A Chinese court sentences to two prominent human rights lawyers to lengthy prison terms; Japan’s legislature advances a bill that would allow courts to order GPS monitoring of suspects released on bail; the South Korean Supreme Court rules that Google must disclose whether it shared personal information of South Korean nationals with third parties; Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice proposes to revise the Civil Code to ban corporal punishment of children by their parents.

A Chinese court sentences six defendants in a high-profile human trafficking case; a former democratic politician tells a Hong Kong court that legal scholar Benny Tai’s 2020 election plan could have led to a catastrophe; a Tokyo court orders Waseda University and its former professor to pay damages to a former student for sexual harassment; a South Korean court approves the seizure of four more Mitsubishi patent rights to compensation the victims of forced labor in World War II; lawyers in Taiwan seek the release of a man who has been held on death row for 35 years.

China’s Communist Party launches a political campaign aimed at weeding out disloyal or corrupt cadres in the party-state’s anti-corruption organs; Hong Kong’s national security police question four former members of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions; two senior politicians in Japan’s ruling party call for reforming the child custody rules so that divorced parents are not driven to abduct their children from each other; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds legislation that significantly reduced prosecutors’ investigatory powers; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court orders the legislature to more narrowly tailor a law that says a party at fault cannot file for divorce.

China’s National People’s Congress confirms Xi Jinping’s third five-year term as president during its annual plenary meeting; a planned women’s rights march in Hong Kong is called off and police warn activists not to assemble; Japan’s Supreme Court rules that the country’s personal ID number system is constitutional; South Korea’s government proposes to lengthen the legal workweek to 69 hours from the current 52; Taiwan’s Supreme Administrative Court upholds a fine against China Airlines following a foiled attempt by airline employees to smuggle cigarettes on a plane chartered by President Tsai Ing-wen.

China has a new minister of justice; Hong Kong’s Department of Justice proposes to require chief executive approval for a foreign lawyer to represent a client in cases related to national security; a Japanese court awards compensation to a woman forcibly sterilized in 1970; a South Korean court says same-sex couples are entitled to spousal coverage in the National Health Insurance Service; a court in Taiwan says mainland Chinese nationals are treated as Republic of China citizens when seeking state compensation for wrongful death and injury.

UN rights experts say one million Tibetan children are undergoing forced assimilation at residential schools; Hong Kong’s top court says transgender persons can change their gender identity on official ID cards without undergoing surgery; a Japanese district court dismisses the claim by children of nuclear bomb survivors for governmental support; a court orders the South Korean government for the first time ever to compensate the Vietnamese victim of a Korean military massacre in 1968; Taiwan’s Supreme Court sustains a Taiwanese businessman’s prison sentence for selling oil to North Korea.

China’s National People’s Congress says the Hong Kong government — rather than Hong Kong courts — has the power to decide whether foreign lawyers may participate in national security cases; Hong Kong’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security approves amending a local ordinance to block a British lawyer from representing Jimmy Lai at his national security trial; Japan’s ruling party prioritizes constitutional reforms; South Korea’s National Assembly secretariat shuts down an exhibit of art works satirizing the president and first lady; Taiwan’s Supreme Court overturns the conviction of a man who has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2007.

A Chinese court rejects litigation finance; Hong Kong further postpones Jimmy Lai’s trial on national security charges; Japan lifts its ban on women remarrying within 100 days of divorce; a Korean court cancels a disciplinary warning against a Christian broadcaster that aired anti-gay programs; Taiwan’s government issues its first report on implementing the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

A Chinese court exonerates a man who served 22 years in prison for a murder he did not commit; the Hong Kong government asks China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to decide whether foreign lawyers may represent defendants accused of violating the National Security Law; the Tokyo District Court rules that Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional; South Korea’s Supreme Court rules that transgender people cannot be denied the right to change their legal sex status solely because they have underage children; Taiwan’s voters reject a constitutional amendment that would have lowered the voting age from 20 to 18.

China’s Supreme People’s Court issues rules governing the operations of collegial panels; Hong Kong’s High Court rejects the government’s effort to block a UK barrister from representing Jimmy Lai in his upcoming national security trial; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces plans to legislate high-pressure fundraising by churches; South Korean labor experts say Twitter’s layoffs in that country are open to legal challenge; Taiwan’s premier says the government will step up its response to cryptocurrency crimes.