Our Asia Law Talks speakers have included:

March 12, 2008  Professor Jun-Gen Oh, Kyung Hee University, Recent Transformation of the Korean Legal Education System.  Professor Oh is an expert in administrative law, planning law, government organization and autonomy.  He has published widely on administrative law and the administrative process (in German as well as Korean) and has taught at Kyung Hee since 2002.  His university was chosen to be one of the new law schools to be established in Korea and his discussion focused on the major changes this important reform will entail.

February 26, 2008  Dean Wan Meng, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Judicial Reform in China.  Dean Wan formerly served as the presiding judge of the Commercial Division of the Hubei High Court and as the president of the Wuhan Maritime Court.  He is also an arbitrator with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), and he specializes in international business law, commercial law and arbitration law.

February 12, 2008  Professor Yoshinobu Kitamura (Sophia University) and Professor Koji Higashikawa (Kanazawa University), Law and Social Change Issues in Japanese Law.  In this joint session, Professor Kitamura, an environmental law specialist and director of the Global Environmental Law Center at Sophia, spoke on "Zero Tolerance in Tokyo: Enforcement of the No-Smoking Ban in the Downtown Chiyoda District."  Professor Higashikawa, who teaches and writes on Anglo-American law for a Japanese audience, discussed "Judicial Selection in Japan:  How Young is Too Young?"

January 31, 2008  Professor Jae-Hyup Lee and Professor Jisuk Woo, both of Seoul National University, Social Change and Legal Reform in Korea.  Professor Lee teaches in SNU's College of Law and is an environmental law expert; he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the WSRSL in 2006.  Professor Jisuk Woo teaches in the graduate department of the Public Administration at SNU, and is an expert on e-commerce and intellectual property law.

January 24, 2008  Professor Jerome A. Cohen, New York University School of Law,  China's New Lawyers Law. Professor Cohen is one of the founders of Asian legal studies in the U.S. and the senior American expert on Chinese law.  He pioneered international law practice relating to China when he opened a law office in Beijing in 1979, and he is the author of many books and articles on Chinese law.

October 31, 2007  Mr. Eric J. Piesner,  Real Estate Practice in Asia.  Mr Piesner, a 1992 graduate of the WSRSL, is a partner in the Real Estate Group of the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster.  His practice focuses on the representation of Japanese, U.S. and European institutional clients in all major aspects of real estate practice in Japan; he has lived and worked in Japan for more than six years.

October 9, 2007  Ms. Michelle Staggs, The East-West Center, Watching Justice in Motion: Trial Monitoring at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.  Ms. Staggs is an Australian lawyer who has also worked as a trial monitor in Sierra Leone.  She now serves as the Coordinator for the Asian International Justice Initiative (a joint project of the East-West Center and the UC Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center.

September 19, 2007  Dr. Susan Roosevelt Weld, China, the U.S. and the International Criminal Court.  Dr. Weld is a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School and served as General Counsel of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China from 2002 to 2005.  She has taught Chinese law at Boston College Law School and at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and is a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School.

April 10, 2007  Professor Keun-Gwan Lee, Seoul National University, Legal Education Reform in Korea.  Professor Lee is  vice dean for international affairs at Seoul National's College of Law and is well known for his work on international and comparative law.  He has published widely on issues relating to state succession, human rights, cultural property and treaties.  Professor Lee presented a fascinating analysis of possible legal education reform in Korea - with comparisons to reforms underway in Japan and Taiwan.

March 12, 2007  Professor Jerome A. Cohen, New York University, The Satisfactions of Asian Law. Professor Cohen is one of the founders of Asian legal studies in the U.S. and the senior American expert on Chinese law.    He pioneered international law practice relating to China when he opened a law office in Beijing in 1979, and he is the author of many books and articles on Chinese law.  Professor Cohen's talk provided students and faculty with wide-ranging reflections on the development of Chinese law, access to China and possibilities for the future.

March 7, 2007  Professor Andrew Halkyard, University of Hong Kong, Common Law Heritage and Statutory Diversion:  Taxation in Singapore and Hong Kong.  Professor Halkyard is a leading international expert on comparative taxation law and frequently consults on tax issues.  He is the author of the Encyclopedia of Hong Kong Taxation, and has taught in Hong Kong for more than twenty years.  Professor Halkyard offered an analysis of the development of tax law in Singapore and Hong Kong and his conclusions on how tax policies have affected economic development.

February 12, 2007  Professor Xu Bing, Law Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, Chinese Law and Legal Practice.  Professor Xu was a member of GH & Partners from 1994-2004 and was involved in a high-powered international law practice in China.  He is the author of many articles on Chinese law and has participated in the drafting of  major legislation in China, including the Constitution, the Uniform Contract Law and the Administrative Litigation Law.  Professor Xu provided participants with a personal and highly informative account of recent legal developments.

October 27, 2006  Professor Carole Petersen (visiting professor at the Law School) and Professor Jan Currie of Murdoch University, Academic Freedom in Hong Kong: Conflicts and Controversies since Reunion with China. Hong Kong's academic freedom is legally protected, despite the close proximity and relationship with Mainland China. Professors Petersen and Currie analyzed several controversial incidents that have challenged Hong Kong academics' freedoms since reunification with China in 1997. The session launched their excellent new book, Academic Freedom in Hong Kong (Lexington Books 2006).