Asian Law Center

During the 2012-13 Academic Year, the Asian Law Center celebrates its bicentennial anniversary . We began with two back-to-back October conferences in Seattle and in Tokyo honoring former Asian Law Center Director Professor John O. Haley. In March, we welcomed back Professor Dan Foote for a public lecture on the saiban’in system and criminal justice reform in Japan.  In May we celebrate Professor Roy Prosterman, as well as the the 20th anniversary of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program, with a panel discussing emerging legal challenges to inclusive development in Myanmar (Burma).

Our year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Asian Law Center culminates in a special event on June 13, 2013.  Please join us as we celebrate this milestone occasion, and recognize the lifetime achievements of our distinguished alumni throughout Asia:
• Tasuku Matsuo M.C.L. '69
• C.J. Kim Ph.D '72
• Liu Guoyuan LL.M. '82
• Erman Rajagukguk LL.M.'84, Ph.D '88
• Tay-sheng Wang LL.M. '90, Ph.D. '92

We are honored to host Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, Vice President of Taiwan from 2000 to 2008 and current president of Taiwan Alliance for Green 21. Madam Lu will deliver a lecture entitled “A New Perspective on the Asia Pacific" at UW on Friday, April 5, from 3:30-5:30pm at the Burke Room inside the Burke Museum.  In her talk, Madam Lu will present her proposal for resolving the military crisis over the Diaoyutai Island territory, claimed by Taiwan, Japan, and China, as well as highlight new strategies for improving foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Asian Law Center, in honor of its 50th anniversary, and by the China Studies Program in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Madam Lu is a writer, politician, and antinuclear activist. A graduate of National Taiwan University, University of Illinois, and Harvard University, Lu rose to prominence as the founder of feminist movement in Taiwan. Later, she became a leader in an opposition movement calling for democracy and an end to the Kuomintang authoritarian rule. On December 10, 1979, she delivered a speech at an International Human Rights Day rally (known as the “Kaohsiung Incident”), and charged with “violent sedition” and sentenced to prison by a military court. Lu was released in 1985 after 1,933 days of imprisonment. In 1993, Lu was elected as a member of Taiwan’s national parliament and in 1997 she was elected as the Magistrate of Taoyuan County. In 2000, she was elected the first female Vice President. In 2004, she was re-elected after being struck by a bullet on the eve of the election. After her retirement in 2008, Lu established the International Federation of Business and Professional Women-Taiwan. She is currently involved in two national campaigns: the “Less Meat, Less Heat” Campaign to combat climate change and a movement to halt construction of Taiwan’s 4th Nuclear Power Plant.

Jeffrey Riedinger (JD '80), professor and dean of International Studies and Programs at Michigan State University (MSU), has been named vice provost for global affairs at the University of Washington.  The UW Office of Global Affairs oversees the university's multiple activities in the global arena including study abroad, exchanges for students and faculty with universities in other countries, and support for international research and centers the UW has established abroad.

Riedinger, was also appointed faculty with the UW School of Law.  An expert on the political economy of land reform and sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, he has conducted research in East and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, the Middle East and South Asia.  One ongoing project involves colleagues from the UW, universities in Beijing and Landesa conducting surveys of China's rural families to provide evidence-based recommendations to the Chinese government to enhance long-term land-use rights for farmers.  Riedinger has also conducted briefings on foreign aid, land reform and other development issues for members of the White House staff, state department and USAID personnel, members of Congress and their staff, World Bank, non-governmental organizations and private foundations.

During the 2012-13 Academic Year, the Asian Law Center will celebrate its bicentennial anniversary . We begin with two back-to-back October conferences in Seattle and in Tokyo honoring former Asian Law Center Director Professor John O. Haley.

UW School of Law and the Asian Law Center  are pleased to honor Professor Haley by bringing together distinguished scholars and Asian Law Center alumni and friends to discuss current topics in Asian law and specifically law in Japan in two Festschrift Conferences entitled “Law in Japan and its Role in Asia: Between East and West”. The first conference will take place at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, on Friday October 19, 2012. Following a keynote address by Professor Haley, distinguished Asian Law scholars from around the world will discuss the role of courts in law in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, as well as current topics in Asian law ranging from environmental law in China to corporate finance and insolvency in Japan.

The following Monday, on October 22nd, Professor Haley, joined by UW School of Law Dean Kellye Testy, Associate Dean Pat Kuszler and Asian Law Center faculty and staff Jon Eddy, Toshiko Takenaka, Clark Lombardi, Dongsheng Zang, Jonathan Kang and Mie Murazumi will participate at a second conference co-hosted with Waseda University Faculty of Law in Tokyo. At Waseda, eminent academicians and members of the judicial bench and practicing bar will further expand on the role of courts in Asia, and particularly on judicialization in Asia.

Professor Haley is one of the nation's outstanding international and comparative law scholars and is widely credited with having popularized Japanese legal studies. In 1969, Haley received a fellowship from the University of Washington and was in one of the first classes to graduate from the Asian Law Program. After working for several years in law firms in Japan, he joined the law faculty at the University of Washington, where he remained for nearly 26 years, directing the Asian and Comparative Law Program from 1974 to 2000. Professor Haley’s numerous scholarly works span issues ranging from international trade policy and comparative law to Japanese land-use law, Japanese and East Asian business transactions, and Japanese law and contemporary society. On June 19, 2012, Professor Haley was 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.

The UW Women’s Center has been involved in anti-trafficking work on a national and international scope for more than 15 years. Dana Raigrodski, Assistant Director of the Asian Law Center, is representing UW Law on the human trafficking task force. The task force’s work is a collaboration between all the stakeholders: academics, activists, NGOs, policy makers, and the business community. It focuses on the root causes of trafficking in the era of globalization and on researching and mapping the use of trafficked labor in addition to sex trafficking. The mission of the task force is to develop a better understanding of the ongoing field of trafficking and the industries that support it. To that end, Raigrodski is chairing the task force committee on continuing legal education, which is putting togtether a training on "Human Trafficking: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility" for legal and business professionals on May 11, 2012. The task force will also convene an international conference on Human Trafficking on January 11-12, 2013.

The Asian Law Center congratulates Ma. Zaida Fresnido (LL.M. 2010) on the acceptance of her LL.M paper entitled "A Comparative Analysis of the Philippine and Malaysian Legal Systems Against Trafficking in Persons" for presentation in two international conferences. The paper was accepted for presenation at the First International Conference on International Relations and Development (ICIRD) scheduled to take place in Bagkok, Thailand in May 2011, and at the The 13th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration scheduled to take place in Kampala, Uganda in July 2011.

The Law School and the Asian Law Center congratulate Dr. Kanaphon Chanhom ((LL.M. ‘06, Ph.D. ’10)  on completing his Ph.D studies. Kanaphon’s dissertation is titled ‘Codification in Thailand during the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Study of the Causes, Process and Consequences of Drafting the Penal Code of 1908.’

Dr. Chanhom is a law lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, teaching Thai Legal History and Criminal Law. He has been instrumental in expanding the formal collaboration between the UW Law School and the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn.

The Asian Law Center warmly congratulates Associate Professor Sakda Thanitcul (LL.M. '93, Ph.D. '97) for his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn University. Dean Thanitcul took office is September 2009 and we look forward to further working with him and colleauges at Chulalongkorn, a partner law school with the UW School of Law.

Following completion of the Ph.D. program in 2005, Dr. Orakanoke Phanraksa applies in practice the expertise she developed when writing her doctoral dissertation titled Uniformity of the Patent Policy in Technology Transfer in Thailand: To What Extent Can the Bayh-Dole Act Concept be Adapted for the Thai Technology Transfer System? Dr. Phanraksa returned to Thailand and continues to advance technology transfer in Thailand as a technical officer with the Technology Management Center of the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand. She is also working on an antitrust research project with another UW PhD alumnus, Prof. Sakda Thanitcul of Chulalongkorn University.

In October 2007, we welcomed Associate Dean Somrieng Mekkriengkrai and Professor Mattaya Jittirat of Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law to the UW Law School, when our two institutions executed an agreement to formalize our existing academic collaboration. The UW Law School graduated from our LL.M. and Ph.D. programs in Asian and Comparative Law several talented scholars from Chulalongkorn, including Dr. Sakda Thanitcul (LL.M. ’96, Ph.D. ’97) who directs Chulalongkorn’s LL.M. Program in International Business Law. Amongst our current Ph.D. cohort is Kanaphon Chanhom (LL.M. ’06), who served as a lecturer in Chulalongkorn─his Alma mater.