Jerome A. Cohen, a trailblazing legal scholar, passed away at 95 in his New York home. He was renowned for spearheading the study of China’s complex legal system in the U.S., becoming one of the first foreign lawyers to work in China, and vocally championing human rights across Asia.
His sons, Ethan and Peter, confirmed his passing.
According to Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a former student, Mr. Cohen single-handedly “created the field of the study of Chinese law in the United States.” Orlins noted the rarity of one individual so profoundly shaping an entire academic discipline from its inception.
Initially, Mr. Cohen seemed poised for a distinguished yet traditional career in legal academia. After graduating from Yale Law School, he served as a clerk for two Supreme Court justices before joining the University of California, Berkeley’s law faculty, where he taught standard legal subjects.
However, a unique opportunity emerged: to delve into Chinese language and law. Despite the bewilderment of some colleagues, he embraced this path during a period when China was in the throes of political upheaval and largely inaccessible to Americans.
Mastering the language, Mr. Cohen then moved to Hong Kong, where he interviewed refugees from mainland China. These conversations offered crucial insights into the inner workings of courts and prosecutors during Mao Zedong’s era. He subsequently founded an East Asian law program at Harvard Law School, teaching there from 1964 to 1979.
Image: Jerome A. Cohen in 2012 in his office at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University, which he founded. A colleague noted he “created the field of the study of Chinese law in the United States.” (Credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
With Mao’s death and China’s subsequent opening to Western investment, Mr. Cohen pivoted his career, joining law firms. He became instrumental in advising foreign companies and educating Chinese officials keen on understanding commercial law.
In 1990, Mr. Cohen started teaching at New York University, becoming a host for a diverse group of legal professionals and human rights advocates from across Asia. He remained a persistent and outspoken critic of China’s growing repression under President Xi Jinping until his final days.
His passing elicited a wave of tributes from politicians, lawyers, academics, and activists throughout Asia, many of whom credited him with shaping their careers or even securing their freedom. Notably, Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun, who faced job loss and intense police surveillance for criticizing President Xi, was a staunch recipient of Mr. Cohen’s public support.
Image: Mr. Cohen in 1975 at Harvard Law School, where he taught from 1964 to 1979. (Credit: Joan Lebold Cohen)
In a eulogy published in China Heritage, Mr. Xu declared that Cohen’s death “truly marks the end of an era,” emphasizing that for Jerome Cohen, “the idea of legal rights was always grounded in a respect for basic human rights.”
Born on July 1, 1930, in Elizabeth, N.J., Jerome Alan Cohen grew up in Linden. He was the younger son of Philip Cohen, an attorney, and Beatrice (Kaufman) Cohen, a schoolteacher.
A bright student, he excelled in high school and pursued international relations at Yale University before enrolling in its law school.
Image: Jerome and Joan Lebold Cohen with their sons, Peter, Ethan, and Seth, in Kyoto, Japan, in 1972. (Credit: Joan Lebold Cohen archive)
He met Joan Lebold during his college years, and they married in 1954. She, along with their three sons—Ethan, Peter, and Seth—seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren, survives him.
In his recent memoir, “Eastward, Westward,” Mr. Cohen candidly recounted the prevalent antisemitism that often prevented talented Jewish law students, including himself, from securing coveted summer internships at top law firms.
Despite these barriers, he achieved significant success. Following graduation, he and his wife relocated to Washington, D.C. There, he served as a clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren and later for Justice Felix Frankfurter. His career also included a stint with the firm Covington & Burling and as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office, before he began teaching criminal law at Berkeley in 1959.
The following year, the law school sought his help in finding a candidate for a Rockefeller Foundation grant focused on Chinese language and law. Given China’s isolation from Americans and the limited understanding of its legal mechanisms, Mr. Cohen, unable to find a suitable applicant, considered taking on the challenge himself.
Image: Mr. Cohen’s memoir, “Eastward, Westward,” released this year. (Credit: Columbia University Press)
His decision met with skepticism from some peers. In his memoir, Mr. Cohen recounted Dean William L. Prosser of the law school advising him, “Don’t throw away your career on China.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Cohen committed to the endeavor. His wife, Joan, a keen enthusiast of Asian art, simultaneously delved into Chinese history and culture, eventually becoming an accomplished art historian, curator, writer, and photographer.
Image: Mr. Cohen and Jill Spruce of the International Commission of Jurists leaving a Singapore courthouse in 1988, having observed a proceeding for political detainees. (Credit: Dominic Wong/Reuters)
In 1963, after mastering Chinese, Mr. Cohen and his family moved to Hong Kong. With limited formal documents on China’s legal system, he began interviewing mainland refugees, including former police officers, to understand the practical application of law. This research culminated in his groundbreaking 1968 study, “The Criminal Process in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-63.” He would go on to author or co-author and edit over a dozen books, many serving as essential guides to Chinese law.
Donald J. Clarke, an emeritus professor at George Washington University Law School, praised Mr. Cohen for demonstrating “the great value of paying attention to what’s going on in the ground, what’s really happening down there, as opposed to just relying on written materials.”
At Harvard, Mr. Cohen became a key figure advocating for the U.S. to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing. His desire to visit mainland China was strong, leading to various unsuccessful attempts, including formal written appeals and even a whimsical proposal to buy a panda for an American zoo.
In 1972, his long-awaited opportunity arrived when he joined a small group of scholars on a trip to Beijing and other Chinese cities. Mr. Cohen vividly remembered the challenge of engaging cautious locals in conversation over breakfast. The pinnacle of his visit was a dinner with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
Image: Mr. Cohen meeting with Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, in Beijing during a scholarly delegation visit in 1972. (Credit: Jerome A. Cohen archive)
Mr. Cohen recalled Premier Zhou remarking, “I understand that you have done many books on our legal system,” delivered with a tone that “gently implied that perhaps I had made more of China’s legal system than China had.”
With Mao’s death, as China opened its doors to foreign investment and visitors, Mr. Cohen’s expertise in Chinese law became highly sought after by international corporations. He dedicated himself to lecturing Chinese officials, who were keen to grasp the intricacies of drafting contracts, commercial laws, and tax regulations.
Mr. Cohen chose to transition from his Harvard role to full-time legal practice. In 1981, he joined Paul Weiss, actively encouraging aspiring lawyers to specialize in China-related legal work. Former colleagues and students fondly remember his vibrant enthusiasm, his dedication to mentoring, and his signature bow tie.
During this period, he and his wife spent extensive time in China, where he actively participated in drafting contracts, offering corporate advice, and mediating commercial disagreements.
Yvonne Y.F. Chan, recruited by Mr. Cohen to Paul Weiss, remarked on his insatiable “thirst to learn.” She described how, even during intense negotiations, he would ask questions that “might even go off a tangent, because he was so curious to understand where the other side was coming from.”
Image: Mr. Cohen in the late 1970s. He retired from law practice in 2000 but taught at N.Y.U. until 2020, continuing his visits to China and taking on select cases. (Credit: Joan Lebold Cohen)
Though he retired from Paul Weiss in 2000, Mr. Cohen continued as an N.Y.U. professor until 2020, establishing the U.S.-Asia Law Institute. He maintained his engagement with China, including taking on cases like that of Zhao Yan, a New York Times researcher unjustly imprisoned on fraud charges in 2006, after initial state secret theft accusations were dismissed.
His advocacy extended to prominent Chinese human rights lawyers and activists like Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, who received lengthy prison sentences in 2023 for alleged subversion, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind legal activist who sought asylum in the American Embassy in Beijing before relocating to the U.S. in 2012.
Sophie Luo, Mr. Ding’s wife, recounted in an interview how Mr. Cohen “organized a seminar to make sure that people paid attention to the case.” She added, “He put me in touch with people and organized resources. He didn’t want them to be forgotten.”
While Mr. Cohen often expressed sorrow over China’s escalating repressive policies under President Xi, he consistently refused to succumb to despair.
“I’m not totally pessimistic, as some people are,” he stated in a Wire China interview last year. “China’s development has been pendulum-like. At the moment, we’re in a repressive period. That won’t last. It can’t last.”