Glashausser: A Visiting Scholar at Waseda in Tokyo

This summer, Professor Alex Glashausser was a visiting scholar at Waseda University Faculty of Law in Tokyo for the fourth time. During his visit, he conducted research on international law and its interaction with the Alien Tort Statute and participated in scholarship discussion groups.  

“My research this summer was about the Alien Tort Statute and alternative ways that federal courts in the United States can hear human rights cases about abuses committed abroad,” said Glashausser. “My host professor at Waseda, Shigeo Miyagawa, is interested in theories about using Japanese courts to hear human rights cases about abuses committed abroad.”

Miyagawa organized a colloquium at which Japanese scholars and attorneys gathered to discuss Glashausser’s ideas. Miyagawa offered a detailed explanation of Glashausser’s theory, after which, Glashausser had the opportunity to explain in more detail. “I started out in Japanese, but there was an interpreter for me — a professor who visited Washburn Law in 2011 — and so most of my remarks were in English,” he said. 

Glashausser has published two brief articles about the Alien Tort Statute in Japanese law reviews and plans to publish a more comprehensive article for a U.S. law review.

During his stay in Tokyo, Glashausser attended the Fourth East Asian Law and Society Conference at Waseda. The Conference theme was “The Role of Law in Bridging Chasms in and Among Asian Societies.”

Domestically, Glashausser was published in the Huffington Post: "Three Heads (of Government) Are Better Than One" on July 6, and "The Same-Sex Marriage Decision Had Everything to Do with the Constitution," on July 16.