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.

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.

UW Law Asian Law Center and the Center for Korea Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies hosted Dr. Yukyong Choe (JSD, UC Berkeley)  on februray 22, 2012, for a lecture entitled "Agencies, Roles, and Their Choices: Reform of the Korean Legal Profession from 1995 to 2007."  Dr. Choe shared from her comparative doctoral research examining the ways in which Northeast Asian countries including Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan have adopted or considered adopting U.S.-style legal education as a revolutionary remedy to dissolve chronic problems of the pre-reform sys­tems. Especially in Korea and Japan, reform of the legal professional training system underwent a profound transformation. Yukyong Choe's research traced a wide range of agencies and stakeholders that were involved in the reform of the Korean legal professional training system from 1995 to 2007, to reveal sharper conflicts among them than in Japan. She also highlighted the growing role of Supreme Court judges as beneficiaries under the new system.

UW Law Asian Law Center and the Center for Korea Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies hosted Professor Tae-Ung Baik from the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law on February 15, 2012, for a public lecture entitled "Criminal Process in the Democratic People Republic of Korea: The Origin of Human Rights Violations."

Dr. Baik, former Director of the Korean Legal Studies Program at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law and legal advisor to the South Korean Delegation to the 56th United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, attempts to gauge the seriousness of human rights violations by looking into the criminal process in North Korea. By comparing the written law of criminal procedure to how the procedure is actually practiced, Professor Baik provides a better understanding of North Korean criminal process and human rights practice.

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Steven Kim has been invited by the South Korean government to spend six months in Seoul teaching Korean prosecutors trial practice skills and lecturing on the American criminal justice system in anticipation of the country's adoption of a grand jury system.

On January 9, 2012, Professor Yong-Shik Lee, Director of the Law and Development Institute and Visiting Professor at Seattle University Law School, presented a lecture entitled "Microtrade as a Way for Developing Countries to Escape Poverty" as part of UW Law's Global Mondays Series. Author of Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Safeguard Measures in World Trade: The Legal Analysis (Kluwer Law International, 2007), and Economic Development through World Trade: A Developing World Perspective (Kluwer Law International, 2008), Professor Lee has published widely in the areas of international trade law and economic development. His recent work has been focused on the impact that domestic and international legal systems, particularly the legal framework for international trade, has on economic development.

Trade-based economic development policies and the export-driven development strategy have been a vehicle for successful economic development and escape from poverty for some developing economies in East Asia. However, in the absence of essential factors such as political stability, organized government support, educated workforce, availability of foreign markets, and financial resources in many developing countries, it is difficult to pursue successful trade-based development policies to break the circle of poverty. Professor Lee suggests "microtrade," defined as international trade of small quantities of locally-produced products produced on a small scale, as an alternative way to provide those living in the least developed countries with income sufficient to reduce or eliminate poverty.

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.

Yong-suk Yoon, a Senior Partner with the Seoul based law firm of Lee & Ko and an alumnus of the LL.M. program in Asian and Comarative Law ('90), discussed in a recent interview the opening of Korea's legal services market under the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement which took effect in July 2011. Yoon, who specializes in international arbitration and cross-border litigation, commented that Korea has been preparing for this for some time. Lee & Ko, for example, has been sending lawyers to study abroad and train at top law firms in the U.S., U.K. and Japan. Korean law firms, such as Lee & Ko, are similarly expanding their services into China, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Russia.

Professor Kang continues to teach at the Summer Institute in International Law held jointly by Fordham University Law School and Sungkyunkwan University College of Law  in downtown Seoul, Korea. Since 2010, Prof. Kang has been teaching a course on International Business Transactions to students from several countries and law schools.

In January 2011, The Asian Law Center and the Visiting Scholars Program launched the inagural meeting of the Korean Law Forum. The forum meets regularly for a continuous discussion Korean Law.  Topics presented by visiting law professors and scholars to the UWLS include: Dr. Myungung Lee -- Justification for compensation legislation for the wrongly convicted; Prof. Jeawan Kim of Korea University -- Self control process in law firms to avoid conflict of interests; Prof. Daewoo Kwon  of Hanyang University -- Cooling-off rights of consumers in Korea, Germany and the U.S.;  and Prof. Dong Won Ko of Sungkyunkwan University -- The Korean experience and regulatory responses to the global financial crisis.

In the February 2011 installment of the Law Through Global Eyes Lecture Series, guest lecturer Prof. Keun-Gwan Lee of Seoul National University School of Law explored ways for maximizing the constructive role of international law in resolving the persistence of the ‘coldest peace’ on the Korean peninsula. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Asian Law Center and the Korean Studies Program, Jackson School of International Studies.

The artillery attack on a small South Korean island (Yeongpyeong) by North Korea last November was part of the much bigger and more complicated picture known as the ‘Korean question.’ Prof. Lee's talk focused on the question of equitable maritime boundary between the two Koreas, the issue of current legal relations between them and its implications for a peace regime on the peninsula, and the lessons to be drawn from the German experience.

Dr. Keun-Gwan Lee is an Associate Professor at the School of Law, Seoul National University, teaching Public International Law, the History and Theory of International Law and the Law of the Sea, among others.  He has written extensively on wide-ranging subjects of public international law.

On Oct. 29, 2010, Assistant Professor Jonathan Kang presented a paper entitled "Legal Confucianism" at a conference at SungKyunKwan University School of Law in Seoul, Korea. Prof. Kang will discuss history, interpretation, and perspectives on law and politics in East Asia.
 

Professor Chulwoo Lee is currently a Professor of Law at Yonsei Law School and the College of Law, Yonsei University, Korea, both partner institutions of the UW Law School. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. Professor Lee specializes in Asian sociolegal studies and has written extensively in the areas of law and social theory, social history of law, and citizenship studies; he is now the chief editor of the Korean Journal of Law and Society. Dr. Lee will teach Law and Society in East Asia (Winter 2011) and team-teach Comparative Korean Law with Prof. Kang (Spring 2011). He is also scheduled to be a speaker in the Korean Law conference to be held at the Law School later in 2011.

Dr. Dong Won Ko is a professor at Sungkyunkwan University Law School in Korea, specializing in banking and financial law. Dr. Ko holds an SJD from Duke Law School and currently serves as President of the Korean Banking and Financial Law Association. Dr. Ko has been selected by the Korean-American Educational Commission to receive a highly competitive Fulbright Lecturing/Research award for 2010-2011, allowing him to teach and research at a U.S. university. Dr. Ko has opted to come to the UW Law School and will teach International Banking Law (Winter 2011) and International Financial Law (Spring 2011).

The Law Library at UW is widely recognized as one of the finest Korean law collections outside Korea, and continues to enjoy the support of Korean legal professionals. Chul-Yong Ha, Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of Korea, generously contributed on behalf of the Court several books to our East Asian Library Department in July 2010. The books, 11 volumes in total, include the published collections of major decisions of the Korean Constitutional Court.

Professor Yong Sung (Jonathan) Kang thanked the Court for its support in his recent visit, where he gave a presentation to members of the Constitutional Court of Korea.

In February 2010, Professor Kang joined top scholars from across the U.S. to discusse Asia’s potential to become the new global leader in the 21st century and what that may portend for human rights and economic development. The symposium entitled “The Asian Century?” was sponsored by the University of California Davis Law Review. Prof. Kang and other panelists explored how the rise of Asia may affect multinational corporations, intellectual property, human rights, gay rights, national security law and constitutional law, as well as U.S. attitudes toward Asia and how that affects the country’s relationship with Asian nations.

Follwing her graduation from the LL.M. Program, Jungmihn Ahn (LL.M '07 ) Joined the law faculty at Hallym University Division of Law and Public Administration. Dr. Ahn's comparative research and publications focus on the regulation of telecommunications and the broadcasting indutry in the U.S., Japan and Korea.
 

In May 2009, the UW School of Law hosted the Hon. Kang-Kook Lee, president of Korea's Constitutional Court. President Lee delivered an address on the court entitled "The Korean Constitutional Court: History & Challenges," and discussed the establishment, jurisdiction and cases handled by the Korean Constitutional Court.

The Korean Constitutional Court, established in 1988, recently hosted an International Symposium in celebration of its 20th anniversary which brought together the heads of constitutional organs of thirty countries and six regional commissions. President Lee has had a long and distinguished career in the judiciary, including serving as a Justice on the Korean Supreme Court and as the Minister of Court Administration. He has been serving as the President of the Korean Constitutional Court since 2007.

On May 6, 2009 (115 William H. Gates Hall, 12:30-1:20pm), Professor Ilhyung Lee from the University of Missouri School of Law examined efforts in Korea to pursue equality in the education system. The Korean Constitution provides for equality before the law. Prof. Lee encouraged an examination of the extent to which Korean law, instead of merely providing for a general anti-discrimination protection, seeks affirmatively to effect equality, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. His focus in this presentation was on efforts to effect equality in a critical and important aspect of Korean life and society -- education. In the education setting, egalitarian policies designed to level the playing field for all Koreans seem to reflect the Korean desire to avoid “incongruity” or “disharmony” resulting from unequal positions, or we-hwa-gahm. The discussion encouraged further attention to the relationship between law and societal norms in the Korean setting.

Professor Ilhyung Lee is Edward W. Hinton Professor of Law at University of Missouri School of Law, specializing in Comparative Constitutional Law, Cross-cultural Dispute Resolution, International Commercial Arbitration, and intellectual property law (Trademarks and Copyright). Professor Lee previously held positions with Cravath, Swaine & Moore (New York) and Kim & Chang (Seoul, Korea), as well as clerked for the Honorable Joseph F. Weis, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. 

On March 3, 2009, Professor Gyung –Young Jung from Sungkyunkwan University School of Law, Seoul, Korea, offered an overview of the Electronic Financial Transaction Act of Korea and discuss issues concerning the liability of financial institutes for unauthorized electronic financial transactions. Prof. Jung specializes in commercial law including corporations, insurance law, negotiable instruments, and financial law. He holds a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in law from Seoul National University. A well accomplished scholar, Professor Jung sits on several journal editorial boards, is the VP for Korea Payment & Settlement Association, is the Commissioner of the Ministry of Justice Electronic Negotiable Instrument Dispute Settlement Council and is a member of the Ministry of Justice Legislative Committee for Special Act of Commercial Law.

Dr. Patricia Goedde (J.D. ’98, Ph.D. ‘08) has been appointed as a faculty member at Sungkyunkwan University College of Law. Sungkungkwan is a top tier private law school in Seoul with a distinguished history. Dr Goedde is one of very few female law professor  appointees in Korea. As a researcher with the Asian Law Center, Dr. Goedde co-organized, with Professor Kang and colleauges from Korea University College of Law, the center hosted Topics in Korean Law Conference in Decmber 2006. Her own doctoral dissertation examined how legal activists and citizen movement organizations develop and institutionalize public interest law practice in Korea.

Our partnership with Korea University College of Law has been very active on all fronts: Korea University law students study annually at UW Law School since 2006, and the Center has been hosting visiting Korea University law professors including Zoonil Yi (‘06-‘07), Byung Hyun Yoo (‘07-‘08) and Young-Hwan Chung (‘08-‘09). UW Law faculty members provide editorial support for the Korea University College of Law English-language law journal, and the two institutions hosted a joint conference on Topics in Korean Law in Seattle (December 2006).

During 2006-07 the Law School and the Asian Law Center signed collaborative agreements with top Korean law departments, including Korea University (April 2006), Seoul National University (October 2007), Sungkyunkwan University –BK 21 Project Team (April 2007), and Yeungnam University (September 2007). These partnerships will allow us to exchange faculty and students, to develop joint research and teaching, and to hold joint conferences, workshops and publications.

Beginning with the 2007-08 academic year, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea has designated the Gallagher Law Library as an "Overseas Contact Library," one of a privileged few in the world.  The first fruit of this enhanced relationship was a gift of 137 volumes of up-to-date books and journals on the Korean legal system, focusing especially on the judicial branch and the decisions of the Supreme Court.  Many of these materials are the only library copies in the world outside of Korea, and they should greatly enhance the field of Korean Legal Studies at the UW. 

The Supreme Court's gift adds to what is already one of the largest and best collections of Korean legal materials in North America, complementing a world-renowned Korean Studies Collection in the University of Washington Libraries.

At the 2007 Alumni Recognition Banquet the Law School celebrated the accomplishments of Mr. Chang Rok Woo, who received his LL.M in Asian and Comparative Law in 1983. Dean Knight presented Mr. Woo with the 2007 Distinguished Alumni award in recognition of his civic, professional, and community service. Chang Rok Woo is the founding partner and current managing partner at Yulchon, one of the largest and fastest-growing full-service law firms in Korea. Under C.R.’s leadership Yulchon has grown to more then 140 professionals. In addition to his executive duties as managing partner, C.R. has an active tax law practice and is widely regarded as a preeminent specialist in the tax field.  In addition to being an active member and past president of the International Association of Korean Lawyers, C.R. volunteers for many educational and charitable organizations. For six years he has been the president of the University of Washington Alumni Association in Korea, and in that role, he conducted the first Korean alumni homecoming at the UW in 2001. C.R. has also led the fundraising campaign for the University’s Korea Study Center.

The Law School has been privileged to host Dr. Chan Jin Kim during 2005-08; in 2007 he taught a cutting edge course on Korean Law and Economic Development at the Law School. Dr. Kim is a former National Assembly Member of the Republic of Korea, founder of a leading international legal practice, and the author of several significant books on Korean commercial law and trade. He was the first graduate of the UW Ph.D. Program in Asian and Comparative Law. His book Economic Development and Law in Korea, developed during his time at the UW Law School, was published in 2009.