Tag Archives: Hong Kong

Snapshot: Stephen Lam ’13

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Stephen’s winter term writing project focused on understanding the legal and regulatory impact that efforts to transform the Chinese Renminbi into an international currency will have on the development of Chinese capital markets and on the future development of China as a financial actor. By traveling to Beijing and Hong Kong in January, he was able to interview experts — including law firm partners, financial economists, journalists and ratings officials — and refine his research thesis. There was a clear benefit in “being able to sit down with practitioners in the field and talk about what is going on,” Stephen noted; “there’s only so much you can get from secondary sources, especially in a subject area like this, where there is so much change.” His project grew out of a long-standing interest in East Asian and Chinese legal studies, reflected in the courses, independent research, and Chayes International Public Service Fellowship he has undertaken during the last three years. Stephen grew up speaking Cantonese, but the four semesters of advanced Mandarin that he took through cross-registration allowed him to delve more deeply into the cultural and social aspects of his research, as well as the legal ones. “The resources available to internationally focused students are one of the things that attracted me to HLS,” he explained.

(Please visit “Winter Term 2013: Snapshots from Students” to read about other recent projects.)

 

Jordan Baehr (JD ’13), 2011 Chayes Fellow, on his summer work in Hong Kong

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“I have spent the bulk of my time conducting research and developing educational materials based on the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, which requires certain companies to publicly disclose their ‘efforts to combat slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains.’ Because the materials I have produced are for a wide range of audiences (including some of the companies affected by the act, suppliers and vendors who might be American or East Asian, and local Chinese factories) the research required me to look into a wide range of California, US, and international law, and to carefully consider their commonalities, differences, interactions and implementations. I also had to learn about common Chinese factory practices, both through published reports by NGOs, the US Government and the UN and through visits to factories, conversations with our staff and study of the records and reports that they have produced. All in all this has been incredibly fascinating, both in its sheer breadth and in the opportunities it has afforded to connect legal text, theory and practice with the social realities with which they are concerned.”