Professor Jerome Cohen

Profile

Professor Jerome Cohen is a professor at NYU School of Law since 1990 and Faculty Director of its U.S.-Asia Law Institute. He is a leading American expert on East Asian law and, especially, on Chinese law and government. A pioneer in the field, Professor Cohen began studying and teaching about China’s legal system in the early 1960s. As Jeremiah Smith Professor, Associate Dean and Director of East Asian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School from 1964-1979, he introduced the teaching of Asian law into the curriculum of Harvard Law School. In addition to his responsibilities at NYU, 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.

Each year, Professor Cohen teaches a course on Chinese law and society. In some years he offers a third course on comparative international law, analysing how countries with a Confucian tradition relate to the international laws and traditions of the "Christian West." In another course, he explores international business contracts and economic cooperation with East Asia. In addition to these formal courses, Professor Cohen coordinates a Chinese language colloquium that attracts key figures in Chinese law and hosts a weekly Asia Hour for students, featuring informal (and frequently autobiographical) talks by prominent diplomatic and government officials, leading academics, and other influential practitioners in the East Asian legal area.

He retired from the partnership of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP at the end of 2000 after twenty years of law practice focused on China. In his law practice, Professor Cohen represented many companies and individuals in contract negotiations as well as in dispute resolution in China.

Research