Expert Roundtable

Examining the Question of Taiwan in International Law

Event Description

On October 7 from 12 pm to 1 pm EDT, PILPG hosted a conversation with experts on Taiwan and its relations with China and other international powers.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022, triggering stark opposition from China and sparking concerns among the international community about the impacts of her visit and China's military response on regional security. Shortly after Pelosi's arrival, China launched large-scale military exercises, raising discussion of a possible Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis and putting the conflict between Taiwan and China at the top of the international agenda. Relations between China and Taiwan have been tense since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, China has refused to recognize Taiwan's independence and has advocated for a “one country, two systems” model for Taiwan, similar to the formula under which the former British colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Nonetheless, this proposal does not enjoy any political support within Taiwan.

During this event, speakers addressed the legal status of Taiwan under international law, China’s interests in the territory, and the legal and policy implications of any potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan at the international level. This event was moderated by PILPG Strategic Advisor, Drew Mann.

This event is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and atrocity crimes prosecution. This expert roundtable is part of our Ukraine Series, a series which aims to discuss recent developments in the Ukraine-Russia war, ponder complex legal questions related to those developments, and inform audiences of important international legal principles. As part of this series, PILPG holds expert roundtables every other Friday from 12-1 pm Eastern Time.

Watch Event Recording

Speakers

Professor Timothy Webster

Tim Webster teaches International and Comparative Law at Western New England University. He began his academic career as a Lecturer at Yale Law School, and Senior Fellow at Yale’s China Center; and then joined Case Western Reserve, where he was Professor of Transnational Law, Director of Asian Legal Studies, and Co-Founder of the Joint Program in International Commercial Law and Dispute Resolution. He has been a Visiting Professor at National Taiwan University (Taipei, ROC), University of Paris—Dauphine, Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Chongqing, PRC), and IÉSEG School of Management (Paris, France), and a Visiting Scholar at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, PRC).

Webster has published dozens of articles about the intersections of international law and the domestic legal systems of East Asia in the Harvard International Law Journal, Stanford Journal of International Law, Virginia Journal of International Law, and Yale Journal of International Law. He has presented his research in French, Japanese, and Mandarin to over 150 conferences, symposia, and workshops in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. He has testified before Congress, and written for local, national, and international media.

He is a member of the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future (Mansfield Foundation), and the Public Intellectuals Program (National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)—the only American professor chosen for both groups.

**Ambassador John Hennessey-Niland**

John T. Hennessey-Niland is the former U.S. Ambassador to Palau. He is one of the most experienced “Pacific hands” in the Department of State. He has served previously at the White House National Security Council and as a UN War Crimes Investigator in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. He served at a number of posts in Europe and in the Pacific, including in Fiji and Australia, as well as in Hawaii where he was the “POLAD”, the foreign policy advisor to the Commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC). John was recognized by State as the POLAD of the Year while with the Marines. The Ambassador was entrusted by the White House to be the first U.S. Ambassador to visit Taiwan since 1979 and is an advocate for expanding U.S. engagement with Taipei. He is also a leader on climate. His efforts – working closely with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Secretary Kerry - helped ensure the annual Our Ocean Conference (OOC) was held in 2022 for the first time in the Pacific and in an island nation. The Ambassador’s success in advancing U.S. priorities across the Indo-Pacific has made headlines around the world. He has a distinguished record and is a proven foreign policy and national security leader with 35 years of diplomatic experience as a member of the U.S. Foreign Service. His other great passion, besides his family, is soccer. He is a FIFA qualified coach and played collegiate soccer at Tufts University. The Ambassador currently serves as Professor of the Practice in the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government & Public Service.

**Professor Milena Sterio**

Milena Sterio is the Managing Director of PILPG and the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

MODERATOR

Andrew C. Mann is a Senior Legal Advisor at PILPG. He is a retired U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer who from 1994-96, served as an Expert-on-Mission to the Office of the Prosecutor, ICTY. He also served as the Special Assistant to Supervisor for Brčko District Amb. Henry L. Clarke (Sept. 2001-Sept. 2002). Among other assignments, he served in Sri Lanka (1997-2001; 2014-16), Afghanistan (2005-07; 2012-13), and Iraq (Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader in Salah ad Din province, 2010-11) as well as on temporary assignment in Darfur, Sudan (2007-2008). He taught human rights at the University of Washington, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies as a State Department Pearson Fellow (1996-97) and served as Chair for Diplomatic Studies at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth (2013-14). He supported PILPG’s U.S. Department of State-funded Bangladesh (Rohingya) Documentation Project as Senior Legal Advisor. Mr. Mann graduated from Wake Forest University with honors (BA) and the University of Idaho with honors (JD), where he served as editor-in-chief of the law review. He also studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University as a State Department Fellow.