Courtesy of Yale Law School

Over winter break, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken traveled to Asia for the school’s first official visit to the continent in over two decades. 

Law School’s trip, which began in Tokyo and ended in Beijing, was part of a broader effort to strengthen international connections. Though planned in 2020, it was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At a moment when, across the globe, there is enormous pressure to close the doors of universities. Now is the time to open ours still wider,” Gerken said.

While in Japan, Gerken visited the University of Tokyo and Waseda Law School. 

She met with the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law to discuss topics including the challenges and benefits of artificial intelligence in both educational and legal fields. At the Waseda Law School, Gerken discussed international affairs and interdisciplinary educational approaches with Waseda President Aiji Tanaka.

The Yale Club of Japan hosted an alumni chat and a reception, where Yale Law Professor Michael J. Wishnie ’87 LAW ’93 spoke on the work of various YLS clinics. Wishnie spent a semester abroad in Japan as a Dwight Hall Summer Fellow while an undergraduate at Yale.

“It was a joy to engage with so many Yale graduates and lawyers doing incredible work around the globe,” Wishnie wrote to the News. “This trip was a great opportunity to provide updates on the work we are doing here in New Haven and deepen our connections with our international peers.”

In China, Gerken toured the Tsinghua University campus and discussed the benefits of gaining global perspectives in legal education with Guangquan Zhou, dean of Tsinghua Law School.

Hanscom Smith, a senior fellow at the Jackson School of Global Affairs and retired Department of State Senior Foreign Service Officer, said that when government-to-government relations are tense — as between the U.S. and China — engagements between civil society, education, and business leaders are “even more important.” 

Smith noted that educational exchange is part of the “connective tissue” in international relationships, adding that seeing academic exchange in this trip is “encouraging.”

In her keynote address at the Peking University-Yale Law School forum on Legal Scholarship and Education, Gerken emphasized the importance of being a global citizen in any legal education.

In her address, Gerken highlighted how many faculty-led clinics at the Law School focus on international affairs. She especially drew attention to the work of the Paul Tsai China Center, a center devoted to studying China’s legal reforms and U.S.-China relations.

Alongside Gerken, Yale Law School professor Taisu Zhang ’05  LAW ’08 GRD ’14 spoke about his scholarship, U.S.-China relations, and the future of legal education.

“The extraordinarily warm reception that the law school received in Asia shows that there is still very robust demand for global intellectual and educational engagement in those parts of the world, despite, or perhaps even because of, the escalating geopolitical tensions across the Asia Pacific,” Zhang said. “The Law School should answer the call with curiosity, open-mindedness, and critical reflection, as it has for generations.”

A spokesperson from the Law School shared that Gerken will be doing alumni events in Europe later this year and that she hopes to visit Africa and India in the future.

The Paul Tsai China Center was founded in 1999.

Correction, Feb. 4: This story has been corrected to reflect that this is the Law School’s first visit to Asia in over two decades, not the first-ever visit.