Asian Law Center

The Asian Law Center congratulates Prof. John O. Haley (Center Director 1974-2000), on being awarded The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to the discipline of Japanese law and education to Japanese legal professionals and academics. 2012 is Asian Law Center’s bicentennial anniversary and we plan to hold a seminar in honor of Prof. Haley this fall at the UW law school.

As we grapple with the sudden loss of Professor Emeritus Richard O. Kummert on April 17, 2012, we remember his lasting contributions to generations of students, to the Asian Law Center and to the Law School. Since arriving at the law school in 1964, Professor Kummert has held various positions, but his first love has been teaching. He has been an integral part of the Asian Law Program (now Center) from the very beginning. His support for innovative curriculum, beginning with the first offering of Japanese/U.S. Business Corporation Law with Professor Misao Tatsuta in 1968, is a key reason for the UW Law School’s increased visibility around the word. “For a long time," said Kummert, "we were the only place in the country with programs in Marine Affairs and an Asian Law Center…They put the UW on the map.”  We will miss him dearly.

Neel Kant Agrawal, a lawyer with the UW Law Librarianship Program, has published a feature article on the East Asian Law Department (EALD) of the Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library. The article reviews the rich history and the circumstances that led to the development of EALD, which is well known and highly regarded for its wide-ranging collection of legal materials on China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The EALD supports the Law School’s long-standing research interest amongst faculty, students and staff in the legal systems of East Asia, as well as supports the needs and interests of patrons from the UW community, Seattle, Washington state, regional, national, and even international constituencies seeking information about the legal systems of East Asia.

"The rich history of EALD," writes Neel, "is a clear illustration of how law libraries have adopted to the globalization of the law and legal education." As research on East Asia continues to expand, EALD is uniquely positioned to advance critical discourse and foster long-lasting relations between key legal scholars in the U.S. and East Asia.

Join UW Law and the Asian Law Center in welcoming esteemed Japanese law scholars Professor Yasuhei Taniguchi (Emeritus Kyoto U, former WTO Judge), Professor Shinichi Ago (Kyushu U; former ILO Officer), Professor Shigenori Matsui (U British Columbia) and Professor Carl Goodman (Visiting Professor, UW Law) for a week-long series of lectures:

February 22 - Civil Litigation in Japan
Professor Shigenori Matsui, Director, Japanese Legal Studies, University of British Columbia
Professor Matsui will revisit the state of Japanese civil litigation and talk about the small numbers of litigation, the reasons for it, and various hurdles for civil litigation in Japan.

February 23 - The Experience of a Japanese WTO Trade Law Judge
Professor Yasuhei Taniguchi, Emeritus, Kyoto University; Former WTO Judge
Professor Yasuhei Taniguchi will share from his experience as a member of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body from 2000-2007.

February 27 - The Ozawa Prosecution and Japanese Democracy
Professor Carl Goodman, Visiting Professor, University of Washington School of Law
Recent changes in Japan's criminal law have affected Japanese politics. Professor Goodman will discuss legal and political concerns arising from the trial of former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa.

February 28 - The Application of International Labor Standards in Asia and the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility
Professor Shinichi Ago, Kyushu University Faculty of Law
Professor Shinichi Ago, who served many years as a Legal Officer with the International Labor Organization, will discuss the general attitude of Asian countries towards international labor standards as well as the role of CSR.

Dean Kellye Testy, Director of the Asian Law Center Professor Jon Eddy, and Professors Yong-Sung (Jonathan) Kang and Clark Lombardi recently returned from a very successful trip to Asia – Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei. In addition to connecting with alumni and friends, Dean Testy and our faculty joined colleagues from our partner schools for the Second East Asian Law and Society Conference and visited top law firms in Korea and National Taiwan University.

Dean Testy observed that "the Law School's engagement with Asia is critical for our future, and this trip was a “home run” on all counts: alumni and donor engagement, academic partnerships, jobs and other opportunities for our students, and scholarly opportunities for our faculty."

Dean Testy and several Asian Law Center faculty presented on diverse topics during the 2nd East Asian Law and Society Conference which took place at Yonsei University on September 30th and October 1st, 2011. Dear Testy presented on "The Promises and Perils of Shareholder Primacy" during a plenary session on law and markets in East Asia; Prof. Eddy and Prof. Taylor addressed global efforts to promote rule of law; Prof. Lombardi presented on "Judicial Discovery of Islamic Law in Asia"; and Prof. Kang examined law and morality on Korean jurisprudence. Michelle Kwon (Ph.D. Candidate) presented a paper examining the regulatory dynamics between the Suprme Court of Korea and the Korean Commercial Arbotration Board.

In May 2011, UW Law and the Asian Law Center hosted an international symposium on the Japanese Legal Profession after the 2008 Financial Crisis and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. The symposium, convened by Visiting Professor Bruce Aronson, brought together esteemed speakers from Tokyo including Hisashi Hara (Chairman, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu), Toru Ishiguro (Partner, Mori Hamada Matsumoto), Akira Kosugi (Managing Partner, Nishimura & Asahi), John Roebuck (Partner, Jones Day Tokyo), Shinichi Sugiyama (Partner, Harago & Partners), Toshiro Ueyanagi (Representative Partner, Tokyo Surugadai Law Offices), and Akihiro Wani (Managing Partner, Linklaters Tokyo). Professor Aronson will develop a law review article based on the proceedings of the symposium to be published in the winter issue of the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal.

Professor Aronson, who also taught our course on Japanese Law in spring quarter, is an active Japanese law scholar with a wealth of practical experience in Japan. He spent the summer of 2010 at the Bank of Tokyo, and will be returning to Japan as a Fulbright Scholar next year, researching at Waseda Law School – a partner institution of UWLS.

As part of the Law School's collaboration with Waseda Law School, Dean Kamata and Professor Furuya generously extended an invitation for several UW law students to participate at Waseda's annual Transnational Program, which for 2011 focused on Insolvency Law. Brian M. Sheehan and Marie Michelle Webster joined students and faculty from top U.S. and foreign law schools, for the week-long conference.

Dean Kellye Testy along with Professor and Director of the Asian Law Center, Jon Eddy, Professor and Chair of Law, Technology & Arts Group Bob Gomulkiewicz, Washington Research Foundation/W. Hunter Simpson Professor of Law Toshiko Takenaka, as well as Assistant Dean for Advancement Stephanie Cox visited Japan in October 2010, where they were welcomed by many law school alumni in both Osaka and Tokyo. Dean Testy and her delegation were able to meet and greet many of our alumni who are practicing and heading up some of Japan’s major corporations and law firms. Also on the itinerary were visits to the Supreme Court of Japan, the Japan Patent Office and many of our friends at partner law schools.

Additionally, and with the support and help of Mr. Takamitsu Shigetomi (LL.M. '03) and Mr. Tomohito Ihara, the law school hosted two well-attended alumni reunion dinners, one in Osaka and one in Tokyo. We would like to thank Mr. Shigetomi and Mr. Ihara for their dedicated support of these two events. The dinners were a complete success due to their efforts.

The recent trip to Japan is one of several trips that will be made over the course of the next year. Future trips to China and Korea are planned for spring and fall of 2011.  

On October 8, 2010, former Law School Dean Roland Hjorth welcomed Japan’s Supreme Court Justice Koji Miyakawa. Justice Miyakawa has had an illustrious career as a Japanese attorney specializing in environmental lawsuits, and also contributed to the crafting the new law school system adopted by Japan a few years ago. He was named Justice of the Supreme Court in 2008. Justice Miyakawa expressed his desire to foster the development of Japan’s new legal education system, and was eager to hear about admissions, course offerings, clinics, and career placement practices at the UW School of Law. After an exchange of information with Law School faculty and staff centered on legal education, Justice Miyakawa enjoyed a lunch discussion in Japanese with over ten Japan-specialist J.D. students and Japanese graduate students.

Toshitaka Kudo (LL.M '02; Ph.D. '09) joined the faculty at Keio University Faculty of Law as a civil procedure law professor, starting April 2010.

Dr. Kudo's dissertation was entitled 'Changes to the Civil Procedure Law and Regulations Prompted by Specialized Litigation - The U.S. and the Japanese Patent Invalidation Procedures.' His project dealt with the new and important question of how challenges to patent validity have become an important industrial strategy in both Japan and the U.S. and the pressures that this trend exerts on both the court system and administrative agencies in both countries. Dr. Kudo argued for civil procedure reforms in both the U.S. and Japan to both align the different systems and to make greater use of best practice developments in those jurisdictions.

In March 2010, Rob Britt , the Acting Head and Japanese Legal Materials Specialist of the Gallagher Law Library
East Asian Law Department, attended the once-a-decade NCC “3D” (North American Coordinating Committee for Japanese Library Resources, 3rd Decade Planning Conference), and the Association of Asian Studies Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) annual conference at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

In a session titled “Promoting Collections and Access” Rob gathered participant’s opinions on ways to improve access to Japanese databases. A recommendation to funders and participants for the best strategic aims over the next ten years will come out of the process.

As part of the Law School's collaboration with Waseda Law School, Dean Kamata and Professor Furuya generously extended an invitation for several UW law students to participate at Waseda's annual Transnational Program, which for 2010 focused on Health Law.  Kyle Gotchy, Geoff Hymans and Charlene Koski joined students and faculty from top U.S. and foreign law schools, for the week-long conference focused on healthcare, medical malpractice and bioethical mediation. Charlene and Geoff also earned the top awards for a student competition regarding solutions to a hypothetical medical malpractice case.

Congratulations to Miles Hawks (J.D., LL.M. ’09) who will join Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Tokyo office as an Associate this year. Miles joins UW alumni Mork Murdock (J.D. ’04) and Christopher Kodama (J.D. ’06), making this three UW Law School alumni in an international office of twelve. Miles, Mork and Christopher all completed their JDs with a concentration in Asian Law and with an emphasis on professional-level Japanese language. They are great ambassadors for the Law School.

On April 22, 2009 (117 William H. Gates Hall, 12:30-1:20pm), Lawrence Repeta, Garvey Schubert Barer Visiting Professor of Asian Law, described the work of Japanese NGOs, especially the role played by the national bar association, and the significance of UN treaty monitoring in Japan.

Can Japan deliver real guarantees for the fundamental human rights proclaimed by its laws? Recent developments suggest cause for hope. In the latest round of an ongoing battle to enforce international norms in Japan, lawyers and activists presented a powerful case before the UN Human Rights Committee. Their work led to October 2008 comments from the Committee criticizing Japan’s failures to take action to remedy several longstanding human rights problems.

An alumnus of the Law School, Professor Repeta teaches at Omiya Law School, Japan, and has practiced law and conducted research in the United States and Japan since 1979. He is also the founding director of Information Clearinghouse Japan, an NGO devoted to promoting open government in Japan. The focus of his advocacy and research is transparency in government, and he is an expert on matters of privacy, security and freedom of information.

The Center is actively engaged in important partnerships in Japan with lawyers and legal institutions supporting legal reform in Asia. A number of Asian Law Center Japanese alumni are now leaders in the fields of Asian law, development and legal technical assistance in Japan, including Judge Masahiro Iseki (ret) (LL.M. ‘70), Professor and attorney Toshiro Ueyanagi (LL.M. ’90) and Japan International Cooperation Agency lawyer, Yoichi Shio (LL.M. '04).

In 2008 the Center expanded key partnerships with colleagues at Kobe University and with the Center for Asian Legal Exchange at Nagoya University. Both Asian Law Center Director Veronica Taylor and Professor Jon Eddy were Visiting Professors at Kobe during 2008, teaching Law and Development and Asian Law courses--Taylor at the Faculty of Law and Eddy at Kobe’s Faculty of International Development Studies. In 2009-10, the Center hosts a reciprocal year-long research visit by Professor Yuka Kaneko from Kobe University, a rising star among Japanese scholars focused on Asia, law and development.

Veronica Taylor spent part of her 2008 sabbatical as Visiting Professor at Nagoya University’s Center for Asian Legal Exchange. This visit yielded a joint collaboration on a conference in March 2009 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to launch a Comparative Law Association in Cambodia.

We congratulate Dr. Kyoko Ishida (Ph.D. '06), who was recently appointed to the faculty of Waseda University, after serving as a Research Associate at Waseda University Institute of Comparative Law. Her dissertation on 'Japanese Lawyers and Japanese Justice – Ethics and Regulations of Japanese Lawyers in a New Century' examines the ethical standards and regulation of various professionals other than attorneys (bengoshi) licensed to provide certain legal services in Japan, and the implications for access to justice in Japan. Ishida is active in several legal sociology research projects in Japan and is developing ground-breaking follow-on research in the areas of access to justice.

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.

Professor Taylor has been appointed as the Chair of the Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee. The Japan Foundation, funded primarily by the Japanese government, is the leading organization worldwide supporting research and language education relating to Japan. The University of Washington is one of ten universities in the United States originally endowed with Japan Foundation funds to create pre-eminent Japanese studies programs.

On November 7, 2008, Professor Colin Jones from Doshisha University Law School, Kyoto, Japan, discussed current issues involved in seeking the return of children from Japan. Japan, unlike more than 75 countries that have agreed to return children abducted to another country by one parent in violation of custody arrangements, is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Recently, Japan announced its plans to join the Convention as early as 2010. Prof. Jones examined what changes the Hague Convention might bring about.

Professor Jones graduated from UC Berkeley and received his J.D. from Duke University Law School. After working at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP and other law firms, he joined the Doshisha University Law School to teach American torts, contracts and business law.

During the 2008-09 academic year, Garvey Schubert Barer Visiting Professor Lawrence Repeta teamed with Veronica Taylor to teach Japanese Law, and offered a new course in comparative constitutional law . An alumnus of the Law School, Professor Repeta teaches at Omiya Law School, Japan, and has practiced law and conducted research in the United States and Japan since 1979. He is also the founding director of Information Clearinghouse Japan, an NGO devoted to promoting open government in Japan. The focus of his advocacy and research is transparency in government, and he is an expert on matters of privacy, security and freedom of information.

Congratulations to Daniel H. Foote, University of Tokyo Professor of Law and former Asian Law Center Professor 1988-2000 on the publication of Law in Japan: A Turning Point (2008) as part of the UW Press Asian Law Series. The comprehensive volume, edited by Professor Foote and Asian Law Center staff, includes contributions from several UW Law School faculty and alumni. It explores major developments in Japanese law over the latter half of the twentieth century and looks ahead to the future. Modeled on the classic work Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society (1963), edited by Arthur Taylor von Mehren, it features the work of thirty-five leading legal experts on most of the major fields of Japanese law, with special attention to the increasingly important areas of environmental law, health law, intellectual property, and insolvency. It is the only volume to take inventory of the key areas of Japanese law and their development since the 1960s, and has already become an important reference tool and starting point for research on the Japanese legal system.

Japan remains at the forefront of Asian Law Center teaching and research. Professor John (Jody) Chafee and Professor Rick Guinee continue to offer their International Contracting course in response to strong student demand. This course provides practical experience in drafting and negotiating international agreements through team negotiation with counterpart teams of Japanese law students. The course takes advantage of the technologically-advanced William Gates Hall by video-conferencing with Professor Daniel Foote and law students at the University of Tokyo. Professors Guinee and Chafee have also piloted a new course in International Mergers and Acquisitions utilizing a practicum approach. The course follows a hypothetical business transaction between a Japanese company and a U.S. company, from its earliest stages through to its closing. Here as well, the majority of class sessions are video-conferenced with a class of students in Japan.

Professor Toshiko Takenaka, Washington Research Foundation Simpson Professor in Technology Law and Director of the Center for Advanced Study & Research on Intellectual Property (CASRIP), continues to teach annually as a Visiting Professor at Waseda University Law School in Tokyo. She also taught comparative intellectual property, competition policy and U.S. and Japan patent law at the University of Tokyo and at the Osaka Institute of Technology summer schools. Under her direction, CASRIP joined the Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property of Waseda Law School in sponsoring an international innovation policy conference in Tokyo in December 2006 and a transnational intellectual property seminar and conference held at Waseda Law School in March 2007. Professor Takenaka remains a featured speaker before groups in the United States, Italy, and Asia, including at Hokkaido University, the Institute of Innovation Research at Hitotsubashi University, Keio University, Tokyo Medical Dental University, National Yunlin University in Taiwan, Seoul National University, the Japan IP High Court, the Korean Institute of Intellectual Property and IP and patent associations in Japan and Korea.

Under her directorship, the CASRIP annual summer institute continues to draw more than 60 participants from Asia, Europe, and the United States and includes representatives from Hitachi, Bayer A.G., Toshiba, the Max Planck Institute, the courts, and patent offices in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Professor Takenaka has organized the summer institute since 1994. The institute culminates in the High Technology Protection Summit Conference, a two-day program that brings together experts from around the world to discuss cutting-edge legal issues in intellectual property law.

Rob Britt, The Gallagher Law Library Japanese Legal Materials Specialist, celebrated his 20-year anniversary at the library in July 2007. Typically (and suitably), at the time he was off representing the Library in Australia -- making presentations on Japanese legal research and doing a professional evaluation of the Japanese law collection at the University of Melbourne. In addition to performing excellent work on Japanese collection development, cataloging, reference, web work and teaching, in recent years Rob has been active in the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) and the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC).

In spring of 2007, an imperial honor was awarded to alumnus Griffith Way (J.D. ’48, LL.M. ’68) in recognition of his long-standing support to increase economic and cultural development between the United States and Japan. Way, who this year celebrates the 40th anniversary of the first graduating class of LL.M. in Japanese law in 1968, received the coveted Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, from Kazuo Tanaka, Consul General of Japan in Seattle. For over 40 years, Way spent about six months each year in Asia as a practicing attorney in association with the Tokyo law firm of Blakemore & Mitsuki, and was instrumental in bringing Japan into the Washington State International Trade Fair in 1957. In 1990, with Thomas Blakemore and his wife Frances, Way helped establish the Blakemore Foundation where he continues to this day to strengthen American and Japanese ties.

In winter 2007, retired Judge Masahiro Iseki (LL.M. ‘70) was awarded an imperial honor by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan in recognition of their distinguished careers and public service and was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, for his judicial work. Judge Iseki was one of the law school’s earliest LL.M. graduates from Japan. He had a distinguished career in the Japanese judiciary, culminating in his work as a presiding judge on the Osaka High Court. His expertise in law and the judicial system extends beyond Japan, and although officially retired, he continues to provide technical legal expertise to Asian nations such as Vietnam on behalf of the Japan International Development Agency. Judge Iseki also continues to teach litigation at Kansai University School of Law.

Judge Iseki has been active in the Japanese chapter of the UW Law School Alumni Association. In 2001-02 he returned to the UW as a visiting scholar to teach Japanese law and work with Professor Veronica Taylor. His visit made possible a moot court in Japanese law where students litigated an actual case on appeal to the Osaka High Court before the decision was handed down in Japan.

Renewed energy of our Japanese alumni culminated to formalize the Japan Chapter as our first formally constituted alumni association outside the United States. Law School alumni in Japan have met regularly in the past under the leadership of Tasuku Matsuo (LL.M.’69), and in June 2006 gathered in Osaka and Tokyo to launch the Japan Chapter of the UW Law School Alumni Association. They were joined by faculty alumnae Professor Veronica Taylor (LL.M. ’92), Professor Toshiko Takenaka (LL.M. ’90, Ph.D. ’92) and Professor Jonathan Kang.

Attendees expressed a strong interest in supporting potential applicants to the law school as well as providing opportunities for them to interact with their fellow alumni when they return to Japan. The new chapter also wants to inform practitioners and legal scholars on opportunities for advanced training at the Seattle campus and develop a wide range of programs, activities, and events in Japan. As Professor Taylor observed “our international alumni form one of the law school’s most valuable assets, and our Japanese alumni are our largest group of graduates outside the United States. We are committed to partnering with our alumni colleagues in Japan to strengthen the UW profile among promising students, practitioners, and academic colleagues.”

Much of the preparatory work for the meeting was done by Professor Takenaka who serves on the Japan Alumni Association Organizing Committee with Katsuya Natori (LL.M. ’90)(chair), Takamitsu Shigetomi (LL.M.’03) Yoriko Noma (LL.M. ’92), Yuki Terazawa (LL.M. ’99), and Tomohito Ihara (CASRIP Research Fellow’96)(Secretary).

In October 2005, the Asian Law Center hosted a three day invitational workshop New Directions in Japanese Law for twenty colleagues in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe working on Japanese Law. Workshop participants presented work in progress and unpublished papers on issues ranging from commercial, criminal, and constitutional law in Japan to Japanese legal education and practice.

The workshop brought together many UWLS alums, including Professor John Haley (LL.M. ’71) and former students who followed suit in academia, such as Kyoko Ishida (LL.M. ’06, Ph.D. 2006); Leon Wolf (LL.M. ’96), Lawrence Repeta (J.D. ‘79), Mark Levin (LL.M ’90), Tay-sheng Wang (LL.M. ’90, Ph.D. ’92), Veronica Taylor (LL.M. ’92); Toshiko Takenaka (LL.M. ’90, Ph.D. ’92); and Jody Chafee (J.D. ’91).