Taiwan Legal: What does international law say about Taiwan?

Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024

Time: 12:30-1:30 pm (Eastern)

Place: Furman Hall 326 and on zoom 

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About the event

What is the status of Taiwan under international law? In the second of our speaker series “Taiwan Legal,” Peter Dutton, senior research scholar at the Paul Tsai China Center of Yale Law School, will unpack arguments about who has sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and adjoining small islands that its government controls. If Taiwan’s status is unsettled, does international law still recognize its government’s right of self-defense and the right of its friends to defend it?

Taiwan’s status in law is one of the most complicated issues in contemporary international relations. Even seasoned diplomats sometimes trip up when trying to articulate their countries’ positions about Taiwan’s status. Most discussions about Taiwan focus solely on strategic and military questions such as the capacities and intentions of the authorities in Beijing, Taipei, and Washington, D.C. With the “Taiwan Legal” speaker series, the U.S.-Asia Law Institute is systematically addressing the most important legal questions about Taiwan’s status in international law, in US law, in Chinese law, and in Taiwan’s own domestic law.  

About the speaker:

Peter Dutton is a senior research scholar in law and senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, and a non-resident affiliated scholar of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute. Before joining Yale, he was a professor of international law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College. Dutton also formerly taught as an adjunct professor at NYU Law School and was an adjunct faculty advisor to USALI. At the U.S. Naval War College, his academic home for many years, Professor Dutton’s positions included interim dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies and director of the China Maritime Studies Institute. His research combines international law, China studies, and international politics, and focuses on international law of the sea and air, with an emphasis on the East and South China Seas, Chinese views of sovereignty and international law, the strategic implications of China’s maritime expansion, and the status of Taiwan in international law. He is a non-resident affiliate in research at Harvard University Fairbank Center for China Studies. Professor Dutton is a retired navy judge advocate and former naval flight officer. He holds a Ph.D. from King’s College London, a J.D. from the College of William & Mary, an M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College, and a B.S. from Boston University.