Courses

Harvard Law School offers a broad range of courses, seminars, and independent study opportunities regarding law in East Asia, led by HLS faculty as well as distinguished visiting instructors from around the world.

Below we have listed courses from the past five years (from the 2021-2022 academic year through the current 2025-2026 academic year). Courses are listed in alphabetical order by course title. Please use the filters to find courses by instructor and by semester. For the most up-to-date information about courses in the current academic year, please consult the HLS Course Catalog.

Visiting Professors and Lecturers from prior years are listed on our Past Visiting Faculty page.

HLS Writes: In addition to courses, HLS students may also get academic credit for independent studies, in which they write a paper under a faculty member’s supervision.

Cross-Registration at HLS: Other schools at Harvard University also offer an enormous variety of courses related to East Asia, such as the Kennedy School, the Business School, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. HLS students are permitted to take a limited number of courses for credit from other Harvard Schools.

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Comparative Constitutional Law

Vicki C. Jackson
Fall 2023; Fall 2021
4 credits
The course will cover a series of topics arising in the comparative study of constitutional systems. Concentrating on constitutional structure and law in the United States and in such other countries as Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Israel, Japan, Sri Lanka and South Africa, it will examine selected problems of both constitutional design and constitutional adjudication. We will, for example, take up the varying foundations and structures of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws (e.g., how are courts that engage in constitutional review structured, how are their judges appointed, what is the source of their authority to engage in constitutional review), in light of recent controversies (including those involving the environment). …

Comparative Constitutional Law

Tarunabh Khaitan (Visiting Professor)
Fall 2024; Spring 2023
2 credits
This course is a study of constitutional law and politics from a comparative perspective. It has three features that make it distinctive from, and supplementary to, more traditional courses on constitutional law: first, it examines comparative constitutional law primarily through the lens of plurinational and deeply divided societies. One supposed function of constitutions is to enshrine the priority of political and legal mechanisms over violence for resolving societal disputes. A focus on deeply divided societies will allow us to examine this function closely. We will, therefore, draw our examples not only from constitutionally influential jurisdictions (such as United States, United Kingdom and Germany), but also from constitutions of plurinational or deeply divided societies (such as South Africa, Israel, and India). The course may also include material from jurisdictions firmly outside the ‘canon’ of comparative constitutional law, such as China, Iran, Australia, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands. …

Engaging China

William P. Alford, Steven Wang
Fall 2025; Fall 2024
2 credits
This seminar will focus on the myriad of legal and related policy questions that are central to the U.S.-P.R.C. relationship. Earlier iterations of this class have addressed issues regarding trade, human rights, technology transfer, corporate governance, climate change, corruption, foreign direct and portfolio investment, disability, Taiwan, competing visions of law and development (as played out in Africa),  and the role of lawyers. We anticipate covering a similar set of topics next fall, and may also delve into AI, sanctions, and law of the sea, among other topics. …

Engaging China (Reading Group)

William P. Alford
Fall 2023; Fall 2022; Fall 2021
1 credit
This one unit course will examine the role that China has been playing in a world order in flux. We will consider, inter alia, China’s engagement of existing global norms, ways in which China may (or may not) now or in the foreseeable future be shaping such norms, and their impact on China.  In the course of so doing, we will also address the manner of US engagement with such norms. …

History of International Law

Idriss Fofana
Fall 2024
3 Credits
This course explores the evolution and historical roots of the present-day international legal system from a global perspective. We will trace intellectual trends, institutional developments, and historical conflicts or oppositions that shaped relations between political communities from 1450 C.E. to the 1970s. The objective is to gain insight into why certain foundational aspects of today’s international law, such as the doctrine of sources, the subjects of international law, and self-determination, have assumed their current form. …

International Business Law

Mark Wu
Fall 2024; Spring 2023
3 Credits
This course aims to provide students with a broad overview of the problems that confront businesses as they go global and how different forms of law work to address such problems. Through a series of examples, the class will explore the legal and policy implications that arise out of cross-border transactions. How do businesses navigate markets that operate very differently than their own home market? We explore how treaties, national laws, and informal norms shape and constrain business decisions. Among the topics to be explored are how businesses deal with issues such as corporate social responsibility, intellectual property protection, corruption, privacy, and enforcement of arbitration awards. This class will focus, in particular, on transactions with Asia, but will draw on examples from other regions as well. …

Re-Imagining Global Order as Asia Re-Emerges

William P. Alford, Mark Wu
Fall 2022
2 credits
The re-emergence of Asia is posing conceptual and practical challenges to understandings of and frameworks for global order that were ascendant throughout the latter half of the 20th century. This workshop will examine the content of those challenges and what that suggests about the prospects for global order in the 21st century. Within Asia, the workshop is likely to focus principally on East and South Asia. …

The Comparative Law Workshop

William P. Alford, Idriss Fofana
Past Instructors: William P. Alford, Intisar Rabb, Idriss Fofana (Fall 2023)
Fall 2024; Fall 2023
2 Credits
This workshop will engage key questions in comparative law, using as focal points the study of African and Chinese and other Asian legal systems (including Islamic law), and legal history. Students will read examples of influential scholarship in each field both for their importance and as a vehicle for thinking about methodological issues in comparative work in general.  Students will also have the opportunity to engage several leading  scholars in each field, as well as scholars earlier in their career, who will present works-in-progress. Students considering taking the Workshop should attend the first class even if not formally enrolled. …

Tibet and China

Lobsang Sangay
Spring 2025; Fall 2023; Fall 2022
1 credit
This Reading Group will focus on the question of and solutions for Tibet. It will look at the historical status of Tibet and the current situation of the Tibetan people. The class will examine the guarantees and practices of national minority rights under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in light of international human rights standards. Do China’s guarantees respecting national minority rights meet international standards regarding the right to self-determination or the protection of minorities. Might reference to the rights of indigenous people be helpful? The approach of the seminar will be to interrogate the best ways to address these issues and find solutions. We will look at the evolution and major changes in the stand of the Dalai Lama from seeking independence, to what he has described as a zone of peace for …

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