By Jerome A. Cohen
The good news from Washington two days ago was notice that the book edited by Professors LO Chang-fa, Bill Alford and myself—"Taiwan and International Human Rights: A Story of Transformation"—has just received an award from the American Society of International Law (the “2020 Certificate of Merit in a Specialized Area of International Law”). This is welcome recognition of Taiwan’s enormous human rights progress since the mid-‘80s. I hope that someday there will be a similar collection of edited essays about the progress yet to come on the Mainland!
Here’s the report of the American Society of International Law’s 2020-2021 Book Awards Committee about "Taiwan and International Human Rights: A Story of Transformation":
“This edited volume addresses a fascinating, challenging, and understudied story in international human rights law – how Taiwan, whose very status as a party to human rights treaties remains contested, engages with and internalizes human rights into domestic laws and practices. The editors have gathered leading scholars and practitioners, mostly from Taiwan, to offer a comprehensive assessment of Taiwan and human rights that manages to steer clear of ideological cleavages over Taiwan's status. The book covers a broad gamut of topics, including Taiwan's transition from authoritarianism, conceptual questions such as Taiwan's approach to Asian values and constitutionalism, the institutional challenges of incorporating and monitoring treaties, and the status of various protections in domestic law. By showing how this sui generis entity has engaged with international rules in a legal gray zone, the book offers profound insights into international law’s effects on states’ internal practices and international reputations.”