Closing a two-week tour of international conferences throughout the US, the Tang Prize Foundation is next attending the American Society of International Law (ASIL) annual conference this year in Washington DC, April 8-11, to promote the prize and expand the international platform for discussion on the rule of law. The prize’s other three categories, Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, and Sinology, are also part of the Foundation’s promotion activities for the 2015 year. On the way to Washington DC, the Tang Prize Foundation made stops in Boston and Chicago to attend conferences for Experimental Biology (EB) and the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), both key annual events in their respective fields.
Rule of Law was incorporated at the very inception of the Tang Prize when it was founded by Dr. Samuel Yin in December 2012 in recognition of the equality of all individuals and institutions under the law. The prize in Rule of Law encompasses “due process and substantive justice, and champions peace, human rights, and sustainable development in order to serve the common good of humankind and nature” and awards “individuals or institutions who have made significant contributions to the rule of law.”
ASIL was founded in 1906 as a non-profit academic and educational institution for the international advancement of relations, peace, justice, and rule of law. Over the past 100 years, it has maintained a reputable position in research, discussion, and as a publisher of law-related materials.
Two such publications are the American Journal of International Law (AJIL) and International Legal Materials (ILM), both quarterly academic journals respected in the academic legal world. ASIL opens the exhibition floors each April in Washington DC, where scholars, judges, diplomats, and other legal professionals of international law come from all over the globe to speak on the most pressing legal topics of our time.
This year’s topic “Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World” addresses the role of international law in shaping to a world that has become both larger in the number or global powers and economies, and smaller by the dissemination of communication and information technologies. Nearly 1,200 people from over 100 countries will attend the 2015 meeting, including Raymond C-E Sung, who is representing the Tang Prize Foundation and the prize’s Rule of Law field.
Representatives from the Foundation will be distributing information about the prize from the Tang Prize booth on the event floor, situated near the exhibition entrance. Being one of the only exhibitors at this year’s event outside of the academic publishing sector, the Tang Prize has garnered much attention as a new and interesting face at the event. Even more so, the Rule of Law prize category has drawn not a few scholars of law to the booth to learn about the philosophy and content of the prize field. Scholars with connections to Taiwan were also very happy to learn of this new scholarly impetus that brings Taiwan into the sights of the international academic community. Another point of agreement between the two organisations is the newly-founded research group at ASIL, an initiative similar to the Rule of Law prize that is directed at finding better ways to enact the rule of law on a global scale. The opening ceremony for this year’s meeting was held on April 8 with the opening keynote given by Kenneth Keith, a New Zealand Judge now sitting as justice on the International Court of Justice, who spoke on the momentous resolution of the UN General Assembly on the rule of law.
The Tang Prize’s participation in international organisations like Experimental Biology, the Association for Asian Studies, and the American Society of International Law will help the prize reach an ever expanding scope of the academic community. It will also continue to build on the solid foundation of the prize’s four fields, giving each a greater value and power to change the world.
