Event

Please join us for a special online Distinguished East Asia Lecture by Jerome A. Cohen, where he will reflect on "A Lifetime of Adventures in East Asia".

Jerome A. Cohen is the Founder and Faculty Director Emeritus at the US-Asia Law Institute of New York University School of Law, and is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a leading American expert on Chinese law and government. A pioneer in the field, Professor Cohen began studying and teaching about China’s legal system in 1960 and from 1964 to 1979 introduced the teaching of Asian law into the curriculum of Harvard Law School, where he founded and became initial director of the East Asian Legal Studies program and also served as Jeremiah Smith Professor and Associate Dean for graduate and international studies. More recently, Professor Cohen served for several years as C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he currently is an Adjunct Senior Fellow. He retired from the partnership of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in 2000 after over twenty years of law practice focused on China. In 2020, he retired from NYU School of Law after thirty years of teaching. In his law practice, Professor Cohen represented many companies and individuals in contract negotiations as well as in dispute resolution concerning China.

Professor Cohen has published several books on Chinese law, including The Criminal Process in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-63 (1968), People’s China and International Law (1974, with H.D. Chiu) and Challenge to China: How Taiwan Abolished its Version of Re-education Through Labor (2013, with Margaret Lewis). In addition, he has edited many books and published hundreds of scholarly articles on various topics as well as a book, China Today And Her Ancient Treasures (1975), co-authored with his wife, Joan Lebold Cohen, and a regular series of journalistic opinion pieces for various newspapers. Today, Professor Cohen continues his research and writing on Asian law, focusing on legal institutions, criminal justice reform, dispute resolution, human rights and the role of international law relating to China and Taiwan.