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.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has recently started highlighting the importance of promoting “foreign-related rule of law,” a new category of law that knits together Chinese and international law to govern China’s offshore activities. One place to look for foreign-related rule of law in action is in Chinese-invested overseas special economic zones, which some foreign scholars view as extraterritorial zones under Chinese power and law.

联合国《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》（CEDAW）是唯一一部全面保障妇女人权和防止性别歧视的国际条约。负责监督成员国落实、履行公约的机构名为联合国消除对妇女歧视委员会。众所周知，委员会的主要任务是跟进成员国在妇女权利方面取得的进展；而鲜为人知的是，通过发布各种文件，委员会也在积极阐释、发展CEDAW的规则体系。

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.

Mike Chinoy, a former CNN Beijing bureau chief, will talk about his new book, Assignment China, an oral history of American journalists who reported on China from the Communist revolution of 1949 through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over a decade has passed since the United Nations adopted the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Human Rights Now, a Tokyo-based international human rights NGO, works to promote awareness and implementation of the principles in Asia.

Labor unions have recently reappeared in news headlines in Japan and the US as both countries recognize a need to improve employee wages, benefits, and working conditions.  However, there is a striking fundamental difference between the two countries.

The massive protests that roiled Hong Kong in 2019 and their political aftermath comprised both complex political and social phenomena and intense personal narratives. Rowena He, an associate professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will reflect on the events of 2019-2022 using narrative accounts drawn from her interactions with Hong Kong and mainland Chinese students in the territory.

China’s staggering economic development over the past four decades owes much to the effectiveness of its tax system. Wei Cui, a professor of law and tax expert at the University of British Columbia, will share highlights from his 2022 book The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State, in which he introduces the politics, policies, and practices of tax collection in China.