June 26, 2006
- Contact:
- Herbert J. Hansell (202) 879-3986
or John Frisbie (202) 429-0340
China Rule of Law Grants Announced by Business-Backed Legal Fund
Washington, June 26 - The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund, a charitable program affiliated with the US-China Business Council and supported by leading American companies engaged in trade and investment with the People's Republic of China, has announced the latest grants in its continuing program of support for joint US-PRC cooperation in China's legal development. The approved grants provide full or partial support of projects dealing with legal assistance for rural farmers in China, protection of intellectual property rights, publication of a health law textbook for Chinese law schools, and legal representation of accused persons in ethnic-minority provinces in China.
The Fund's Trustees, chaired by Herbert J. Hansell of the law firm Jones Day, made the awards from a pool of applications at the Fund's recent semi-annual meeting.
Information on the projects supported by the latest Fund awards follows:
- Providing Chinese farmers with legal information and representation by training legal aid lawyers in China's rural land laws and policies sponsored by the Rural Development Institute (RDI), Seattle, WA, and a Chinese provincial entity.
- The Berkeley China Intellectual Property Rights Leadership Program to enhance business and policy cooperation between the United States and China in the area of intellectual property rights education and research. This project is sponsored by the Center for Research on Chinese & American Strategic Cooperation at the University of California, Berkeley in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Social Science and the China Law Association on Science and Technology.
- Publishing a health law textbook for Chinese law schools as part of a multi-year effort to support the development of health law as an academic discipline and professional specialty in China. The project is sponsored by Temple University, Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, PA, in cooperation with Tsinghua University, School of Law.
- Expanding a continuing program to enhance the quality and scope of legal representation of ethnic minority criminal defendants in China. The project is sponsored by International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), Boston, MA, in cooperation with the China National Legal Aid Center.
Through its website, www.uschinalegalcoop.org, the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund solicits project proposals from American and Chinese partners planning cooperative efforts in legal education, improvement of legal services, protection of legal rights, legislative and judicial procedure, and related areas.
Since its inception in 1998, the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund has given away more than $900,000 to projects directed at improving the rule of law in China. The Fund has received support for its programs from the following companies and firms:
ABB Inc.; AMP Incorporated; American International Group, Inc.; AOL Time Warner; Applied Materials, Inc.; ARCO; Baker & Daniels; Cargill, Incorporated; Caterpillar Inc.; China Products North America; The Chubb Corporation; CIGNA Corporation; Citigroup; The Coca-Cola Company; Corning Incorporated; Dewey Ballantine LLP; Eastman Kodak Company; Eaton Corporation; Emerson; Exxon Mobil Corporation; Federal Express Corporation; Ford Motor Company; GE Foundation; General Motors Corporation; Honeywell Inc.; Ingersoll-Rand Company; Jones Day; Kaye Scholer LLP; Lehman Brothers; Mary Kay Inc.; Merrill Lynch; Microsoft Corporation; Motorola Inc.; Nationwide Global Holdings; Payless ShoeSource, Inc.; PepsiCo, Inc.; Praxair, Inc.; Robert A. Kapp & Associates; Time Warner, Inc.; The Timken Company; TRW Inc.; United Technologies Corporation; UPS; Warner-Lambert Company; and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company.
The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund is a program of the China Business Forum (501/c/3), the education and research arm of the US-China Business Council (501/c/6). Further information about the Fund and its grants program is available on its website shown above.
About the China Business Forum
The China Business Forum, Inc. (www.chinabusinessforum.org) was established by the US-China Business Council to promote broad-based policy discussion and greater understanding in both China and the United States of the economic systems and business methods of each country and of the role of commerce in the overall relationship between the United States and China.