Education
B.A., Yale University
M.A., Yale University
J.D., Cornell Law School
LL.M., Cornell Law School
Background
Timothy Webster is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at Western New England (University (WNE). He began his academic career as a Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, and Senior Fellow at Yale’s China Center. He 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 also taught at University of Paris—Dauphine, National Taiwan University (Taipei, ROC), Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Chongqing, PRC), IÉSEG School of Management (Paris, France), and Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, PRC). In 2023 and 2024, he won WNE’s Catherine Jones Professor of the Year award.
He has published dozens of articles about the intersections of international law and the domestic legal systems of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan). His work examines human rights, international trade, foreign investment, and transnational litigation, appearing in the American Journal of Comparative Law, Harvard International Law Journal, Stanford Journal of International Law, and Virginia Journal of International Law. He has presented his research in English, French, Japanese, and Mandarin to over 175 conferences, symposia, and workshops on five continents; testified before Congress; and written for local, national, and international media.
He is a member of the Asia Scholars Network (Luce Foundation), the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future (Mansfield Foundation), and the Public Intellectuals Program (National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)—the only lawyer selected for all three groups. Before teaching, he practiced international dispute resolution in Tokyo and New York; advised Chinese academics, attorneys and judges in Beijing and Chongqing; and clerked in Boston.
Tim Webster's Google Scholar Profile
Courses Taught
International Business Transactions
International Human Rights Law
IP Survey
Property
Comparative Law
Comparative Equality Law
Conflict of Laws
Public International Law
Scholarly Works
Book Chapters
Timothy Webster, The Transnationalization of Civil Society in East Asia's War Redress Movement, in Re-Envisioning Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses (Raluca Grosescu & John Dale eds., forthcoming 2025).
Timothy Webster, The Solid State of State Immunity in China, in Cambridge Handbook of China and International Law (Congyan Cai & Ignacio de la Rasilla eds., 2024).
Timothy Webster, The Long Tail of World War II: Jus Post Bellum in Contemporary East Asia, in Just Peace After Conflict: Jus Post Bellum and the Justice of Peace (Carsten Stahn & Jens Iverson eds., 2020). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, China’s WTO Compliance, in China and the New International Economic Order 133 (Colin Picker & Lisa Toohey eds., 2015).
Timothy Webster, Racial Discrimination in Japan, in Unity or Fragmentation or International Law 295 (André Nollkaemper & Ole Kristian Fauchald eds., 2012).
Journal Articles
Timothy Webster, The Taiwanese Roots of East Asia’s War Compensation Movement, 72 Am. J. Compar. L. (forthcoming 2024).
Timothy Webster, Japan’s Transnational War Reparations Litigation: An Empirical Analysis, 63 Harv. Int'l L.J. 181 (2022). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, The Minds Behind the Movement: The Role of Academics in East Asia’s War Reparations Litigation, 54 Case W. Rsrv. J. Int'l L. 1 (2022). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, South Korea Shatters the Paradigm: Corporate Liability, Historical Accountability, and the Second World War, 26 UCLA J. Int’l L. & Foreign Affs. 123 (2022). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, Margins of Empire: The Sakhalin Koreans’ Long Saga Home, 47 Yale J. Int’l L. Online 43 (2022). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, Retooling Sanctions: China’s Challenge to the Liberal International Order, 23 Chi. J. Int’l L. 178 (2022). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, Disaggregating Corporate Liability: Japanese Multinationals and World War II, 56 Stan. J. Int'l L. 175 (2020). SSRN Digital Commons
Timothy Webster, The Price of Settlement: World War II Reparations in China, Japan and Korea, 51 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 301 (2019).
Timothy Webster, Recent Attempts at Reparations Show that World War II is Not Over, The Conversation (May 23, 2019).
Timothy Webster, Discursive Justice: World War II Litigation in Japan, 58 Va. J. Int’l L. 161 (2018).
Michael Scharf, Thomas Buergenthal, Carsten Stahn, Milena Sterio, Avidan Cover, & Timothy Webster, Talking Foreign Policy: Jesner v. Arab Bank, 50 Case W. Rsrv. J. Int'l L. 281 (2018).
Timothy Webster, Why Does the United States Oppose Asian Investment?, 37 NW J. Int’l L. & Bus. 213 (2017). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Jedidiah Kroncke, The Futility of Law & Development: China and the Dangers of Exporting American Law, 65 Am. J. Comp. L. 968 (2017) (book review).
Timothy Webster, Paper Compliance: How China Implements WTO Decisions, 35 Mich. J. Int’l L. 525 (2014). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Teemu Ruskola, Legal Orientalism: China, the United States, and Modern Law, 62 Am. J. Comp. L. 811 (2014) (book review). SSRN
Timothy Webster, China's Human Rights Footprint in Africa, 51 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 626 (2013).
Timothy Webster & Jun Zhao, Taking Stock: China's First Decade of Free Trade, 33 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 65 (2012). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Ambivalence & Activism: Employment Discrimination in China, 44 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 643 (2011). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Introducing the China Jurist Series, 20 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 355 (2011).
Chen Ruihua, Initial Research on the Malfunctions of the Criminal Process, 20 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 359 (2011) (Timothy Webster trans.).
Timothy Webster, Insular Minorities: International Law's Challenge to Japan's Ethnic Homogeneity, 36 N.C. J. Int’l L. & Com. Reg. 557 (2011). SSRN
Timothy Webster, International Human Rights Law in Japan: The View at Thirty, 23 Colum. J. Asian L. 241 (2010). SSRN
Timothy Webster, East Asia Institutionalizes: China, Japan and the Vogue for Free Trade, 77 Nordic J. Int’l L. 301 (2008). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Reconstituting Japanese Law: International Norms and Domestic Litigation, 30 Mich. J. Int’l L. 211 (2008). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Arudou v. Earth Cure: Judgment of November 11, 2002 Sapporo District Court, 9 Asian-Pac. L. & Pol’y J. 297 (2008). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, 39 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 227 (2007). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Translation: Case Note & Commentary, McGowan v. Narita, 9 Australian J. Asian L. 346 (2007).
Timothy Webster, Bortz v. Suzuki, Judgment of October 12, 1999, Hamamatsu Branch, Shizuoka District Court, 16 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 631 (2007). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Bilateral Regionalism: Paradoxes of East Asian Integration, 25 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 434 (2007). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Sisyphus in a Coal Mine: Responses to Slave Labor in Japan and the United States, 91 Cornell L. Rev 733 (2006). SSRN
Timothy Webster, Legal Excisions: Omissions Are Not Accidents, 39 Cornell Int’l L.J. 435 (2006). SSRN
Shorter Writings
Tim Webster, Why Is There Only One Black Man in My Property Class? The Underrepresentation of Black Men in Legal Education, Af-Am Point of View, Mar. 1, 2023, at 23.
Timothy Webster, A Self-Defeating Wall, South China Morning Post (Nov. 22, 2016).
Timothy Webster, U.S. Elections Rarely Foretell Future U.S.-China Relations, China – U.S. Focus (Aug. 10, 2016).
Timothy Webster, The West Gets the Blame, but It’s China That Hong Kong and Taiwan Fear, L.A. Times (Oct. 3, 2014).
Timothy Webster, China’s Compliance with the World Trade Organization and International Trade Rules, Congressional-Executive Commission on China (Jan. 15, 2014) (congressional testimony).
