As we reflect on developments in East Asia in 2024 through the lens of law and legal processes, one thing is clear: the United States in 2025 must pay more attention to the growing domestic political instability of its allies, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. South Korea’s brief flirtation with martial law grabbed attention, but it has suffered legislative logjam for months. So has Taiwan, and similar prospects loom for Japan.
USALI Faculty Director Emeritus Jerome Cohen Reflects on China's Rule by Law in an Interview
Why Blocking the Nippon Steel Deal May Seriously Harm US-Japan Relations
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.
USALI is Accepting Applications for 2025-2026 Visiting Scholars Program
The U.S.-Asia Law Institute welcomes a small number of visiting scholars each fall to work on self-directed research projects addressing issues involving law in East Asia, including in the domestic law of individual East Asian jurisdictions, comparative law, and international law. Applicants should be legal scholars or practitioners who are highly motivated to advance knowledge, engage with new perspectives, and network with colleagues from around the world. The application period for 2025-2026 visiting scholars is now open until January 31, 2025.
Talking Points: What Does US Law Say About Taiwan?
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.
[Recording] Before BRI: Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance
Beginning in the 1950s, Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) has been an important instrument for Japanese diplomacy. Its initial focus on economic development in Asia was characterized as being both nonmilitary and nonpolitical. 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? Hiroaki Shiga, a professor at Yokohama National University, will join NYU Law Adjunct Professor Bruce Aronson in a conversation on the evolution and current challenges of Japan’s ODA policy
Chinese Influence Operations Under International Law
In September, the federal court in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment against Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, for failing to register as a foreign agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party. Xuan W. Tay writes that while the art of influence is inseparable from the work of diplomacy, international law does not give PRC officials free rein to carry out influence operations inside other countries.
Taking Stock of Law and Development with Chinese Characteristics
In 2019, Matthew S. Erie, an associate professor of modern Chinese studies and member of the law faculty at Oxford University, began an ambitious project called China Law and Development in an effort to understand the role that law plays, directly or indirectly, in China’s outbound investment. As he wraps up the project in 2024, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute invited Professor Erie to share some of what he has learned
[Recording] Global Japan: Nippon Steel, US Steel, and the Implications for US-Japan Relations
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)
Taiwan Legal: What does international law say about Taiwan?
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?
[Recording] Taiwan Legal: What Does US Law Say About Taiwan? -Revisiting the Taiwan Relations Act
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. Is Taiwan a sovereign state? What is the legal relationship between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China? Is United Nations membership essential for statehood? How should other states engage with Taiwan? How much of US support for Taiwan is grounded in law and how much in policy? Does international law recognize Taiwan’s right of self-defense or the right of its friends to come to its aid?
[Recording] The Current Agenda of the UN’s International Law Commission
Two members of the International Law Commission (ILC), the UN’s premier body for the codification and progressive development of international law, Phoebe Okowa and Nilufer Oral had a conversation with Prof. Jose Alvarez on the role and promise of the ILC -- and especially the challenge of sea-level rise which is being addressed in an ILC Study Group co-chaired by Ms. Oral. This is a rare opportunity to engage with two leading international lawyers on timely topics.
[Recording] Writing International Law: A guide to students interested in writing and publishing
[Event Recording] International Law in Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal: Still Relevant?
The National Security Law, which China 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.
[Event Recording] Law as Infrastructure: China in the World
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 Oxford responded 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.
This Week in Asian Law
China releases a draft Private Economy Promotion Law for public comment, after several difficult years for the country's private sector; Hong Kong's top court hears arguments over whether same-sex couples should enjoy the same inheritance rights as heterosexual married couples.; Japan enacts a law that offers an apology and compensation to victims of forced sterilization; a South Korean woman sues the government and others for facilitating the overseas adoption of her kidnapped daughter; China detains four Taiwanese employees of Foxconn
Meet our 2024-2025 Visiting Scholars!
First row, from left to right: Katherine Wilhelm, Yoichiro Hamabe, Eungi Hong, Cynthia Estlund, Jose E. Alvarez, Bruce Aronson, Frank Upham, Jae Young Ryu, and Shulan Yang;
Second row: Amy Gao, Tanaka Yu, Cheol Hwan Choi, Masahito Toki, Elizabeth Chien-Hale, Xu'er Ou, Taoran Zhang, and Xuan W. Tay.
The U.S.-Asia Law Institute is proud to announce our 2024-2025 Visiting Scholar cohort. They focus on a wide range of topics, including comparative law projects examining the respective approaches of the US and Japan with respect to regulating labor compliance in corporate supply chains, handling complex corporate cases in their respective courts, and promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments. Others are looking at the World Trade Organization as a forum for resolving trade disputes between China and Taiwan, the evaluation of judges in South Korea and the US, legal protections for undocumented migrant children, China’s project of developing an “independent legal knowledge system” with Chinese values, and freedom of speech in the workplace.
Japan Honors Professor Frank K. Upham
Japanese Ambassador Mikio Mori bestowed the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, upon Professor Frank K. Upham for significantly promoting the understanding of Japanese law in US academia and building networks among global legal communities. The award is one of the highest honors that the government of Japan confers upon foreign nationals.
[Event Recording] Perpetual Foreigners: The Asian American Fight for Civil Rights
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 and Asian 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 and Asian researchers, scholars, and students, 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.
USALI's Bruce Aronson quoted by Japan Times
Bruce Aronson, senior advisor to USALI’s Japan Center and adjunct faculty at NYU Law, was quoted by the Japan Times as casting doubt on the US government’s nation security interest in blocking Nippon Steel from acquiring U.S. Steel. “I thought that politically it was kind of a standoff, but apparently the administration … decided that a standoff wasn't good enough, that they should take some positive action to try to win the votes in Pennsylvania,” the newspaper quoted Aronson as saying. Read the full report here.