For Immediate Release
- Contact:
- Herbert J. Hansell, Jones Day, 202-879-3986
R. Michael Gadbaw, Georgetown Law Center, 301-502-8769
John Frisbie, US-China Business Council, 202-429-0340
China Rule of Law Grants Announced By Business-Backed Legal Fund
Washington, DC, February 17, 2009 -- The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund, a charitable program 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 freedom of government information, training for migrant workers, criminal defense lawyer training, prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, and other important legal topics.
The Fund's Trustees, co-chaired by Herbert J. Hansell of the law firm Jones Day and R. Michael Gadbaw of Georgetown Law Center, made the awards from a pool of applications at the Fund's recent grant-selection meetings.
Information on the projects supported by the latest Fund awards follows:
- Establishing an annual forum on government information publishing, dissemination, and disclosure in Beijing to promote government information freedom, sponsored by Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri, in cooperation with the National Library of China.
- Providing pre-employment training on labor law and worker rights to minority Tibetans and Qiang people in the Ma'erkang Area. This project is sponsored by the Council of Overseas Chinese Services, New York City, in conjunction with Southwest University for Nationalities.
- Establishing a pilot e-learning platform for training criminal defense lawyers in China, sponsored by the University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, and International Bridges to Justice, Boston, Massachusetts, in cooperation with Peking University Law School.
- Initiating a distance-learning, Internet-based course in international human rights and mental disability law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Law. The project is sponsored by New York Law School in cooperation with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
- Providing legal resources to low-income female workers in China with a particular emphasis on prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace. This project is sponsored by the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center, San Francisco, California, in cooperation with Peking University Women's Law Studies and Legal Aid Center.
- Creating China's first course in AIDS law and the establishment of a national hotline to provide AIDS law counseling services, sponsored by Asia Catalyst, New York City, in cooperation with China Orchid AIDS Projects, Beijing.
- Conducting a study on the effects of recent labor legislation on Chinese industrial relations, sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum, Washington, DC, in cooperation with Shenzhen Spring Wind Labor Dispute Consultation and Service Center.
- Creating and disseminating a practical guidebook for legal aid in rural China with a particular focus on assisting farmers with issues related to their land rights, sponsored by the Rural Development Institute, Seattle, Washington, in cooperation with Guangxi University Law School.
- Teaching US commercial space law at the Harbin Institute of Technology School of Law and China University of Political Science and Law, sponsored by the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law, University of Mississippi School of Law.
- Conducting a study on outsourcing to civil society organizations for social services to include international experience and lessons, and recommendations for China, sponsored by the International Center for Civil Society Law, Crownsville, Maryland, in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Beijing.
- Conducting a policy dialogue on the development of legal institutions in China, sponsored by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, Washington, DC, and New York University School of Law in cooperation with Peking University Law School.
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. This initiative by members of the US-China Business Council has been financed by US business supporters of a just, law-abiding, and accessible Chinese legal system. Recent financial contributors to the Fund include:
GE Foundation; ExxonMobil Corporation; Time Warner, Inc.; FedEx Express; Motorola, Inc.; Cargill, Incorporated; CIGNA Foundation; Dewey & LeBoeuf; Mary Kay Inc.; and Jones Day.
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.