Asian Law Center

Alumnus Professor Dr Erman Rajagukguk (LLM ’84, PhD ’89), Dean of Law at Al-Azhar University Jakarta and Professor of Law in the Graduate Program at University of Indonesia, has launched a website of Indonesian legal commentary and legal research resources: www.ermanhukum.com. In a country with improving, but limited, public legal information the Rajagukguk website will be a useful complement to the leading digital legal information portal, Hukumonline: http://www.hukumonline.com/

University Presidents, Vice Provosts and Center Directors representing more than 20 universities and colleges in the US travelled to Indonesia in July to prepare for expanding education programs under the planned U.S.-Indonesia Bilateral Partnership. The delegation laid groundwork for the new partnership, to be formally launched when President Obama visits Indonesia later this year. The delegation met with senior officials at the Indonesia Ministry of Education, Indonesian universities, the U.S. Embassy and American Indonesia Exchange Foundation (Fulbright Commission). Professor Taylor spoke at a public forum in Jakarta, emphasizing the importance of higher education links between the US and Indonesia. Indonesia historically sent a large number of students to study in the United States. In recent years, however, the numbers have declined and fewer Indonesians attend U.S. colleges and universities today than a decade ago. The future of academic exchange depends heavily on the relationships forged between higher education institutions in Indonesia and the United States.

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.

In June 2009, the law school hosted a scholarly conference entitled "Islamic Law in the Courts: Judicial Interpretation of Shari`a in modern states." The conference was organized by Associate Professor Clark Lombardi and attended by leading specialists in Islamic law from around the world. The conference was underwritten by the Carnegie Corporation of New York along with the Henry Luce Foundation's Program in Religion and International Affairs, a number of regional studies programs and centers based at the Jackson School and the University of Washington Law School's Ted Stein Memorial Fund. With its historic strengths in Asian and Comparative law and Development law, the University of Washington Law School has been a pioneer in the study of law in the Islamic world.

At this conference, experts from around the world (all specializing in different parts of the Muslim world) presented translations of a contemporary court case and an analysis of it. Panelists also discussed the methodological challenges of studying court cases, and some lessons that that the study so far has taught to scholars and policy makers. The goal of the conference was, ultimately, to seed the ground for a long-term, international, interdisciplinary study of Islamic law as it actually applies in the courts of Muslim countries. Such a project will have both theoretical implications for academics and policy implications for nations around the world.

In May 2009, Professors Veronica Taylor, Jonathan Eddy and Clark Lombardi presented at the 2009 Annual Law and Society meeting, themed "Law, Power, and Inequality in the 21st Century." The three offered a comparative perspective from their experience with law and development and particularly with the Center’s Afghan Legal Educators’ Project. Professor Eddy addressed “Paradigms and Paradoxes: Foreign Intervention in Afghanistan;” Professor Lombardi examined “Islamization and Judicial Empowerment;” and Professor Taylor offered perspectives on rethinking rule of law in pre-post conflict settings as well as business relations and business disputes in transitional and developing countries. Other UW law faculty, including Professors Sean O’Connor and Gad Barzilai also presented at the meeting.

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.

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 April 27, 2009 (115 William H. Gates Hall, 12:30-1:20pm), Dr. Frank Feulner, Asian Law Center Research Fellow, addressed parliamentary institutional development and reform in Indonesia. 2009 is an important year in Indonesian democracy, including parliamentary elections in April and direct presidential elections in July. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of Indonesia's first post-Suharto democratic elections. There are only few studies of how the core democratic institutions actually work, and attention and support to parliamentary development remains small. Dr. Feulner argued that strong legislatures contribute to stronger democracies and shows how legislatures can be assisted in their efforts. Based on first-hand experience, he portrayed the changes in the Indonesian parliament since the fall of the authoritarian regime and the current challenges, and highlighted the entry points for parliamentary development assistance, particularly to further norms and standards for democratic standards.

Frank Feulner is a Parliamentary Adviser with the U.N. Development Program in Jakarta, Indonesia. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of London and a Diploma (Master) in Economics and Southeast Asian Area Studies from the University of Passau, Germany. Dr. Feulner has been serving as a consultant and project manager in the development field in Indonesia for close to a decade now, including positions with the World Bank Institute, the German Technical Cooperation program, the Research Triangle Institute, and the National Democratic Institute.

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.

Dean Mohammad Gran and Prof. Lutforahman Saeed of the Shari’a Faculty of Kabul University visited the University of Washington School of Law for two weeks in April 2009 under the auspices of the Afghan Legal Educators Project. They met with faculty members from the Law School and other UW departments and attended courses. They also met with faculty in the UWLS clinical law program about the possibility of establishing clinical law programs in Kabul. Dean Gran delivered an address to approximately 70 people at the University of Puget Sound on Islamic Law and Women's Rights in Afghanistan, co-sponsored by the UPS departments of Religion; Spirituality, Service and Social Justice; Politics and Government; and Gender Studies. Prof. Saeed addressed students in Prof. Clark Lombardi’s Contemporary Islamic Legal Systems class on the topic of Customary Law in Afghanistan. They also visited Federal Court in Seattle where they observed a pro se litigant trial and traveled to Olympia where they met with legislators and observed legislative proceedings.

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.

In April 2009 the Afghan Legal Educators Program brought to the U.S. a cohort comprised solely of female legal professionals from Afghanistan for a two week study tour at the University of Washington School of Law followed by several days in Washington, DC.

In Seattle they attended several short courses taught by UWLS faculty in a variety of subjects, visited local and federal courts, and observed tribal court and met with tribal court officials (coordinated by the Law School’s Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic). They spent two days in Olympia observing legislative sessions and meeting the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Supreme Court justices, legislators and other state officials. The cohort also had many opportunities for informal interaction with UW faculty, staff and students as well as members of the community and local bar, including a reception hosted by Fenwick & West LLP.

In Washington, DC the women toured the Capitol, the Supreme Court and enjoyed a private meeting with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They attended a tea hosted by Said T. Jawad, the Ambassador of Afghanistan and met with several officials at the Library of Congress on the topic of publicly accessible web-based research resources.

Since our first Ph.D. graduate from Taiwan more than three decades ago (David M. Huang, Ph.D. ‘75), rising stars in Taiwanese law continue to engage in important research and pursue their doctoral degrees with the Asian Law Center. We acknowledge with thanks the supportive role played by Associate Dean Tay-sheng Wang (LL.M. 1990, Ph.D. 1992) at National Taiwan University in identifying and encouraging young scholars of promise.

Among our current Ph.D. cohort, four candidates are from Taiwan. Judge Tao-Chou (Paul) Chang examines the politics and performance of Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Court; Chuan-ju (Ariel) Cheng is writing about the contemporary indigenous self-government movement in Taiwan and possible legal models for its success; Shin-Rou Lin is conducting empirical research on the Taiwanese government’s public health policy in relation to infectious disease and forced hospitalization; and Hsin-Yang Wu focuses on official language legislation in modern states from a human rights perspective, especially with regard to language rights and equal protection of minorities, indigenous peoples, and immigrants.

The Center congratulates Toshitaka Kudo (LL.M '02; Ph.D. '09) on the successful defense of his dissertation, '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 argues 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. Kudo is currently a government lawyer at the Ministry of Justice in Tokyo.

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.

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.

Professor Veronica Taylor (LL.M. '92), Director of the Asian Law Center, was chosen as the Dan Fenno Henderson Professor in Asian Law in acknowledgment of her research and expertise in Asian Law. She will be formally installed in May 2009. Taylor, who joined the faculty in 2001, is responsible for the J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., and Visiting Scholar Programs in Asian, Comparative, and Development Law. She specializes in commercial law and society in Asia, regulation, and law reform in transition economies, and has published extensively on commercial law in Japan and Indonesia, on regulation, on law and society in Asia, and on the 21st century challenges of law and development. As Director of the Asian Law Center, she oversees teaching, research, and policy work on Afghanistan, Central Asia, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Taylor has more than 20 years of experience as a scholar and consultant participating in and managing projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and AUSAID. She has designed law reform and legal training projects focused on Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, and the United States. In addition to her teaching and research, Taylor is the director of the U.S. Department of State Afghan Legal Educators Project based at the Asian Law Center and in Afghanistan. She also directs, with UW Professor Susan Whiting, a federally funded multi-year project, “Empowering Rural Communities: Legal Aid and the Rule of Law in Rural China,” which both delivers and studies the effects of legal aid in some of China's poorest provinces.

Professor Dan Fenno Henderson, who was on the law school faculty for 29 years, established the Asian law program. Colleagues and former students, assisted by a generous gift from Professor and Mrs. Henderson to the law school, created this endowed professorship upon Henderson’s retirement in 1991. Professor Daniel Foote (University of Tokyo) was the first Dan Fenno Henderson Professor.

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.

On February 19, 2009, Prof. Jon Eddy and eight visiting Afghan legal educators discussed legal education in Afghanistan, focusing on legal education in the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Shari’a, on their relationship with other legal institutions, and on legal careers in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Legal Educators Program at the University of Washington School of Law provides opportunities for advanced training to Afghan legal educators and works to support Afghan legal education in a variety of ways, building relationships between Afghan law and Shari’a (Islamic law) faculties and their counterparts in America and throughout the world. The Program hosted eight participants in 2008-09 including faculty from Balkh, Herat, Kabul and Al-Biruni universities.

On February 11, 2009, Luca Escoffier, CASRIP Fellow and IP Advisor (former) for The Consortium for the Centre of Molecular Biomedicine, Trieste, Italy, presented an overview of the path that innovations follow from their conception to their potential marketability, focusing on legal and regulatory issues. The interaction and convergence among physics, chemistry, and biology is a challenge not just from a scientific point of view. The uniqueness of nanotechnology research lies in the novel hurdles that all people involved in this sector have to overcome. The difficulties faced by researchers are just the beginning of a long way of obstacles that this kind of innovations experience while going from the bench to the market.  Mr. Escoffier shared his proposals as to the most effective exploitation of the research in this field.

Luca Escoffier is a former IP Advisor with the Consortium for the Centre of Molecular Biomedicine in Trieste, Italy. He holds his Italian law degree from the University of Parma, and a Master of Laws from WIPO Academy and the University of Turin. Mr. Escoffier is also pursuing a Ph.D. in IP law at Queen Mary, University of London. Visiting with us as a CASRIP fellow, Mr. Escoffier is conducting a comparative research of patents and the regulation and valuation of nanotechnology inventions.

Professor Lombardi, together with Professors Michael Feener of the National University of Singapore and Mark Cammack at Southwestern Law School, hosted a conference at NUS in February 2009, analyzing patterns in the teaching of Islamic law in Indonesia and Malaysia as well as the impact of this teaching on court decisions. Developing a picture of changing Islamic legal education for legal professionals in the region is a necessary first step toward understanding how Islamic lawyers and Muslim judges view their own social roles and how Muslim judges formulate their decisions.

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.

Saadia Pekkanen (Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of International Studies, Jackson School of International Studies, UW) and adjunct professor, School of Law, was promoted to full Professor in 2008. She is a recognized expert in WTO and trade regulation and global labor and health regulation and collaborates with Asian Law Center colleagues on Japanese legal and regulatory issues.

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 U.S. is unique in having an interdisciplinary American Advisory Committee of distinguished scholars that monitors Japanese Studies nationally and makes funding recommendations for institutional and individual grantees. 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. The Committee Chair is an appointment by the Foundation on the recommendation of the peer members of the Committee.

The Law School and the Asian Law Center congratulate Dr. Hendrianto on completing his Ph.D studies. Hendrianto’s dissertation is titled “From humble beginnings to a functioning Court: the Indonesian Constitutional Court, 2003 – 2008.”

Hendrianto joined the Ph.D. program in 2004, having graduated from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia, and having received an LL.M., cum laude, from Utrecht University, Netherlands. His research interest is in comparative constitutional law and the role of the courts in transition economies. Consequently, his dissertation centers on the struggle to construct judicial review in the Indonesian Constitutional Court during a transition period, and focuses on the main factors that are contributing to the development of the Indonesian Constitutional Court into a functioning institution.

Dr. Chih-Wei Tsai (Awi Mona) (Ph.D. '07), a member of the Sediq (Atayal) tribe of Taiwan, worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2001, and played a pivotal role in the advancement of Aboriginal legislation in Taiwan. His research focused on international human rights and organizations and indigenous peoples' rights in Taiwan. We congratulate Dr. Tsai (Awi Mona) for successful defense of his dissertation: 'Principles of Aboriginal Title and Self-Determination: Legal Justification for Indigenous Self-Government in Taiwan.' Following completion of his Ph.D., he was appointed as Assistant Professor at the National Taitung University, Graduate Institute of Austronesian Studies.

Former Pennsylvania Governor, U.S. Attorney General and United Nations Under-Secretary-General Dick Thornburgh spoke at the UW School of Law on Thursday, April 24, 2008. His keynote address, "Globalizing a Response to Disability Discrimination," is part of a two day symposium held at the law school focusing on disability rights in Asia.

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.

On October 23, 2008, David T. Johnson, Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii, discussed the main findings of his co-authored book (with Franklin Zimring) The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia (Oxford University Press, forthcoming Jan. 2009). His previous book, The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan received awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Society of Criminology.

Professors Johnson and Zimring (UC Berkeley) launched their study believing Asia is the next frontier in the two-century debate about state execution as a criminal punishment. Despite huge variations in death penalty practice throughout Asia, two general patterns suggest a tendency toward reduced reliance on capital punishment and increased ambivalence about its appropriateness. First, in most of those Asian nations that retain death as a criminal sanction, its use is rare and has little or no importance for crime control. Second, the main death penalty trend among Asian nations is toward fewer executions over time. The biggest issue about the future of capital punishment in Asia may concern when rather than whether it will cease.  The talk was co- sponsored by the Asian Law Center, Gates Public Service Law Program, Innocence Project Northwest, The Center for Human Rights and Justice and the International Law Society.

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.

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.

The University of Tokyo Faculty of Law hosts an annual residential Summer School for law students from the University of Tokyo and its institutional partners in China and Korea. In 2008, both Professors Toshiko Takenaka and Veronica Taylor were among a small group of prominent comparative law professors invited to speak at the Business Law Symposium preceding the Summer School and to present intensive courses at the week-long residential program, Takenaka on Intellectual Property and Taylor on International Trade.

UW Law Professor Emeritus Roy L. Prosterman, founder and chairman emeritus of the Rural Development Institute (RDI), RDI Senior Attorney Robert Mitchell (J.D. ’87, LL.M. ’93) and Dean Erman Rajagukguk (LL.M. ‘84, Ph.D. ‘89) continue to collaborate on land reform in Indonesia through RDI’s Indonesian office. One key goal is to give Indonesia’s poorest families a way to stabilize and supplement their incomes with small homestead plots.

As a result of Prosterman's leadership, RDI has become an extraordinarily effective advocate for international land law and policy reform. In March 2006, Prosterman has been named the recipient of the inaugural Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership for his pioneering work in fighting for the rights of the rural poor to own land, one of the underlying causes of global poverty.

Dean Rajagukguk has maintained strong ties to the UW Law School and faculty since his student days. In addition to his ongoing work with Professors Lev, Prosterman and Taylor, he is working with Beth Rivin, Research Associate Professor and Director of the UW Global Health and Justice Project, on legal issues around human rights and health.

The 14th annual conference of the North American Taiwan Studies Association took place at the University of Washington, Seattle from June 27 to 29 of 2008, with the support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the Asian Law Center and the East Asia Center at the University of Washington. The conference titled “Translating the Political, Re-envisioning the Social: What’s the Next Turn for Taiwan?” invited scholars and students to reexamine the latest development of democratic politics and social empowerment in Taiwan. Participants included scholars from the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan and Europe as well as several faculty members and researchers specialized in Asian Studies from the greater Seattle area.

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.

The Law School and the Asian Law Center hosts a number of Taiwanese Judges, prosecutors, government officials and attorneys as Visiting Scholars each year. Our recently executed collaborative agreement with the Judicial Yuan of Taiwan (May 2008) will enhance our existing scholarly exchanges.

We also collaborate with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle to host many visitors from Taiwan. Recent distinguished visitors included Mr. Rih-Sheng Tsai, Deputy-Director of Administrative Enforcement Agency and Mr. Ying-hung Chou, Director of the Taichung Branch, Administrative Enforcement Agency (June 2007), himself an alumnus of the LL.M in Asian and Comparative Law Program (2000).

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.

In Spring 2008, Professor Lombardi presented lectures titled “Development of Islamic Law Studies in the United States” at the National Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and “The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt and Islamic Law” at the Council on Islamic Ideology in Islamabad, Pakistan. At the National University of Singapore, he spoke on “Islamism as a Response to Emergency in Pakistan: The Surprising Philosophy of Justice A.R. Cornelius” as part of a Conference on Emergency Powers in Asia and was a commentator at the university’s workshop on “Belief in Law: Religions, Identity, Colonialism and National Policy.”

In 2006, Professors Wali Mohammad Naseh, Humayoun Rahimi, Menhajuddin Hamed and Mohammad Haroon Mutasem left their homes, jobs, and families in Afghanistan to come to the UW School of Law to participate in the Afghan Legal Educators Program. They attended classes and social functions, wrote papers, studied for exams, and missed family and friends back home. In January 2008, they were rewarded for their sacrifice and became the first group of Afghan scholars and legal educators to complete the program. In their honor, friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate with a dinner and ceremony recognizing their accomplishments.

Professors Naseh, Hamed and Mutasem earned LL.M. degrees in 2008. Haroon, the youngest of the scholars, has returned to the law faculty at Kabul University, is a judicial training materials specialist, and is teaching at the recently opened American University of Afghanistan. Naseh too is back teaching law at Kabul University and is also a legal advisor for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce. Hamed has returned to his post on the Shari’a faculty at Balkh University.

For Hamed particularly, the journey to the United States was a tremendous leap of faith. His family warned him that he would be lonely and have no friends. Hamed said he was happy to go home and tell them they were wrong. “I have made so many friends here in Seattle, at the university, and in law school,” he said. “I will always remember their kindness and hospitality.”

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).

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.

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.

Since arriving at the law school in 1964, Richard Kummert, D. Wayne and Anne Gittinger Professor of Law, 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.”

Although Kummert announced his retirement in 2008, he continues to teach part time and his courses remain strong favorites of both US and international students.

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.

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. Starting with Spring of 2007, Professors Guinee and Chafee have added 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 at Waseda University in Japan.

Throughout 2007, Afghan Legal Educators Program participants continued legal studies and participated in legal conferences around the US, including at Harvard, University of South Carolina and Washington & Lee University. They also participated in a State Department forum in Washington, D.C. to discuss the challenges of integrating Shari’a, customary and secular law. Several scholars also attended the 2008 AALS conference in New York where they shared ideas with colleagues from around the US and the world and collected textbooks to rebuild law libraries at their home institutions.

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.

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.

Our collaboration with the Law School’s Native American Center and the Tribal Court Criminal Defense Clinic provides a unique opportunity for a dialogue between Native American tribal justice leaders and the Afghan legal community about analogous challenges faced by the Afghan legal system and the tribal legal systems in the U.S. Working together with Professor Ron Whitener, Director of Tribal Court Criminal Defense Clinic and Molly Cohan, Clinic Supervisor, we are optimistic that Native American tribal justice systems can be innovative models to accommodate tribal customs within a larger democratic system in Afghanistan.

Participants on the Afghan Legal Educators Program have been introduced first hand to several tribal models. They visited the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in La Conner, WA, where they attended Tribal Court and met with Chief Judge M. Pouley and several tribal attorneys and members of the Swinomish Senate. A visit to the Tulalip Tribes headquarters in Marysville, WA , provided participants training on the Tulalip justice system and culture and provided examples of how the Tulalip Tribes have dealt with the challenge of maintaining traditional tribal law values in a modern court system.

In April 2007, Professors Hakimi and Mutasem joined Tribal Clinic law students at a week long training at the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The group worked with the Office of Navajo Public Defender, Navajo Court System and the Dine' Policy Institute. In fall 2007, Chief Justice (Emeritus) of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, Robert Yazzie, visited the Law School and held a workshop with ALE participants and UW faculty to discuss strategies for discovery and implementation of fundamental law from a comparative perspective of the history and culture of both Afghanistan and the Native American tribes in the U.S. Justice Yazzie, in turn, invited Professor Eddy and two ALE participants to present at a later symposium at the Dine Policy Institute.

During their October 2006 visit to Taiwan, our former Dean, WH (‘Joe’) Knight and faculty enjoyed an extended visit to National Taiwan University Law Faculty. There, Dean Ming-cheng Tsai (a former UW Visiting Scholar) and Associate Dean Tay-sheng Wang (LL.M. 1990, Ph.D. 1992) extended a warm welcome. The conversation was wide-ranging, and included developing the outline for a new collaborative agreement between the two schools.

We executed a formal collaborative agreement in July 2007, and have since been exchanging students engaged in comparative legal studies. In the 2008-09 academic year we also welcomed Professor Jau-Yuan Huang, who is working with Professor Dongsheng Zang to examine comparative constitutionalism and international human rights in East Asia.

We had the pleasure of seeing Dean Tsai, Associate Dean Wang, and Professors Jau-yuan Hwang and Wen-chen Chang again, when they made a reciprocal visit to Seattle in September 2007. Their visit allowed us to continue developing areas of joint research and teaching that are of interest for both of our schools.

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.

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.

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 July 2007, the alumni meeting of the Japan Chapter of the UW Law School Alumni Association took place at Waseda University, starting with a symposium organized by Professor Takenaka and followed by a reception. The first panel of the symposium explored hot topics in Mergers & Acquisitions under Japan’s revised corporation law.The panel, moderated by Mr. Osamu Hirakawa (LL.M. ‘77) of Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune, included Mr. Keisuke Sadamori, Counselor, Cabinet Secretariat; Mr. Kunizo Suzuki (CASRIP Advisory Committee-Texas Instruments Japan; Prof. Hidetoshi Masuda (Visiting Scholar Alumni -Senshu Law School) and Mr. Jody Chafee (J.D. ’91) of Starbucks Coffee legal department and UW school of law Adjunct Professor.

In the second part of the symposium, addressing legal education for global lawyers, alumni shared from their experience at the UW LL.M. Programs. The Waseda students in attendance showed much interest in this and enjoyed getting to know the panelists, other alumni and UW friends, some incoming LL.M. students, and Mie Murazumi (J.D. ’01), LL.M and Ph.D. Programs Coordinator, in the reception that followed.

Dr. Tomi Suryo Utomo (Ph.D. 2006) is currently teaching at Sanabadra University, Indonesia. His dissertation, titled “Indonesian Drug Policy and Patent Regulation After the TRIPS Agreement: Better Access to Essential Medicines?” focused on the protection of pharmaceutical patents in Indonesia and its impact on the public health sector.

Dr. Kurnia Toha (Ph.D. 2007) is currently teaching at the University of Indonesia. His dissertation, titled “The Struggle Over Land Rights: A Study of indigenous property rights in Indonesia” examined the Indonesian government's policy and regulation on land tenure, especially on communal land rights, in comparison to Malaysia and Australia.

In July 2006 we lost UW Professor Emeritus Daniel S. Lev, our friend and preeminent colleague in the field of Southeast Asian Law and Politics. A specialist in the comparative politics, legal systems and human rights of Southeast Asia, Dan’s research on Indonesian law and politics was seminal. He set standards for both scholars and law reformers.

In his honor, the University of Washington School of Law Asian Law Center, in collaboration with University of Indonesia Faculty of Law held a memorial conference in Seattle in February 2007 featuring many of his Indonesian colleagues and former students. The conference brought together many esteemed guests and colleagues to discuss a broad range of topics from law and politics in Indonesia to economic development to land reform. Noted speakers included Hikmahanta Juwana, Dean of the University of Indonesia Faculty of Law, Erman Rajagukguk, Dean of Al-Azar University Law Faculty (LL.M. ‘84, Ph.D. ‘89), Adnan Uyung Nasution and Yunus Husein, to name a few.

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.

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.

On May 23 2007, over 50 Indonesian alumni and friends of the Law School gathered in Jakarta. In his welcoming remarks, Mr Arief Surowijojo (LLM ’84), name partner of leading Indonesian law firm Lubis, Ganie Surowijojo observed that this was the first time that UWLS alumni in Jakarta had gathered formally as a cohort and that it marked a real opportunity to build on professional ties and strengthen the Indonesian legal profession.

UW law alumni in Indonesia are among the leading names in government and private practice and have also featured consistently in legal reform debates and initiatives. Mr Surowijojo is a leading figure in commercial legal practice in Indonesia who is also a key supporter for the leading legal reform NGO, PSHK (Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies). In his remarks, Mr Surowijojo acknowledged the most senior alumnus present, Ms Sri Indrastuti Hadiputranto (LLM ‘81) name partner of Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners(the Baker and McKenzie affiliate in Jakarta). Ibu Tuti Hadiputranto is well-known in Indonesia for the uncompromising integrity of her practice. In his remarks, Dr. Rajagukguk, Dean of Al-Azar University Law Faculty (LLM ‘84, PhD ‘88) remembered Emeritus Professor Daniel S. Lev and his immense influence in recruiting outstanding students to UW in politics and law. Professor Veronica Taylor (LLM ’92) introduced Professors Jon Eddy (JD ‘69) and Clark Lombardi who attended the reunion, and two of the most recent Indonesian PhD graduates of the Law School, Dr Tomi Suryo (PhD ‘06) and Dr. Kurnia Toha (PhD ’07). The Indonesian alumni reunion was supported by Professor Melda Kamil Ariadno (LLM ‘95, PhD in progress) and her colleagues at the Center for International Law, University of Indonesia. Under the leadership of Dr. Rajagukguk and colleagues our Indonesian alumni committed to formalizing a UWLS Indonesia Alumni Association in the near future.

Professors Veronica Taylor, Jonathan Eddy and Clark Lombardi traveled to Jakarta in May 2007 to take part and present at the Fourth Annual Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Conference, hosted by the University of Indonesia Faculty of Law, themed "Voices of Asia for a Just and Equitable World." The three offered a comparative perspective from their recent experience with the Asian Law Center’s Afghan Legal Educators’ Program. Professor Eddy addressed “Challenges of Pluralism in Afghan Legal Reconstruction”; Professor Lombardi’s presentation was titled “Identifying, Teaching and Researching the Law of an Emerging State: Lessons from Afghanistan for other Transitional Societies.” Professor Taylor offered a perspective on “Afghan Legal Education in a Crossroad: Secular, Sharia or Synthesis?”

In Spring 2007, Visiting Professor Lawton Hawkins joined Professor Richard Kummert to team-teach our Comparative Corporate Governance course, exploring broader issues of corporate governance with a particular focus on U.S.-Japanese Corporate Relations. Hawkins, a former Blakemore Fellow at the Inter-University Center for Advance Japanese Studies, joined us with eleven years of experience practicing law in Asia, first at the Tokyo office of Morrison & Foerster, later as head of the American Express General Counsel's Office in Japan, and finally as American Express Group Counsel for Japan/Asia/Pacific. He has previously taught U.S. and Japanese law at Keio University Law School and at Temple University in Japan. Following his teaching period at UW, Hawkins joined the Coca-Cola Corporation in Atlanta.

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.

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. During his time at UW he has been writing a new book on the history of law and economic development in Korea.

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.

After earning an LL.M. in Asian and Comparative Law from the University of Washington School of Law in 2004 as a Fulbright Scholar, Tung Thanh Ngo, who also holds an LL.B. from Ho Chi Minh City University (1995), returned to Vietnam and continues to contribute to the development of the legal profession Vietnam. Known as a visionary leader in government and business circles, Ngo is a strong advocate for an adversarial justice system and steadily pushes to adopt greater transparency and consistency in the application of law within Vietnam’s developing legal system. He returns to the UW Law School Asian and Comparative Law Program to pursue a Ph.D. in 2009.

Since 1999, Ngo has been the Managing Partner of the biggest Vietnamese law firm in Vietnam – VILAF-Hong Duc (Vietnam International Law Firm). Under his leadership, VILAF has transformed from an affiliate of Clifford Chance to an independent commercial firm in Vietnam.

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).

In October 2006, then Dean Knight and Professors Taylor, Takenaka and Kang traveled to Korea to continue to develop our relationships with the legal and business community in Korea. They visited several of our parter law schools. They visited with the Dean and faculty of Korea University’s College of Law, with whom we formally partnered earlier that year. Dean Knight also enjoyed returning to Seoul National University College of Law which has continued to grow and evolve since his last visit. While visiting Yonsei University, our faculty met with an impressive group of law professors, including UW alumnus Professor Hyung Doo Nam (Ph.D. '05) who now teaches Intellectual Property Law at Yonsei. Our faculty also accompanied Washington State Senator Paull Shin to the city of Gwangju to visit Chosun University's College of Law. Lastly, Dean Knight was honored to present to faculty and students at Sungkyunkwan University College of Law on challenges confronting US law schools.

In addition, our faculty visited the Supreme Court of Korea, where they met with the Minister for National Court Administration, as well as visited the Ministry of Justice. Professors Taylor, Takenaka and Kang also paid a visit to the general counsel of LG, the legal offices of Samsung, and the Korea Foundation.

Our visit to Korea afforded us a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with many of our graduates and former visiting scholars. The UW alumni club of Seoul hosted a lovely dinner party. The number and achievements of those in attendance was astounding. Many UW alumni were also included in a group of more than 150 of the most successful attorneys and business people in Seoul who joined a final dinner at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, with Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire and UW President Mark Emmert.

We were delighted to hire Assistant Professor Yong-Sung Jonathan Kang, making UW the only top-tier law school in the U.S. with a tenure-track professor teaching comparative Korean law.

Professor Kang joined the faculty in Fall 2006 after experience as a visiting assistant professor at Fordham Law School and legal practice with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and Latham & Watkins, and at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of contract law and theory, international business transactions, Korean law, and moral and legal philosophy. A fluent speaker of Korean and a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese, Professor Kang was born in Seoul and grew up in Singapore. He attended Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Jesus College, obtaining a first class Honor’s degree. Professor Kang is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

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.

In Autumn 2006, Visiting Professor Andrew Pardieck taught Japanese Law. Dr. Pardieck specializes in Japanese law, and shared his knowledge and experience of Japanese trial law with UW J.D. and LL.M students. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hokkaido, he wrote his dissertation, in Japanese, on disclosure requirements in the Japanese and U.S. securities markets. The Commercial Law Centre, Inc. published this work in 2001. In addition to his legal practice in the United States, he has lectured widely in Japan, and has published on a variety of topics including Japan’s securities law, foreign legal consultants, and alternative dispute resolution.

Following a year of English instruction in Kabul provided by the Afghan Legal Educators Program, nineteen Afghan professors arrived in Seattle in the summer of 2006 to attend the University of Washington Law School’s Summer Institute in Transnational Law and Practice and to undergo intensive advanced English training and introduction to the U.S. legal system.

In fall 2006 participants engaged in individualized courses of study which included auditing law classes, learning modern legal research techniques, including use of electronic research, and continuing English training. The group also visited legal institutions such as local, state, federal and tribal courts and correctional facilities.

The Law Library at UW is widely recognized as one of the finest Taiwanese law collection outside Taiwan, and continues to enjoy the support of Taiwanese legal professionals. Colleagues from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of Taiwan, who visited with us in June 2005 with Prosecutor General Wu, returned in June 2006 to generously contribute several books to our East Asian Library Department. In September 2006 we were honored to host Chief Judge Hung Chao-Lung from Taiwan Yunlin District Court and a delegation of seventeen Judges from different Taiwanese District Courts who also made a generous donation of fourteen new books in Chinese to our East Asian Library Department.

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).

Alice Stokke traveled to Hanoi in May 2006 to conduct a 360 degree review of investor protection reforms in Vietnam. Her research included interviewing respondents from a broad spectrum of organizations, including drafters, practitioners, government officials, the international organization officials who oversaw the project and domestic and foreign end users. Sponsored by USAID and Booz Allen Hamilton in cooperation with the World Bank, the final report, co-authored by Veronica Taylor, has been used by the World Bank in its 2007 and 2008 Doing Business Report. The Doing Business project of the World Bank Group provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 181 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.

In February 2006, the Afghan Legal Educators Program worked with USAID to sponsor a week-long seminar for Afghan Deans and senior faculty at the UW Law School. Participants were exposed to modern teaching techniques, discussed curriculum reform and law school administration, and visited legal clinics and other legal institutions.

For more than 20 years, political unrest and forced isolation under the Taliban regime deprived most Afghan educators of the opportunity to study outside their country. The Afghan Legal Educators Program offers opportunities to both senior and junior faculty members to travel to Seattle for additional training and to undertake research. “Rule of Law requires stable, robust legal institutions. Helping our Afghan counterparts establish viable legal education is an important project ,” observed Professor Veronica Taylor. “This is the first opportunity in decades for many of these deans to visit a law school in an industrialized country.”

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).

During 2005-2006, Professor Veronica Taylor served as the contracts and company law expert on a team of commercial law and trade professionals tasked with conducting an evaluative study for the USAID Support for Trade Acceleration (STAR) Project (with Booz Allen Hamilton) in Southeast Asia. In September 2005, Professor Taylor and team members traveled to Vietnam and conducted a comprehensive Diagnostic of laws, public and private institutions, and social dynamics that pertained to commercial law and trade facilitation environments in Vietnam.

STAR Vietnam is a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide demand-driven technical assistance to Vietnam in implementing the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization agreements and the Trade Investment Framework Agreement in cooperation with the Office of the Government of Vietnam. Since its inception in 2001, USAID/STAR has helped Vietnamese counterparts adjust or develop almost 100 major laws and regulations.

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”.

Professor Jonathan (Jon) Eddy joined us in July 2005. After graduating from UW (J.D. ‘69), Jon began his career teaching commercial law in Ethiopia under Ford Foundation sponsorship and held faculty positions at a number of distinguished law schools. He has practiced commercial law for over 20 years, most recently as a partner in a major Seattle law firm. Since 2001 Jon has undertaken development work for USAID in Indonesia and the Philippines, focusing on anti-money laundering efforts, and for a U.S. Department of Commerce project on commercial law reform in the Arabian Gulf. At the Law School, Jon will teach and serve as Project Director for the Afghanistan Legal Educators project.

Professors Veronica Taylor, Jon Eddy and Clark Lombardi were awarded an initial $2 million INL grant to support the education and professional development of the personnel of Afghanistan’s universities who teach in the faculties of Shari’a (Islamic Law) and Law and Political Science.

The grant initially funded a three-year project to help rebuild and educate the next generation of Afghanistan’s legal profession, and allow Afghan lawyers to spend time in Seattle as visiting scholars or master’s of laws candidates to learn about the U.S. legal system. As 2007 drew to a close, INL extended the ALE program for an additional 3-year period. This allows additional professors to commence study towards an LL.M degree at the University of Washington School of Law.

The Asian Law Center is uniquely suited to help address the challenges the Afghan justice sector is facing by providing immediate education and training in areas such as comparative law, criminal justice, human rights as well as international studies and anthropology. The center’s extensive work in Southeast Asia – particularly Taylor and Lombardi’s work in Indonesia, has positioned it to work with Afghan lawyers, who have had limited or no exposure to how legal pluralism operates in transition and advanced economies.