The William S. Richardson School of Law has long been a leader in Asian and Pacific studies, and it is ideally situated to attract leading academics, business executives, and policymakers from Asia-Pacific and the U.S. mianland to participate in the Institute's activities. The Institute will cooperate with the College of Business and with area studies centers at the University of Hawai`i, as well as with the East-West Center, to take advantage of our combined strengths, name recognition, and network of relationships in the region and within the local business community.

The faculty at the William S. Richardson School of Law is unusually strong in Asian and Pacific law - few, if any, law schools can match our commitment to, and expertise in, the area. That expertise is reflected in the large number of Pacific-Asian courses we teach and the unique specialization and certificate program in Pacific-Asian Legal Studies (PALS) that we currently offer our students.  In 2005, ten students (about 10% of the class) graduated with PALS certificates recognizing their concentration in the area, and many of their classmates enrolled in at least several PALS courses.  This makes for a community of shared interests and an enthusiastic base for advancing programs related to Asian-Pacific business. Our law students also manage and edit the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, a web-based journal with timely articles that attract a wide readership on legal issues relating directly to Asia and the Pacific.

• Prof John L. Barkai - teaches Intercultural Negotiations, International Negotiations, Negotiation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has taught ADR in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Micronesia, and he has studied negotiation in Asia.
• Prof. Charles D. Booth - teaches Asian Insolvency Law, Asian Commercial Law, Business Reorganizations, and Secured Transactions. He taught for more than 16 years in Hong Kong and is an expert in cross-border and comparative Asian insolvency and commercial law. His current research examines the development of insolvency and secured transaction infrastructures in Asia in the aftermath of '97 financial crisis, with a focus on China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.
• Prof. Ronald C. Brown - teaches Asia-Pacific Comparative Labor Law, Chinese Law, and Employment Law. He is a labor and employment law expert who specializes in comparative and Chinese labor law issues. He has been a Fulbright distinguished lecturer at Peking University and is currently serving as the Director of the University of Hawai`i's Center for Chinese Studies.
• Prof. David L. Callies - teaches Land Use and Property Law.
• Prof. Alison W. Conner - teaches Asian Comparative Law, Chinese Business Law, and Business Associations. She is a Chinese law and legal history specialist who has lived and taught in Chinese Asia for 14 years, including a semester as a Fulbright distinguished lecturer at Tsinghua University. She is currently the Director of International Programs at the William S. Richardson School of Law.
• Prof. Danielle Conway-Jones - teaches Intellectual Property, International Intellectual Property, and Internet Law & Policy. She has written about globalization and Mongolia and will be a Fulbright distinguished lecturer in Australia in 2007.
• Prof. Lawrence C. Foster - teaches Securities Regulation. He is a Chinese studies specialist who is actively involved with the East-West Center. He is currently on leave from the William S. Richardson School of Law in Shanghai, where he is working with one of the largest Chinese law firms.
• Prof. Mark A. Levin - teaches International Business Transactions and U.S.-Japan Business Transactions. He is a Japanese law expert who taught for several years at Hokkaido University.
• Prof. Justin Levinson - teaches Business Associations, Business Planning, Corporate Finance, and Law and Social Science. He pursues research on cultural psychology and law, with a focus on Asia.

In addition, the William S. Richardson School of Law established its first masters program in 2003, a one-year LL.M. for foreign lawyers and legal professionals. Our students have come from Europe, Latin America, Japan, Korea, China, and Thailand. Through the generosity of the Freeman Foundation, we now can admit and fully support two LL.M. students a year who come from China and other developing Asian nations. The current LL.M. class of 11 students is the largest ever. We are also considering establishing a more general LL.M. program in Asian comparative law that will be open to American J.D. graduates as well as to international students.

The William S. Richardson School of Law has an extended network of contacts throughout Asia and the Pacific. Two faculty members have long-term experience teaching in the region (i.e., Charles Booth spent more than sixteen years in Hong Kong and Alison Conner spent twelve years in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), two (Ronald Brown and Alison Conner) recently served as Fulbright professors in China, and another (Danielle Conway-Jones) will soon serve as a Fulbright professor in Australia. Larry Foster spent the better part of the 2005-2006 academic year in Shanghai and Mark Levin has spent several years teaching Japan.

These individuals have strengthened the William S. Richardson School of Law's ties with Peking University, Tsinghua University, the University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University, the University of the Philippines, and a number of Japanese universities. Professors from law schools throughout Asia regularly teach mini-courses at the Law School, and we have a constant flow of visiting delegations from a vast range of Asian law schools. In addition, a great number of our students have lived in Asia and the Pacific before attending law school, many intern or work there while they are law students, and a significant number work in Asia after graduation.

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