Jerome A. Cohen - Career in China

Career in China

Cohen joined the faculty of University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1959. It was here that he was asked to find a candidate for a four year grant to study China offered by the Rockefeller Foundation, and, when no clear candidate emerged, decided to pursue the opportunity himself. He began studying the Chinese language, but as Americans were not permitted to enter China at the time, he could only travel as far as Hong Kong, where he met with refugees and questioned them on Chinese Criminal Procedure. These interviews served as the basis for his book, "The Criminal Process of the People's Republic of China: 1949–1963."

In 1964, Cohen became a Professor at Harvard University School of Law, where he would remain for 17 years, and created the school's East Asia Legal Studies Association. During this time,Cohen advocated for normalized relations with China, and was influential in securing the release of John T. Downey in the early 1970s. Downey, a former classmate of Cohen's from Yale, had been held in a Chinese prison since the Korean War, accused of being a CIA operative. In 1972, Cohen was able to make his first trip to the Chinese mainland as part of a delegation of the Federation of American Scientists and was able to meet with Premier Zhou Enlai. In 1977, he accompanied Senator Ted Kennedy to Beijing where they met with Deng Xiaoping.

Following China's economic reforms in 1979, Cohen's obscure specialty of Chinese law was thrust into the spotlight as foreign companies began to consider investment opportunities. When he was offered the unprecedented opportunity to live and practice in Beijing in exchange for teaching American contract law to commerce officials, Cohen took a sabbatical from Harvard. When the sabbatical concluded in 1981, he decided to remain in China and work at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Following the suppression of student uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989, Paul Weiss closed its Hong Kong Office, and Cohen returned to the United States where he became a Professor of Law at New York University School of Law in 1990. He concurrently serves as Of Counsel for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. At NYU, he established the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, dedicated to facilitating the development of the rule of law throughout Asia.