Asian Law Center

In May 2009, Jingjing Zhang, the Litigation Director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims in China and one of China's leading public interest lawyers, delievered the 2009 Severyns-Ravenholt Lecture entitled "Law and the Environmental Movement in China." Zhang, an outspoken environmental advocate, represents pollution victims in law suits and promotes public participation by helping communities organize public hearings on environmental rights and licensing processes. She has won milestone cases in the Chinese courts, including the first successful environmental class action suit in China, against a chemical company that discharged toxic substances in Fujian Province. Zhang also participated in a landmark suit against the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning and the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau; after the first-ever public hearing related to environment issues, she represented the community to sue the two government agencies.

On April 16, 2009, Professor Zang delivered the lunch address at a symposium on Environmental Justice and Governance: African Perspectives in the Neo-Liberal Era. Professor Zang offered a critical analysis of China’s Environmental Footprint in Africa.

The symposium, hosted by the African Studies Program of the Jackson School of International Studies in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Washington, the Graduate School, the Program on the Environment, the University of Washington School of Law and the Asian Law Center, explored the inter-relations between the environment, peace, development, and legal and political governance technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Interdisciplinary panels will address environmental governance, democratic participation, and economic development in African countries.

This public workshop, held at the University of Washington School of Law in January 2009, brought together Japan and China specialists to assess the role of international law and regulatory change in shaping the continuing economic transformation of these two Asian countries. The workshop featured case studies by Professors Saadia Pekkanen (Jackson School / ALC), Jane Winn, Dongsheng Zang and Veronica Taylor and commentary by leading international trade specialists Professor Henry Gao (Hong Kong U / NUS) and Amelia Porges (Sidley Austin, DC). The workshop was co-sponsored by the University of Washington School of Law Asian Law Center, University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies Japan Studies and China Studies Programs, University of Washington Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professorship, and The American Society of Law - International Economic Law Interest Group.

On October 2, 2008, Eminent Prof. Zhang Jing of Peking University discussed her ongoing research on rapidly changing popular conceptions of justice in China and the changing notion of citizenship, focusing on three Chinese criminal law cases and the social discourse around them. The three cases show a historical development over the last several decades in China: a 1968 case during the Cultural Revolution, a 1979 case shortly afterward, and a 2005 case showing contemporary Chinese society. By comparing the social discourse around the three cases, Professor Zhang argues that there is an emerging notion of "citizenship" in contemporary Chinese society.

Professor Zhang is Professor of Sociology at Peking University, and a senior research fellow at the Peking University Center for Civil Society Studies. She is among a very small handful of social scientists in China conducting empirical socio-legal research on civil society, legal mobilization, citizenship, and inequality in urban and rural China. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2003-4 she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University's Fairbank Center.

In October 2008, the Center, in collaboration with the University of Washington Office of the Provost, hosted an Open Government Information observation study tour for a delegation of 12 provincial and local officials from Hunan Province. Members of the delegation are involved in the establishment and implementation of Hunan Province’s open government system. The study tour was conducted by The Asia Foundation, in partnership with Hunan's Legislative Affairs Office.

Professors Zang, Whiting and Schumacher presented an overview of U.S. models of legal aid and clinical legal education. The delegation also met with counterparts at the Washington state, county, and city levels to gain an understanding of the elements of open government systems.

At the 2008 Alumni Recognition Banquet, the Law School presented Mr. J.H. Jerry Zhu (LL.M in Asian and Comparative Law 1982) with the 2008 Distinguished Alumni award in recognition of his civic, professional, and community service. In 1987, Zhu became the first Washington state bar member from mainland China, and three years later, the first Chinese national to make partner at a major American law firm. In 1994, Zhu opened the Shanghai office of Davis Wright Tremaine—the first American law firm allowed to establish a presence in Shanghai. AS an affiliate professor, Zhu taught Chinese law at the UW School of Law for nine years.

In 2007, we welcomed to the Center Mina Titi Liu, formerly the Ford Foundation’s Law and Rights program officer in Beijing, China. Her research and teaching have focused on Chinese law and society, comparative criminal procedure and public interest law. At the Law School Ms. Liu co-taught “Law in Modern Chinese Society” with Professor Dongsheng Zang. Her public lecture as Garvey Schubert Barer Visiting Professor in Asian Law, on International Disability Lawyering and Advocacy, was part of the groundbreaking international disability human rights symposium: “Framing Legal and Human Rights Strategies for Change: A Case Study of Disability Rights in Asia,” held at the Law School in April, 2008, which she has co-organized with Professors Paul Steven Miller and Veronica Taylor.

Our Dean and faculty travel regularly to China. Following our alumni and partner visits to Beijing and Shanghai in May 2005, Professors Veronica Taylor and Dongsheng Zang visited Renmin University of China, the University of International Business and Economics, and East China University of Politics and Law in 2006. Professor Zang and Professor Winn made research visits to China in 2007 and 2008.

Current Dean Greg Hicks visited Beijing in October 2007 as a speaker and consulting expert at the workshop on water conservation legislation sponsored by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) State Council, Office of Legislative Affairs/Yale Law School China Law Center. Dean Hicks gave a presentation on property and licensing regimes for water resources, discussing their impact on resource conservation and on the maintenance of regulatory control and offered comments on China’s proposed water conservation legislation. Hicks was also a guest lecturer at Renmin University of China Law School where he presented on the challenges posed to effective law and regulation of natural resources.

Many Asian Law alumni associate their time at UW with studying in the library under the care and guidance of East Asia Law Department head, Bill McCloy. Bill recently retired and it is with great appreciation that we thank him for his many years of service actively supporting Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese legal studies and offering guidance to students, faculty, and researchers alike.

William (Bill) McCloy was one of few law librarians in the U.S. fluent in both Korean and Chinese, and was professionally recognized for producing leading resources for Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese legal research and information. Together with our Japanese collections specialist, Robert Britt, Bill continued to build the Gallagher Law Library's CJK collections. Bill cataloged thousands of Korean and Chinese law books, helping to make the University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library a pre-eminent institution for East Asian legal research.

Professor Winn was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, to spend the summer in 2008 in China researching the impact of information technology (IT) and globalization on commercial law with Song Yuping, a lecturer in law at Henan University of Technology (China). Song, a Visiting Scholar in 2005-06, and Winn will compare developments in commercial law in China to those in the United States and European Union. They have a co-authored an article titled, Can China Promote Electronic Commerce Through Law Reform? Some Preliminary Case Study Evidence.

Since 2006, Professors Taylor, Zang and Raigrodski have been working with the UW Global Affairs China team charged with examining opportunities for UW to establish a presence in China. Professors Zang and Raigrodski were part of the team coordinating the visit of Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to the UW campus on August 22, 2007. During his visit to UW, Ambassador Zhou spoke to students, faculty and administrators about trade and economic cooperation.

That same morning, UW President Mark Emmert announced the opening of UW’s new office in Beijing. Hank Wang, formerly a principal with the law firm Garvey Schubert Barer, was appointed Vice President of the UW’s China office in 2007. Wang has 30 years of experience in legal practice and academic affairs in the US and China relations and has been appointed an Affiliate Professor at the UW Law School.

In October 2006, Professor Taylor and Dean Knight made a reciprocal visit to our colleagues, Dean Johannes M.M Chan and Professor Hualing Fu at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, who visited with us at the UW in 2006. In 2007 the two schools formally partnered to exchange students and faculty and further collaborate on joint research projects. Professors Fu, Taylor and Whiting are now leading a three-year project to provide legal aid and enhance the rule of law in rural China. The project combines UW and HKU expertise in Chinese law, clinical legal instruction, and developmental assistance.

In late 2006 The Asian Law Center was awarded a grant from for a three-year project to help promote and improve access to justice in rural China. The project, titled "Empowering Rural Communities: Legal Aid and the Rule of Law in Rural China", promotes immediate access to law for citizens in three of China’s poorest provinces, as well evaluate the country's current legal aid services. As part of the project, up to 100 Chinese county legal aid lawyers and law student interns will received training.

Professor Taylor and UW Political Science Professor Susan Whiting are the lead faculty and Professor Zang serves as the country expert for the project, begining January 2007. The on-site partners include the national law schools in Hunan and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), some of the most under-resourced provinces of China, and the National Legal Aid Center, Justice Ministry (Beijing).

Professor Zang joined the faculty in 2006, after serving as a visiting professor in 2005-06. His academic interests include international trade law, and comparative study of Chinese law, with a focus on the role of law and state in response to social crises in the social transformation in China. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School, in addition to his LL.M. from Renmin University (Beijing) and LL.B. from Beijing College of Economics, and served as a research fellow at the East Asia Legal Studies Center at Harvard Law School in 2004-05. Professor Zang teaches Chinese Law, International Trade Law and International Arbitration Law. He also leads the Comparative Law Seminar and supervises numerous students in the J.D, LL.M and Ph.D students researching on China. He also serves as the Country Expert for the Center's grant, Empowering Rural Communities: Legal Aid and the Rule of Law in Rural China.

Generous support from the law firm Garvey Schubert Barer enables us to bring outstanding Asian Law scholars to the Law School each year. In 2006 we welcomed Professor Hualing Fu, Director of the Center for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. Professor Fu taught “Human Rights Law in China” and engaged in the Center’s research program during Winter and Spring, 2006. In April 2006, Dr. Fu addressed friends and colleagues from Garvey Schubert Barer, the UW Law School, and the community in his lecture “The Myth of Prosecuted Lawyers: China's Relationship with Criminal Defense Attorneys”.