The U.s.-taiwan-china Relationship in International Law and Policy

For a country of its size, Taiwan has a tremendous influence on world affairs and U.S. policy. The U.S.-Taiwan-China Relationship in International Law and Policy describes the central issues animating the dynamic U.S.-Taiwan-China relationship and the salient international and domestic legal issues shaping U.S. policy in the Asia Pacific region. In this book, Lung-chu Chen gives particular attention to Taiwan's status under international law, and the role of the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in the formulation and execution of U.S. policy toward Taiwan. This book endorses the central purpose of the Taiwan Relations Act--achieving a peaceful resolution to the Taiwan question--while offering policy alternatives that will empower Taiwan to participate more actively in the international arena.

This book follows in the tradition of the New Haven School of international law. As such, it defines the common interests of the world community, which include demands for human dignity and security and the protection of human rights in accordance with bedrock norms such as the right to self-determination and the peaceful resolution of conflict. Chen proposes that in accordance with international law, historical trends, and contemporary political conditions, the people of Taiwan should ultimately determine a path to normalized statehood through a plebiscite under the supervision of the international community.

Lung-chu Chen is an internationally recognized scholar and Professor of Law at New York Law School, specializing in international law, human rights, and the United Nations. He previously served as Research Associate, Senior Research Associate, and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He received his LL.B. with first-place honors from National Taiwan University, his LL.M. from Northwestern University, and his LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale University. While still a junior at the National Taiwan University, he ranked first of some four thousand participants in Taiwan's national examination for judgeship and other high governmental posts-a unique distinction in Taiwan's history.
He is founder and chairman of the Taiwan New Century Foundation (a think tank), founder and president of the New Century Institute (New York), and charter president and honorary president of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance (TAIUNA). He is a board member of the Policy Sciences Center, a former president of the Taiwanese Society of International Law, and a former national policy adviser to the president of Taiwan.

Formerly he was also chairman of the section on international law of the Association of American Law Schools, a member of the executive council of the American Society of International Law, a director of the American Society of Comparative Law, and a member of the editorial board of its journal (American Journal of Comparative Law). He was chief editor of Human Rights, published by the American Bar Association Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. In addition, he served as vice president and a member of the governing council of the International League for Human Rights and president of the North America Taiwanese Professors' Association. He was a principal lecturer at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, a training center for human rights experts founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner René Cassin.

His publications include Membership for Taiwan in the United Nations: Achieving Justice and Universality (editor), An Introduction to Contemporary International Law, Human Rights and World Public Order (with Myres S. McDougal and Harold D. Lasswell), and Formosa, China, and the United Nations (with Harold D. Lasswell). In addition, he has written and edited numerous books and articles in Chinese. Currently he is general editor of a series of books relating to the U.N. system published under the auspices of the Taiwan Institute for U.N. Studies, a project of the Taiwan New Century Foundation. He is also editor in chief of New Century Think Tank Forum, a quarterly in Chinese published jointly by the Taiwan New Century Foundation and the New Century Institute.