Cornell Law School Allan R. Tessler Dean Stewart J. Schwab and three professors from the school will attend four international conferences in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, respectively, during a two-week trip later this month. Alumni receptions and individual meetings with alumni and academic and business leaders are scheduled in each city.

The conferences represent a key component of the Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture and are expected to strengthen relationships with key academics and institutions, Schwab said.

The group, which also will include Jack G. Clarke, LL.B. '52, the benefactor of the Clarke Program, also will attend the inauguration of the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, a new institution led by Jeffrey S. Lehman, Cornell's former president. Schwab has been invited to speak at the inauguration, as has U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Meetings on the group's itinerary:

"Hope in Law and the Economy," Tokyo, Oct. 14, will explore the roles that legal and market institutions play in the social and global distribution of human hopefulness. The conference is a continuation of the Clarke Program's partnership with University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science. Cornell participants: law professors Gregory Alexander, Chantal Thomas and Annelise Riles; Naoki Sakai, professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature; and Hirokazu Miyazaki, associate professor of anthropology.

"Law, Markets and Social Equity," Oct.16, at Fudan University in Shanghai, will explore legal and institutional arrangements that promote conditions for social and economic hope, in view of recent reforms in China. Cornell participants include Cui Zhiyuan, the 2007-08 Wang Distinguished Professor, Schwab, Alexander, Riles and Thomas.

"Labor Law," Oct. 20, Peking University, Beijing, will bring scholars from Cornell and the Peking University School of Law together to discuss such topics as "Labor Mobility and Protection in a Dynamic Economy" and "The Rise of the Dynastic Trust in America." Cornell participants: Zhiyuan, Schwab, Alexander and Thomas. While in Beijing, they will also meet with academic leaders of the Institute of Chinese Legal History and China University of Political Science and Law.

"The Promises of Law," Oct. 23, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Scholars from Cornell and Chinese University will confer on such topics as "Is the Law Hopeful? On the Legal Fiction" and "Legal Symbolism in China." Cornell participants: Riles, Clarke, Schwab, Alexander and Thomas.