Chinese Law Prof Blog

Fellowship opportunity: Pennoyer Fellow on China, Human Rights First

Human Rights First is looking for candidates to be its Pennoyer Fellow on China. The position is for two years. The application deadline is May 16th. More information here.

Remember, you don't have to human-rights oriented to post a position here. As long as it's related to Chinese law, I'll be happy to post job opportunities regardless of ideological affiliation or commercial orientation. Well, almost regardless; I suppose if the KKK were looking for a Chinese law specialist I might not be willing to help out.

Yale-China Association Law Fellows Program - Call for applications

I have been asked to post the following:

Yale-China Association Law Fellows Program
Call for Applications

The Yale-China Association is pleased to invite applications for its 2008-2009 Law Fellows Program.  The program places young U.S.-trained attorneys at Chinese universities as visiting professors.  Fellows spend one academic year in residence at a Chinese law school, teaching classes in areas of their own expertise and contributing to clinical education programs at the host institution.  During the 2008-09 academic year, Yale-China will send two Law Fellows to China. One will be placed at the Hunan University School of Law in Changsha, Hunan, and will have the opportunity to help develop the school's new clinical legal education program. The other Fellow will be placed at a top law school in the Pearl River Delta region of China.

Anyone with a J.D. from an accredited U.S. law school and two years experience in legal practice is eligible to apply.  Preference will be given to those candidates who speak Chinese, are familiar with China, and have teaching and/or clinical law experience. Fellows will receive intensive Chinese-language instruction during the summer 2008 in Beijing and continued Chinese-language instruction during their residency. Round-trip airfare to China, on-campus housing, health insurance, and a stipend are provided as part of the package.

Application Deadline: March 20, 2008.

For more information, please visit:  http://www.yalechina.org/dynamicpage.php?Id=10&SubId=

____________________________________
Ingrid Jensen
Associate Director
Yale-China Association
Box 208223
New Haven, CT 06520-8223
U.S.A.
Tel:  (203) 432-0850
Fax: (203) 432-7246
Email: ingrid.jensen@yale.edu
www.yalechina.org

Grants available for China-related rule-of-law projects

Here's an announcement from the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund:

The U.S.-China Legal Cooperation Fund invites proposals seeking grants to fund projects promoting rule-of-law in China conducted jointly by American and Chinese institutional participants.

The Fund's objective is to support U.S.-China cooperation in strengthening China's legal processes and institutions.

The Spring 2008 deadline for submission of proposals is April 1, 2008.

Further information is available at www.uschinalegalcoop.org.

Fellowship(s) for Chinese law studies in Italy

The Centre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China, a research foundation based in Torino, Italy, is offering fellowships for the study of modern China. Here's some information extracted from the announcement:

The CASCC is offering THREE research fellowships to graduates in Economics or Finance, Law, and Chinese Language (degree level required enabling admission to a Ph.D. program), financed by the Compagnia di San Paolo (www.compagnia.torino.it ). Each fellowship will cover two years, on a full-time basis, starting in April 2008.

The aim of the China Fellowships is to support the growth of interdisciplinary competencies in the area of Chinese studies, with a particular emphasis on cultural, legal, social and economical aspects of contemporary China.

Candidates who master Chinese language will be required to undergo a training in either Law or Economics, while candidates who do not master Chinese language should be willing to undergo a training in Mandarin.

Candidates are requested to spend 6 months at the CASCC in Torino and at least 12 months in China, where they will develop a research project. A mid-term report is due at the completion of the first year.

Candidates must be fluent in English. Knowledge of Chinese Mandarin is not required.
The annual amount of each fellowship is 20,400 Euros (gross).

Full announcement here.

Postdoctoral fellowships at Lund University

Lund University in Sweden is offering postdoctoral fellowships for research concerning contemporary East and South-East Asia, principally from social sciences, economics, and humanities perspectives. This would of course include Chinese law. For more information, see the application information here.

Grants for China rule-of-law projects

I have received the following announcement:

The U.S. - China Legal Cooperation Fund invites proposals seeking grants for projects promoting rule-of-law in China, conducted jointly by American and Chinese participants.

This Fund is a program of the China Business Forum, the education and research arm of the U.S.-China Business Council.  The Fund's objective is to support U.S.-China cooperation in strengthening China's legal processes and institutions.

Full information is available at www.uschinalegalcoop.org.  The Fall 2007 period for submission of proposals closes September 30, 2007.

Edgar Snow JD Scholarship, UMKC School of Law

The following announcement comes from Prof. Patrick Randolph:

2007 Edgar Snow J.D. Scholarship
UMKC School of Law

The University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law (UMKC) is pleased
to announce this year's competition for the Edgar Snow Scholarship.
This scholarship and an associated fellowship package  will provide  an
allowance sufficient to cover most of the expenses of pursuing a three
year J.D. program at the  School of Law. including tuition, living
expenses and books.

Interviews for the scholarship will be conducted in China from March 19
- 26.  Interested candidates should apply for an appointment by
contacting program assistant Nancy Kunkel at kunkeln@umkc.edu  Location
of the interviews will be arranged with individual applicants, but it is
possible that applicants will have to travel to a major Chinese city to
have the interview.

About the Scholarship:

The school has one Edgar Snow Scholarship it may award each year.  It is
named for the famous journalist and friend of China, Edgar Snow, who
introduced many Americans for the first time to the revolutionaries who
established modern China.   Edgar Snow was born and raised in Kansas
City, and the University houses his personal papers in the Edgar Snow
Reading Room on campus.

This is the seventh year of the scholarship program.  Three graduates of
the Edgar Snow program are now practicing as major commercial law firms
in America.  Four others are practicing law in China - three at
international law firms in Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Another is in a
Chinese law firm in Hangzhou.  Another JD graduate from UMKC also is
practicing with a major international firm in Beijing.  We are happy to
put interested current candidates in touch with our JD graduates  so
that they may know more about the program.  In fact, next year's
scholarship will be partly funded by these graduates in recognition of
the benefits they received from the program.

There a number of other special benefits, including special assistance
in housing,  summer internship in a leading American law firm and, of
course, the prestige of joining a series of outstanding UMKC graduates
of this program who are practicing law in major law firms in the U.S.
and China.

About UMKC and Kansas City:

UMKC is a quality state-supported law school with an enrollment of about
500 students, located in a very pleasant and safe environment,
convenient to a significant  city. The University draws about 20% of its
enrollment from foreign countries, mostly from Asia. Almost half of the
university's enrollment is in graduate programs. There are many Chinese
on campus.   We will have   as many as fifteen LLM candidates from China
here next year, and three Chinese Edgar Snow Scholars in the J.D.
program.

The city of Kansas City is a substantial commercial center, with many
large  law firms, two federal district courts and a home for the Eighth
Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, in addition to a district of the
Missouri Court of Appeals.  Although, of course, it is not a seaport,
there is an active international trade practice in the city, which has a
free trade zone and emphasizes agricultural exports.  There are a number
of significant multinational companies, among them Hallmark and Sprint
International.

Requirements for the Scholarship:

Students applying for this scholarship must be graduates of a recognized
Chinese Law School with an outstanding record, receive an outstanding
score on the LSAT examination,  receive the recommendation of members of
their law school faculty, and have an interview with a  UMKC
representative in China.  Outstanding English expression and
comprehension skills are required. GENERALLY SPEAKING, AN LSAT SCORE IN
OR NEAR THE TOP 10% OF THOSE TAKING THE TEST WILL BE VIEWED AS
COMPETITIVE, but the selection committee looks at other factors
indicating achievement as well.

The TOEFL test is required, but other evidence of  skill in the English
language is desirable Of course, the students also must fill out an
application for admission to the Law School and be admitted.

Most of the scholarship is grant, and will be renewed on an annual basis
assuming satisfactory performance.  A small amount will be paid as a
fellowship through work/study performance.  After the first year, it is
anticipated that this work will be as a research assistant for a Law
School professor.  In addition,  assuming good academic performance, it
is our expectation that there will  be an opportunity for the student to
intern at a major Kansas City law firm in the summers, which will
provide substantial additional income and good work experience in
American law.

The first year in law school is very demanding, and therefore the law
school discourages students from taking outside work during that time.
Therefore, although we will award a full scholarship, including a
work/study opportunity sufficient to cover living expenses, books and
insurance during the first year we recommend that the student bring
sufficient funds to pay those expenses without working.  A safe amount
to bring would be $7000, although some students have been able to have
far lower expenses than that.   After the first year, it should be
possible to earn any needed amounts.

The purpose of the scholarship is to provide students with outstanding
English abilities and legal aptitude an opportunity to get intensive
exposure to the American legal system through the obtaining of  a J.D.
degree, and to use that  training to contribute to the development of
the Chinese legal system and its interraction with American law and
business.  Students likely would be able to earn the degree with less
than three years of study, but we encourage them to continue for the
entire three year program.

Interested parties may contact Professor Patrick A. Randolph, Jr. at
prandolph@umkc.edu Although Chinese students without scores in the
highest range of the LSAT may, of course apply for and gain admission to
the school of law, they will not be eligible for the Edgar Snow
Scholarship.  Like most American law schools, the UMKC School of Law has
few other financial aid resources for foreign students.

Admissions materials for UMKC Law School can be found at

http://www.law.umkc.edu/admissions/applicat.pdf

You also must be admitted as a foreign student to the University.  The
application for that is at:

http://www.umkc.edu/isao

Application requires an application fee which typically is not waived.
If you are applying for the Edgar Snow scholarship, and otherwise would
not apply to UMKC, you may want to contact me as set forth below first,
so that I can tell you if it is worthwhile for you to complete the
application.

If you are applying for the Edgar Snow Scholarship, you should send a
personal statement indicating your educational and professional
background and setting forth your LSAT  score and any other test scores
or information you deem relevant to me, along with contact information
so that we can be in touch with you regarding an interview if you are in
the pool of finalists.

My email address is

prandolph@umkc.edu

My mailing address is:

Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
UMKC School of Law
500 E. 52nd Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110

fax is (816) 235 5276

NBR Next Generation fellowships: last call

The application deadline for NBR's Next Generation fellowships is January 15, 2007. A brief description is below; if you're interested, more information is available at their Web site.

The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) is pleased to announce “The Next Generation: Leadership in Asian Affairs” fellowship for 2007-2008, a post-master's degree program that is cultivating a new generation of Asia affairs specialists committed to and capable of bridging the gap between the best scholarly research and the pressing needs of American foreign policy toward a rapidly changing Asia.

NBR invites recent master's and professional degree holders (e.g., MA, MBA, LLM, JD, etc.) to apply for a year-long fellowship at NBR’s headquarters in Seattle to collaborate with leading scholars to publish research, and to participate in the briefing of research findings to the policymaking community in Washington, D.C.

This one-year fellowship is designed to further the professional development of Asia specialists in the year just after the completion of their master's degree. Successful applicants will gain further knowledge of Asia and an understanding of the U.S. foreign policymaking process through the following: conducting research under the guidance of an NBR program director; collaborating with senior scholars on academic publications; and traveling to Washington, D.C. to participate in the briefing of research findings to relevant constituents within the policy community.

Scholarships for Chinese LLMs at UMKC

The following announcement may be of interest to Chinese students:

Interviews for International LL.M. Scholarship at UMKC School of Law

The University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law has a long established relationship with China and Chinese Law Schools, and has been inviting Chinese students to study law in Kansas City for more than a decade.  We are bringing Chinese students here to broaden the perspective of our American students and faculty, and to bring about better preparation for the future worldwide marketplace, in which American and Chinese lawyers must cooperate.  We are not interested in making a lot of money from Chinese student tuition.

Therefore, UMKC Law School offers a Generous Scholarship Program for LLM students.  We will offer as many as fifteen partial scholarships, to reduce the already low cost of our general law LLM program.

One hundred percent of the LLM graduates from UMKC who have taken the New York Bar have passed. 

The statement set forth at http://www1.law.umkc.edu/academic/china/llm/overview.htm 
will give you complete information about the LL.M. program at UMKC School of Law.  At that website, you can watch an interview (in Chinese) with two of our current LLM candidates concerning their experiences studying in America and their experience at UMKC. 

An interview is required to qualify for admission and scholarship. Interviews will occur [in China - ed.] in late November and December of 2006, and, if positions remain open, additional interviews may occur in March of 2007.

Professor Patrick Randolph, director of the Chinese programs at UMKC School of Law, and director of the Peking University Center for Real Estate Law, will conduct interviews for the programs. Please contact Nancy Kunkel, Program Coordinator, via email at kunkeln@umkc.edu to arrange an appointment. Mrs. Kunkel’s telephone number is (816) 235-1647 and her fax number is (816) 235-5276.

National Bureau of Asian Research "Next Generation" fellowships

Although not directly related to Chinese law, the following may be of interest to some readers:

FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT
"The Next Generation: Leadership in Asian Affairs"
The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)

The National Bureau of Asian Research is pleased to announce "The Next Generation: Leadership in Asian Affairs" fellowship for 2007–2008. Recent master's degree recipients are encouraged to apply for this year-long fellowship that focuses on bridging the gap between scholarship and policymaking. The fellowship will be based at NBR's headquarters in Seattle. Fellows will collaborate with leading scholars to publish research and share their findings with the policymaking community in Washington, D.C.

The Next Generation Leadership program is breaking new ground by mentoring and immersing young Asia specialists from a wide variety of fields and interests in the skills and the practice of bridging the gap between scholarship and policy. Each fellow will receive a fellowship award, as well as travel and research-related expenses.

Application deadline is January 15, 2007. Fellowships begin June 4, 2007. For further information and application materials please visit http://www.nbr.org/NextGeneration. A poster version of this announcement is available at http://files.nbr.org/NBRFellowshipPoster.pdf.

ACLS/CCK Foundation grant program for "New Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society"

The above program is announced at the ACLS Web site here. Part of the text is reproduced below. The deadline for applications is August 15, 2006.

The Program will award funds in support of planning meetings, workshops, and/or conferences leading to publication of scholarly volumes. This program is intended to support projects in the humanities and related social sciences that bridge disciplinary or geographic boundaries, engage new kinds of information, develop fresh approaches to traditional materials and issues, or otherwise bring innovative perspectives to the study of Chinese culture and society. Proposals are expected to be empirically grounded, theoretically informed, and methodologically explicit. The Program especially encourages proposals concerning pre-modern China.

The program will support collaborative work of three types:

Conferences
Grants up to $25,000 will be offered to support formal research conferences intended to produce significant new research published in a conference volume.

Workshops/Seminars
Grants up to $15,000 will be offered for support of workshops or seminars, designed to less formally facilitate new research on newly available or inadequately researched problems, data, or texts.

Planning Meetings
Grants of up to $6,000 will be offered for planning meetings to organizers of the above-described types of projects.

Visiting Scholar fellowship at Peking U's School of International Studies

Here's something that's potentially related to Chinese law, so I'm going to stretch a point and post it, as it may be of interest to readers.

Peking University's School of International Studies is offering fellowships to visiting scholars of several months at a time. There is a stipend of about RMB 16,000 per month (about $2000) as well as round-trip air fare. It's still not too late to apply for this fall; see the deadlines in the announcement: Download PKU_VS_Fund.pdf

Postdoctoral fellowships at Lund University

Marina Svensson has asked me to post the following announcement. Please note the imminent deadline.

The Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University hereby invites applications for two postdoctoral fellowships. The Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies is focused upon research concerning contemporary East and South-East Asia, principally from social sciences, economics and humanities perspectives.

For this call for applications, preference will be given  for one of the two positions for research focusing on contemporary Japan, and for the other position for research focusing on contemporary China.

Application forms and the application guidelines may be found at the following website: http://www.ace.lu.se/Postdocs/info.html

The deadline for applications is 16:00 on Friday 19 May 2006.

Dr Marina Svensson
Associate Professor
Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies
Lund University
Box 792
SE-220 07 Lund
Sweden

English-language LLM programs in China

Peking University's Law School has just started an English-language LL.M. program in Chinese law. Applications for the 2006-07 academic year are due on May 29th. For more information, click here.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the second English-language LL.M. in Chinese law offered directly by a Chinese law school. The first is at Tsinghua University's Faculty of Law; for more information, click here.

Generous scholarship for Chinese JD students at UMKC

The following is from Prof. Pat Randolph of the University of Missouri at Kansas City regarding the Edgar Snow Scholarship, a fellowship that pays for three years of tuition and most living expenses in the JD program at UMKC.

The University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law (UMKC) is pleased to announce this year's competition for the Edgar Snow Scholarship.  This scholarship and an associated fellowship package  will provide an allowance sufficient to cover most of the expenses of pursuing a three year J.D. program at the  School of Law. including tuition, living expenses and books.

Please note that Prof. Randolph will be in China from March 4th through March 10th to interview for this scholarship, so if you are interested it is essential to contact him immediately. You don't have to be in Beijing.

Click below for the full announcement and Prof. Randolph's contact information.

====================================================================================

The University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law (UMKC) is pleased to announce this year's competition for the Edgar Snow Scholarship.  This scholarship and an associated fellowship package  will provide an allowance sufficient to cover most of the expenses of pursuing a three year J.D. program at the  School of Law. including tuition, living expenses and books.

I will be in China during the period from March 4 through March 10 to interview for this scholarship.  Persons interested in interviewing should contact me immediately.  In light of the short time, I will be flexible about traveling to a convenient location for interviews of students not in the Bejing area. 

The school has one Edgar Snow Scholarship it may award each year.  It is named for the famous journalist and friend of China, Edgar Snow, who introduced many Americans for the first time to the revolutionaries who established modern China.   Edgar Snow was born and raised in Kansas City, and the University houses his personal papers in the Edgar Snow Reading Room on campus.

UMKC is a quality state-supported law school with an enrollment of about 500 students, located in a very pleasant and safe environment, convenient to a significant  city. The Law School generally is ranked in the "top tier" of American law schools by U.S. News and World Report, but is not a "top 20" law school.  It has graduates practicing law world wide, but likely half of its graduates practice law within the five state region here in the center of America.   UMKC prides itself in having excellent scholars who also are excellent teachers, and we believe we can prepare students to practice law better than many more "famous" law schools that place a higher emphasis on scholarship alone. 

An important part of the Edgar Snow Scholar experience is the personal attention of Professor Pat Randolph, who also is co-Director of the Center for Real Estate Law at Peking University and an internationally recognized expert in real estate law.   All graduates of our program have secured excellent jobs - four in British law firms in China and three in major American business law firms.  One is a faculty member at a well established Chinese law school.   If you would like to correspond with one of our graduates, please contact Shen Fang at fshen@blackwellsanders.com

The University draws about 20% of its enrollment from foreign countries, mostly from Asia. Almost half of the university's enrollment is in graduate programs. There are many Chinese on campus.   We have   four LLM candidates from China here this year, and expect a number  more next year,  and we already have three Chinese Edgar Snow Scholars in the J.D. program.   

The city of Kansas City is a substantial commercial center, with many large  law firms, two federal district courts and a home for the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, in addition to a district of the Missouri Court of Appeals.  Although, of course, it is not a seaport, there is an active international trade practice in the city, which has a free trade zone and emphasizes agricultural exports.  There are a number of significant multinational companies, among them Hallmark, Sprint/Nextel, H.& R. Block Financial Services and Garmin Corporation.

Students applying for this scholarship must be graduates of a recognized Chinese Law School with an outstanding record, receive an outstanding score on the LSAT examination, receive the recommendation of members of their law school faculty, and have an interview with a  UMKC representative in China.  Outstanding English expression and comprehension skills are required. .  GENERALLY SPEAKING, AN LSAT SCORE IN  OR NEAR THE TOP 10% OF THOSE TAKING THE TEST WILL BE REQUIRED.  The TOEFL test is required, but other evidence of  skill in the English language is desirable Of course, the students also must fill out an application for admission to the Law School and be admitted. 

Most of the scholarship is grant, and will be renewed on an annual basis assuming satisfactory performance.  A small amount will be paid as a fellowship through work/study performance.  After the first year, it is anticipated that this work will be as a research assistant for a Law School professor.  In addition,  assuming good academic performance, it is our expectation that there will  be an opportunity for the student to  intern at a major Kansas City law firm in the summers, which will provide substantial additional income and good work experience in American law.

The first year in law school is very demanding, and therefore the law school discourages students from taking outside work during that time.  Therefore, although we will award a full scholarship, including a work/study oppostunity sufficient to cover living expenses, books and insurance during the first year we recommend that the student bring sufficient funds to pay those expenses without working.  A safe amount to bring would be $7000, although some students have been able to have far lower expenses than that.   After the first year, it should be possible to earn any needed amounts.

The purpose of the scholarship is to provide students with outstanding English abilities and legal aptitude an opportunity to get intensive exposure to the American legal system through the obtaining of  a J.D. degree, and to use that  training to contribute to the development of the Chinese legal system and its interraction with American law and business.  Students likely would be able to earn the degree with less than three years of study, but we encourage them to continue for the entire three year program. 

Interested parties may contact Professor Patrick A. Randolph, Jr. at prandolph@umkc.edu Although Chinese students without scores in the highest range of the LSAT may, of course apply for and gain admission to the school of law, they will not be eligible for the Edgar Snow Scholarship.  Like most American law schools, the UMKC School of Law has few other financial aid resources for foreign students.

Admissions materials for UMKC Law School can be found at

http://www.law.umkc.edu/admissions/applicat.pdf

You also must be admitted as a foreign student to the University.  The application for that is at:

http://www.umkc.edu/isao

Application requires an application fee which typically is not waived.  If you are applying for the Edgar Snow scholarship, and otherwise would not apply to UMKC, you may want to contact me as set forth below first, so that I can tell you if it is worthwhile for you to complete the application. 

If you are applying for the Edgar Snow Scholarship, you should send a personal statement indicating your educational and professional background and setting forth your LSAT  score and any other test scores or information you deem relevant to me, along with contact information so that we can be in touch with you regarding an interview if you are in the pool of finalists.

My email address is

prandolph@umkc.edu

My mailing address is:

Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
UMKC School of Law
500 E. 52nd Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (State Department) seeks Statements of Interest for projects promoting democracy, human rights, and rule of law in China

The following is a summary of the announcement attached at the end of this post:

The Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) of the Department of State announces a call for Statements Of Interest (SOIs) from organizations interested in submitting proposals for projects that promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law in China. Organizations are invited to submit statements of interest outlining program concepts and capacity to manage projects that will foster democracy, human rights, transparency, freedom of information and expression, religious freedom, judicial independence, criminal and civil rule of law, civil society, freedom of the press, electoral reform, public participation, labor rights, and media reform in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

DRL seeks to fund projects that will have a direct and lasting impact in China by promoting reforms and structural changes.  US-based activities, study tours, scholarships, or exchange projects are strongly discouraged.  The majority of activities should address the PRC, Hong Kong or Taiwan directly.  Projects that have a strong academic or research focus will not be highly considered.  DRL strongly discourages health, technology, or scientific projects unless they have an explicit democracy, human rights, or rule of law component.  Projects that focus on commercial law or economic development will also not be highly considered.

For full details, see the attached announcement: Download DRL_Notice.pdf. The deadline is Feb. 23, 2006.

LLM Program in Chinese Law, University of Hong Kong

I have been asked to post an announcement about the LLM degree in Chinese law offered by the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Law. Here's the announcement: Download HKU-LLM.pdf. The program also has a website here.

US-China Business Council Legal Cooperation Fund

Here's an announcement about the latest round of grants from the US-China Business Council's Legal Cooperation Fund: Download USCBC-LCF.pdf. The fund operates under the auspices of the USCBC's non-profit educational and research arm, the China Business Forum.

This is a good program for small-scale grants that operates with a minimum of red tape. For information on applying, see the LCF's website.

Blakemore Foundation grants for Chinese language study

The Blakemore Foundation offers grants for advanced (i.e., non-beginner) Asian language study to American citizens and permanent residents of the United States who have a college degree and plan to use an Asian language in their career. Grants can be made for one year (Freeman Fellowships) or for less than one year (refresher grants). For more information, see the Foundation's web site here. I am posting about these grants here because they are ideal for lawyers who already have some Chinese, but just need that little extra boost to get them to the level at which they can work comfortably in a Chinese-language environment, and that kind of candidate would be very competitive.

The Next Generation Leadership Program (National Bureau of Asian Research)

Here's something that may be of interest to younger members of the Chinese law community:

The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) is pleased to announce The Next Generation Leadership program, a new year-long fellowship for recent master's degree recipients that focuses on bridging the gap between scholarship and policymaking. The fellowship will be based at NBR's headquarters in Seattle. Fellows will collaborate with leading scholars to publish research and share their findings with the policymaking community in Washington, D.C.
 
The Next Generation Leadership program will break new ground by mentoring and immersing young Asia specialists from a wide variety of fields and interests in the skills and the practice of bridging the gap between scholarship and policy. Each fellow will receive a fellowship award, as well as travel and research-related expenses.

Application deadline is January 16, 2006. Fellowships begin June 5, 2006. For further information and application materials please visit http://www.nbr.org/NextGeneration

A full-text announcement is available at http://nbr.org/nextgeneration/announcement.pdf