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
Business-Backed Fund Makes Grants to Support Rule of Law in China
Washington, DC, July 14 -- The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund, 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 US-PRC cooperation in China's legal development. The approved grants provide full or partial support for projects dealing with social security law, microcredit, employment law, law-related civic education, and other important legal topics.
The projects supported by the latest fund awards, and the American and Chinese institutions undertaking them:
- Identify key issues, impacts, and obstacles under China's draft Social Security Law, by the University of Hawaii Law School and the Peking University Law School's Labor Law and Social Security Law Institute.
- Develop a module on microcredit as part of a Chinese law course on credit and guarantees, by the University of Maryland School of Law and the Central University of Finance and Economics' Law School.
- Produce a handbook and a radio program on disability and employment rights for Chinese employees, by Harvard Law School and Beijing United (Lianhe) University.
- Provide pre-employment education on rights and self-protection to people in earthquake-affected areas of Sichuan, by the Council of Overseas Chinese Services and the Southwest University for Nationalities.
- Provide legal and documentation training for women living with HIV/AIDS, by Asia Catalyst and Sisters United.
- Train staff of a legal clinic focusing on death penalty cases in China, by Cornell University Law School and China University of Political Science and Law.
- Promote participation of China's legal professionals in civic and law-related education, by the Center for Civic Education and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.
Through its website, http://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. Since the fund's founding in 1999, it has disbursed more than $1 million in grants. Recent financial contributors to the fund include:
GE Foundation; ExxonMobil Corporation; Time Warner Inc.; FedEx Express; Motorola, Inc.; Cargill, Incorporated; CIGNA Foundation; Mary Kay Inc.; and Jones Day.
The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund is a program of the China Business Forum (501/c/3), the educational and research arm of the US-China Business Council (501/c/6). Further information about the fund and its grants program is available at http://www.uschinalegalcoop.org.