Professor Jerome A. Cohen, a leading China and East Asian law scholar, has been awarded an honorary doctorate of law, honoris causa, from Yale University. In a news article announcing the award, Yale called Cohen a “pioneering scholar of Chinese law [who has] taught and mentored countless others in a field [he] helped establish in this country.” This is Cohen’s third degree from Yale, following the undergraduate degree he earned in 1951 and the JD he received in 1955.
Cohen, a former clerk for US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice Felix Frankfurter, was a faculty member at University of California, Berkeley Law and then Harvard Law School before joining NYU Law.
Cohen has taught at the Law School for 30 years, co-founding the US-Asia Law Institute (USALI), and serving as its director until January 2020. A prolific scholar, Cohen has written extensively about the Chinese judicial system and comparative legal practices, among other topics. Cohen is also of counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
In June, NYU Law announced an endowed chair in Cohen’s name, coinciding with his retirement from the Law School. “This will not only honor one of the original leaders of the field of Asian legal studies in the West; it will also guarantee the long-term sustainability of Jerry’s path-breaking work, enabling NYU Law to continue as a vital center for the study of Asian legal systems and an active participant in US-Asian exchanges on critical issues of law and policy,” said Dean Trevor Morrison in announcing the chair.
Posted September 16, 2020