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This paper examines how power lawyers shape judicial and economic outcomes by studying the “revolving door” between judges and lawyers in China’s judicial system—namely, former judges who quit the bench to practice law. In otherwise identical lawsuits, revolving-door lawyers deliver 8−23% higher win rate for their clients. Their performance in home versus away courts suggests these gains stem from both “know how” and “know who.” We extend the theoretical framework of Dewatripont and Tirole (1999) to show that revolving-door lawyers create countervailing forces in society: they enhance judicial decision-making through evidence and reasoning, but also exploit strategic arguments and connections to bias outcomes in favor of their clients. We estimate a structural model of the judicial process to quantify these trade-offs and find that increasing the supply of power lawyers can have a non-monotonic effect on equilibrium judicial quality.

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NBER Working Paper
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Digital flyer for Shorenstein APARC Japan Program April 15, 2025 event: Recalibrating U.S.-Japan Collaboration in a Time of Tumult

 


As the United States redefines its role in the world, its closest ally, Japan, gains new prominence while facing new pressures, new challenges, and new opportunities. This symposium features leading experts on issues that concern the American, Japanese, and global public in this turbulent time. They will explore the evolving U.S.-Japan ties from various angles and engage in a wide-ranging conversation spanning the liberal international order, global trade, DEI, civil society — and baseball.

Free lunch and refreshments will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis

This symposium is co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Japan Program and the United States-Japan Foundation
 

Agenda

 

Session 1 – Global Democracy, Foreign Aid, and Regional Security: As the U.S. Pulls Back, Will Tokyo Step Up?

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM


Larry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Shinichi Kitaoka, former Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations, former former President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA

Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Director, Japan Program at Shorenstein APARC; Stanford Professor of Sociology



Session 2 – How Tariffs and Trade Wars are Reshaping the Indo-Pacific

1:45 PM - 2:30 PM


Wendy Cutler, Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), former Acting Deputy United States Trade Representative

Peter Wonacott, Managing Editor, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; former Wall Street Journal Deputy Washington Bureau Chief



Session 3 — The Future of DEI, ESG, SDGs: Will Japan Follow the U.S. or Stay the Course?

2:30 PM - 3:15 PM


Keiko Tashiro, Deputy President, Head of Sustainability, Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Gayle Peterson, Associate Fellow, Saïd School of Business, University of Oxford

Patricia Bromley, Co-Director, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society



Session 4 — Redefining the Relationship Through Civil Society: Burden Sharing, Knowledge Sharing, Picking up the Slack

3:30 PM - 4:15 PM


Mike Berkowitz, Executive Director, Democracy Funders Network

Laura Deal Lacey, Executive Vice President, International Milken Institute

Jacob M. Schlesinger, President & CEO, United States-Japan Foundation



Session 5 — Diamond Diplomacy Redux: Baseball as a Bilateral Bridge

4:15 PM - 5:00 PM


Stan Kasten, President & CEO, Los Angeles Dodgers

Yuriko Gamo Romer, Director/Producer, Diamond Diplomacy documentary



Speakers


 

Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He chairs the Hoover Institution Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and serves as a senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His research focuses on democratic trends and conditions around the world and on policies and reforms to defend and advance democracy. During 2002–03, he served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report Foreign Aid in the National Interest.

Headshot photo of Shinichi Kitaoka

Shinichi Kitaoka is a Shorenstein APARC visiting scholar and Japan Program fellow. He was president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA: 2015-2022) and is an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo. Previous posts include president of the International University of Japan (2012-2015), professor at University of Tokyo (1997-2012), professor of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (2012-), professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo (1997-2004, 2006-2012), ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, deputy permanent representative of Japan to the United Nations (2004-2006), and professor of the College of Law and Politics, Rikkyo University (1985-1997). His specialty is modern Japanese politics and diplomacy. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the United States-Japan Foundation.

Square portrait photo of Kiyoteru Tsutsui

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor and Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies at Shorenstein APARC, the director of the Japan Program, and deputy director at APARC, a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Professor of Sociology, all at Stanford University. His research interests lie in political/comparative sociology, social movements, globalization, human rights, and Japanese society. His current projects include studies of populism and the future of democracy, global expansion of corporate social responsibility and its impact on corporate behavior, Japan’s public diplomacy, and perceptions of Japan in the world. He is a fellow in the United States-Japan Foundation's U.S.-Japan Leadership Program network.

Wendy Cutler, VP of Asia Society

Wendy Cutler is vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the managing director of the Washington, D.C. office. She focuses on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment, and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI after nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as acting deputy U.S. trade representative. During her USTR career, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.-China negotiations, and the WTO Financial Services negotiations. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States-Japan Foundation.

headshot photo of Peter wonacott

Peter Wonacotis managing editor of a new global-facing sustainability publication being developed at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He previously worked for nearly three decades at The Wall Street Journal, where he was a correspondent in China, a senior correspondent in South Asia, chief of the Africa bureau, chief of the Middle East and North Africa bureau, and deputy chief of Washington coverage. He spent a year at the Johns Hopkins University-/Nanjing University Center for U.S.-China Studies, and is fluent in Mandarin.

headshot photo of Keiko Tashiro

Keiko Tashiro is a Member of the Board, Deputy President at Daiwa Securities Group, a position she has held since 2019. She currently serves as the Head of Asset Management, Sustainability and Financial Education. She has held various positions at Daiwa, including overseas assignments in Singapore, London, and New York. Outside of the firm, she serves as Vice Chairman at the Japan Association of Corporate Executive, a Trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) foundation and Vice Chair of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States-Japan Foundation.

headshot photo of Gayle Peterson

Gayle Peterson is associate fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and senior managing director of pfc social impact advisors. She directs Oxford's Impact Investing Programme and the Social Finance Programme. She has two decades of experience as a strategist, philanthropist, and advisor to social investors worldwide and has managed and assessed more than $15 billion in philanthropic and social investments to alleviate poverty, mitigate climate change, promote gender and financial inclusion, and build the capacity of new leaders in the field of social finance. She is currently leading a global case and film series, Ten Years in the Making: Japan’s Impact Economy, examining the role of philanthropy, public, and private sectors in addressing Japan’s most complex socio-economic challenges.  

bromley patricia gse

Patricia Bromley is associate professor in the Graduate School of Education, the Doerr School of Sustainability, and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford University. She also directs the Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research (SCANCOR) and is co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). She teaches courses related to sustainable development, nonprofit organizations, and global education policy. Her research examines the expansive societal effects of the rise and globalization of a liberal world culture as well as contemporary challenges to that order, such as growing restrictions on civil society organizations. Much of her current work takes place in the Global Civil Society and Sustainable Development Lab in PACS. Current research includes multiple projects related to sustainable development, education, organizations, and civil society.

Headshot photo of Mike Berkowitz

Mike Berkowitz is co-founder & principal at Third Plateau, where he leads the firm’s Democracy practice and works across its Philanthropic Management and Jewish Community Impact portfolios. He serves as executive director of the Democracy Funders Network, a cross-ideological learning and action community for donors concerned about the health of American democracy. He is also co-founder of Patriots & Pragmatists, a network and convening space through which civic leaders and influencers debate, envision, and realize a brighter future for American democracy. He is a senior advisor to the Pritzker Innovation Fund, which supports the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world’s most wicked problems, with a primary focus on climate and energy and on U.S. democracy. 

Headshot photo of Laura Deal Lacey

Laura Deal Lacey is the Executive Vice President of International at the Milken Institute. 

As the first employee of the Milken Institute in Asia, Deal Lacey was instrumental in establishing its center, programs, and activities in the Asia Pacific region. Over time, her responsibilities expanded to strategically grow the Institute’s presence across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

Before joining the Institute, Deal Lacey served as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, where she represented the interests of U.S. companies, working to advance policy and business issues facing American businesses in Southeast Asia.

She serves on the board of FWD Insurance (Group) and is a member of the advisory board for The Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at Singapore Management University.

Deal Lacey holds a Bachelor of Science from Arizona State University, a Master of Science from Columbia University, and an International Directors Certificate in Corporate Governance from INSEAD in France.

Headshot photo of Jacob M. Schlesinger

Jacob M. Schlesinger is president and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, an organization that gives grants and runs a fellowship program dedicated to bolstering relations between the two countries. Schlesinger previously worked at The Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years as a reporter and editor in Washington, D.C., Tokyo, and Detroit. He was a fellow at Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center from 1994-1996 and returned to Stanford in 2021 as a fellow at the Distinguished Careers Institute, where he studied the threats and challenges to democracy, in the U.S. and around the world.  

Headshot photo of Stan Kasten

Stan Kasten is president & CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, a position he has held since 2012. He has been a member of numerous ownership committees in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League, and is a former trustee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1999, he became the first person to hold the title of president of three different teams in three different major sports simultaneously, doing so with MLB’s Atlanta Braves, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, founded in 2023. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States-Japan Foundation.

Headshot photo of Yuriko Gamo Romer

Yuriko Gamo Romer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her documentary, Diamond Diplomacy (funded in part by the U.S. Japan Foundation) is about U.S.-Japan relations through a shared love of baseball. Romer’s previous films include Baseball Behind Barbed Wire, about the WWII Japanese American incarceration and Mrs. Judo about Keiko Fukuda (1913-2013) the first woman to attain the tenth-degree black belt in judo (nationally on PBS, 20+ film festivals internationally and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, 2013 International Festival of Sport Films Moscow.  Her thesis Occidental Encounters won the Student Academy Award (Gold Medal), and Heartland Film Festival’s Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Award. MA documentary filmmaking, Stanford University. (Teaching fellowship, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Scholar)

Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center
Fisher Conference Center
326 Galvez Street
Stanford, CA 94305

Parking Instructions:
The nearest self-pay visitor parking is located at Memorial Way (off of Galvez Street) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Knight Management Center Garage:
Details on how to pay.
Guests will need to reference the lot Zone Number when paying:
Knight Management Center Garage—Zone # 7207
Memorial Way Zone Number= 7213
Locations indicated on map.

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SCCEI China Conference 2025 on China and The Changing Global Economy on May 14, 2025.

 

The Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institution's (SCCEI) annual China Conference brings together leading voices from policy, business, and academia to examine key economic trends in China and their implications for the world.

This year's conference will examine China's role in a changing global economy. Panels of experts from Stanford and around the world will take a deep dive into China’s evolving economic ambitions and self-perception on the global stage, assess the roles of state and private enterprises in advancing China’s goals, and analyze the impacts on global trade, finance, and institutions.



We are finalizing an outstanding lineup of speakers from academia, industry, and policy communities. Updates will be posted here as confirmed. 

*Schedule is subject to change  

Location: 

Bechtel Conference Center
Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford University



9:00 AM - 9:30 AM  Registration & Light Breakfast

9:30 AM - 9:45 AM  Welcome & Opening Remarks


Scott Rozelle 
Faculty Co-director of the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
Helen F. Farnsworth Endowed Professorship; Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Stanford University


9:45 AM - 10:30 AM  Morning Fireside Chat


Elizabeth Economy
Hargrove Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Stanford University  

Moderator:
Hongbin Li 
Faculty Co-director of the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions 
The James Liang Endowed Chair; Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Stanford University
 

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM  Break
 
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM  Session 1 | The View from Beijing: China's Economic Ambitions in a Changing World


Session Panelists:
Gangsheng Bao 
Professor of Political Science, Fudan University
Skyline Scholar, Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions

Jonathan Czin
Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies, John L. Thornton China Center
Brookings Institute

Stephen Kotkin
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; 
Kleinheinz Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Stanford University

Moderator:
Ruixue Jia
Associate Professor of Economics, School of Global Policy and Strategy
University of California San Diego
 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM  Lunch
 
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM  Session 2 | China Inc.: The Role of State and Private Enterprises in Fulfilling China's Ambitions


Session Panelists:
Nan Jia
Professor of Management and Organization
University of Southern California

Arthur Kroeber
Founding Partner
Gavekal Dragonomics

Dan Wang
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
Stanford University

Moderator:
Zhiguo He
James Irvin Miller Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, 
Stanford University
 

2:00 PM - 2:30 PM  Break

2:30 PM - 3:15 PM  Afternoon Keynote


Sean Stein
President, U.S.-China Business Council

Moderator: 
Scott Rozelle 
Faculty Co-director of the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
Stanford University
 

3:15 PM - 3:45 PM  Break

3:45 PM – 4:45 PM  Session 3 | China in the Global Economy: Disruptor, Competitor, Partner?


Session Panelists:
Deborah Brautigam
Director of the China Africa Research Initiative; Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Political Economy Emerita
Johns Hopkins University

Kyle Chan
Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer in Sociology
Princeton University

Ramin Toloui
Distinguished Policy Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Stanford University

Moderator:
Shaoda Wang
Skyline Scholar, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, Stanford University; Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

 

4:45 PM - 5:00 PM  Closing Remarks


Hongbin Li 
Faculty Co-director of the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions 
Stanford University


5:00 PM - 6:00 PM  Reception in the Courtyard



Questions? Contact scceichinaconference@stanford.edu 

 


Bechtel Conference Center
Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford University

This event is by invitation only.

Conferences
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Join us for an engaging conversation with Ambassador of Lithuania to the United States Audra Plepytė and Director of the Freeman-Spogli Institute Michael McFaul on Russia’s war against Ukraine, its global implications, and transatlantic support to Ukraine

As we are nearing 1,000 days of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the debate in Washington, D.C., and European capitals remains on what Ukraine can and cannot do to defend itself, its territory, and the whole democratic world. Lithuania has been among the most vocal supporters of Ukraine advocating that instead of Western commitments to stand with Ukraine as long as it takes, commitment to Ukraine’s victory is needed.

The event will feature a discussion on what is at stake in Russia’s war on Ukraine and why it matters beyond Ukraine and Europe. Ambassador Plepytė and Professor McFaul will discuss security on NATO’s Eastern flank, Western strategy for Ukraine, and the U.S. role in standing up to the new ‘axis of evil’ in defense of democracy and the free world.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Michael Keller, Vice Provost and University Librarian.

This in-person event is free and open to the public. RSVP is requested.


 

Audra Plepytė, Ambassador of Lithuania to the U.S.

Ambassador Audra Plepytė was appointed as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States in 2021. Before this she was a Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she facilitated several negotiations, led the Group of Friends, and was elected to executive bodies of UN instruments and institutions, including being elected as the President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2021. As a career diplomat for over 30 years, she has held numerous positions within the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dealing with bilateral and multilateral issues, heading the European Union Department (2014–2017), the Personnel Department, and International Missions and Conflict Prevention Division. She was also Lithuania’s ambassador to Spain, World Tourism Organization from 2010 till 2014.
 

Michael McFaul

Michael McFaul is Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995. He served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).


 

This event is part of Global Conversations, a series of talks, lectures, and seminars hosted by Stanford University Libraries and Vabamu with the goal of educating scholars, students, leaders, and the public on the benefits of but also challenges related to sustaining freedom.

Michael A. McFaul
Michael McFaul
Ambassador Audra Plepytė
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Does Attorney-Client Privilege Put Some People Above the Law? Lecturer Erik Jensen and Stanford Law and Policy Lab students Sarah Manny and Kyrylo Korol expose how attorney-client privilege can undermine the rule of law.

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Visiting Scholar at The Europe Center, 2024
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Lukas Herndl is a post doc researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna, Austria. He received a PhD from the University of Vienna and an LL.M. degree from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law ('19).

Lukas has a wide-ranging teaching background in academia and published articles in diverse fields of private law. His current research focuses on banking law, particularly exploring its ESG dimensions (“Green Finance”). At Stanford, he pursues a research project on subordination agreements in financing contracts under US law and European legal systems.

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Nora Sulots
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In May 2024, Georgia's president, Salome Zourabichvili, vetoed the Parliament's contentious anti-foreign agent law, but called her act "symbolic," as the majority Georgian Dream party promised to override the veto at their next session.

In a talk hosted by The Europe Center on May 28, Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), explored Georgia's democratic aspirations within the context of the law, dissecting its potential ramifications for civil society, political freedoms, and Georgia's European integration ambitions.

Professor Stoner, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2016 from Iliad State University in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, also discussed the politics and complexities of the recent law and its implications for Georgia's future.

A recording of the talk can be viewed below:

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Tbilisi, Georgia
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What’s Going On in Georgia? A Democracy Activist Explains the Nation’s Current Political Crisis and Turbulent History

On the World Class Podcast, Georgian activist Nino Evgenidze discusses the arrest of opposition leader Nika Melia and what it means for Georgia, the region and the world.
What’s Going On in Georgia? A Democracy Activist Explains the Nation’s Current Political Crisis and Turbulent History
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Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of CDDRL, discussed the politics and complexities of the anti-foreign agent law and its implications for Georgia's future.

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Portrait of Robert Harris, Assistant Legal Adviser for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Dept. of State

The South China Sea is a region of immense geopolitical importance, with many different countries advancing competing territorial and maritime claims in a vital economic and strategic waterway. China’s maritime claims have been a source of tension and conflict with other nations, particularly those Southeast Asian nations whose maritime rights under the international law of the sea overlap with China’s maritime claims. 

The China Program at Shornstein APARC brings you this expert session, featuring the State Department Assistant Legal Adviser Robert Harris, who will examine China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea, including the evolution and legal basis for these claims and their implications for regional security and stability. 

We will also explore the role of international law in resolving disputes in the region and how actions by the international community, including freedom of navigation exercises, can help articulate and preserve the international law of the sea.
 

Bob Harris

Robert Harris is Assistant Legal Adviser for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, providing legal advice to policymakers on legal issues related to U.S. foreign policy in the Asia and Pacific region. As a senior career lawyer at the Department of State, he has served as legal adviser and as head of delegation to more than 100 different bilateral and multilateral negotiations on a wide array of issues and international agreements, including international migration, trade in services and commercial air services, international law enforcement (e.g., counterterrorism, drug trafficking, and the extradition of fugitives), maritime boundary delimitation, transboundary watercourses, the international law of the sea, including marine pollution and ocean dumping, global environment protection (including control of hazardous chemicals, biological diversity, and international conservation), sustainable development, international human rights and refugees, nuclear liability and the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He is a lecturer of law on international law and the law of the sea at Columbia Law School. He is a graduate of Cornell University (AB History), the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (MPA), and Stanford Law School (JD).  

Laura Stone

Laura Stone, a member of the U.S. Department of State, is the Inaugural China Policy Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC). She was formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Maldives, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Mongolia, the Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, and the Director of the Economic Policy Office in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. She served in Hanoi, Beijing, Bangkok, Tokyo, the Public Affairs Bureau, the Pentagon Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. While at APARC, she is conducting research with the China Program on contemporary China affairs and U.S.-China policy.

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SCS Session Poster
Laura Stone
Laura Stone, China Policy Fellow, Shorenstein APARC
Robert Harris, Assistant Legal Adviser for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Dept. of State Assistant Legal Adviser for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
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Ten years of debates over democratic backsliding have failed to produce many examples of independent institutions thwarting authoritarian attempts on democracy. Yet Latin American courts seem to be countering this larger trend. The three largest countries in the region—Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia—have produced robust institutions able to check leaders with authoritarian tendencies, with high courts playing a fundamental role. In a dramatic succession of recent cases, courts in these three countries have been innovative, acted with a high degree of independence, and appear legitimately interested in defending democratic norms. All of this is profoundly surprising. There is little to no track record of independent Latin American judiciaries that stand in the way of authoritarian governments. Closer study of these three countries is therefore critical for scholars and practitioners, who are otherwise locked in debates over the importance of judicial review in preserving democracy. After dozens of judicial reform failures since the 1990s, we may be observing some overdue success. It appears that 1990s judicial reforms are making a comeback in Latin America.

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Journal of Democracy
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Diego A. Zambrano
Number
Number 1
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