borders.

When compared with other constitutional courts, Japan’s Supreme Court has often been dismissed as a timid institution. It has even been called “the most conservative constitutional court in the world.” Masahiko Kinoshita, a professor of law at Kobe University and leading constitutional law scholar, argues that this sells the court short. In a new paper, he says that in cases involving freedom of expression, voting rights, and representation, the court has protected the “democratic minimum core” values while strategically avoiding confrontation with the political branches. 

Ensuring women’s property rights has long been seen as essential to ensuring their enjoyment of other human rights, from personal safety to economic development. The expert committee that interprets and seeks to enforce the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has over the years developed a unique body of jurisprudence interpreting the convention’s requirement that women enjoy property rights equal to those of men. What is surprising is that this jurisprudence – which encompasses the right to contract, administer property, access credit and government benefits, make use of agricultural land, access adequate housing, and more – has received very little attention from scholars. Law Professor José E. Alvarez, director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at NYU Law School, will explain what he calls CEDAW’s “progressive property jurisprudence.”

China’s escalating coercion campaign against Taiwan is causing seismic shifts in strategic thinking across the region, perhaps nowhere more than in Japan. Although most discussions about the status and future of Taiwan focus on the China-Taiwan-US triangle, Japan arguably has as much or more at stake than the US. Japan’s first and third-largest trading partners are China and Taiwan, respectively. If hostilities broke out between the two, it would be difficult for Japan to remain on the sidelines. Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center, will explain Japan’s perspective on Taiwan, how it hopes to maintain the status quo, and how rising tensions have pushed it to dramatically revise its national security posture.

The 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were initially seen as a testament to resilience as the world recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. But this image was sullied by subsequent allegations of widespread bribery and price-fixing involving a director of the Organizing Committee, major sponsors, and contractors. Professor Masayuki Tamaruya of the University of Tokyo will discuss why international sports financing so often produces corruption scandals, perennial challenges in both international and domestic sports governance, and Japan’s efforts to improve transparency and compliance in its own sports federations and university sports – with mixed results.  

An obscure reef in the South China Sea has become the latest flashpoint in China’s long-running campaign to dominate the South China Sea. Since last summer, the Chinese Coast Guard has repeatedly employed water cannons, lasers, and acoustic weapons and rammed Philippine Navy and Coast Guard vessels to prevent them from resupplying military personnel positioned at Second Thomas Shoal. Jay Batongbacal, a lawyer and professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, will discuss how this tiny maritime feature became a potential conflict site, why a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in the Philippines’ favor has not ended the dispute, and how international law can continue to be effective in the face of Chinese attacks.

As interest in AI surges around the world, and concerns about the risks and harms of AI technology are wide-ranging. Regulatory discussions are correspondingly complex, touching on values such as human rights, democracy, and sustainability. Professor Hiroki Habuka of the Kyoto University Graduate School of Law and Professor Daniel Francis of NYU School of Law will use the current Japanese approach to AI regulation as a framework to explore some of the big questions that AI presents to legislators, citizens, and regulatory theorists.

Human rights has long been one of the most contentious issues in US-China relations. With bilateral relations at their lowest point since Nixon’s trip to Beijing in 1972, Presidents Biden and Xi recently met to restore normal channels of communication and explore areas for ongoing dialogue and cooperation. Can human rights be one such area? Four Chinese experts on human rights will speak at NYU Law about their government’s human rights policies and priorities, the relationship between human rights and security, China’s aspirations for the global human rights system, human rights education in China, and related topics.

In 2019, the world was transfixed by the sight of normally tidy, peaceful Hong Kong wracked by months of massive protests. At stake was Hong Kong’s future, in which many youth had lost hope. Journalists Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin will tell the story of the protests and immediate aftermath mainly through the eyes of four participants, drawing on their new book, Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy.

Since 2017, Japanese women have come forward one after another to publicly share their experiences with sexual harassment. Their bravery has made a difference: In 2020, Japan passed a law requiring large companies to take steps to prevent workplace harassment. Last summer, the penal code was revised to raise the age of consent to 16 and make it somewhat easier to prosecute accused rapists. Kazuko Ito, founder and vice president of Human Rights Now and a lawyer, will talk about the recent efforts to combat sexual harassment in the larger context of the women’s rights struggle in Japan. Questions to explore include the effectiveness of the recent legislative changes and what more needs to happen.

The U.S.-Asia Law Institute hosts Ma Ying-jeou (LLM ‘76) in conversation with USALI founder and Director Emeritus Jerry Cohen. He will talk about the complicated relationships among Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China and the United States.

China has rapidly emerged as a global leader in artificial intelligence, closely rivalling the United States. China is also at the forefront of regulating AI. It has proactively introduced some of the world’s earliest and most comprehensive rules concerning algorithms, deepfakes, and chatbots, among others. Angela Zhang, global professor of law at NYU School of Law, will take a dive deep into China’s regulatory landscape and provide a critical assessment of its AI governance strategies. She will also forecast the future direction of China’s AI regulation and explore its potential implications on the global community. Professor Benedict Kingsbury of NYU School of Law will moderate.

China’s dramatic economic growth over the past four decades has challenged conventional assumptions about the relationship between legal systems and economic development. While China has invested heavily in building its legal system, the role of formal law in governing Chinese markets is clearly different from its role in Western democracies. Tamar Groswald Ozery, who studies the intersection of Chinese law and political economy, will talk about the ways that law has been used in China since 2010 to reconfigure market governance to handle the consequences of prior decades of state capitalism. This reconfiguration is achieved through the mobilization of legal institutions in two directions: intensifying the presence of the regulatory state in the market, and shifting substantial market governance powers directly to the Communist Party. The talk is based on Ozery’s new book, Law & Political Economy in China: The Role of Law in Corporate Governance & Market Growth (Cambridge University Press). The book analyzes market development in China from 1978-2021, and concludes that law serves as an internal party-state instrument for allocating political-economic power.

China now boasts the world’s largest distant water fishing fleet, the third largest commercial shipping fleet by deadweight tonnage, advanced technology for exploring the deep sea, and its own global satellite system. It is about to complete its fifth research station in Antarctica. All this makes China a major actor in determining the future of the high seas – waters outside of national jurisdiction.

The women’s movement in the Republic of Korea has been one of the most active and impactful in the region. South Korea joined CEDAW in 1984 and ratified its optional protocol in 2006. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has led important reforms. But women activists are now facing a severe backlash, and the ministry itself is under attack. Korean feminist activist OH Kyung-jin will discuss the history and development of the women’s movement, the role played by CEDAW in its achievements, and the factors that have produced the current backlash against women’s rights activism.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is one of the most widely embraced international conventions, ratified by 189 states including states in East Asia. But what impact has it had on the actual lives of women in East Asia?

Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of the narrative of China's island disputes with its neighbors in the East and South China Seas. But the main contest concerns the strategic waters associated with those islands. o consolidate control over this vital maritime space, China's leaders have begun to enforce "China's Law of the Sea"…

Earlier this year, China’s Communist Party orchestrated yet another reorganization of party and state organs, resulting in some party and government entities being merged (合并) or joined  (合署). The move follows an even more extensive institutional shakeup in 2018. Meanwhile, the party under Xi Jingping’s leadership continues to encroach on government functions in more subtle ways as well.