New York Law School Professor Tai-Heng Cheng Elected to American Law Institute

New York, NY—New York Law School Professor Tai-Heng Cheng was recently elected a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), a national organization of judges, lawyers, and law teachers dedicated to improving the law and the administration of justice.

Established in 1923, the American Law Institute promotes the “clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.” One of the ways the organization does this is through its Restatements of the Law, formulations of the law that have been influential in judicial decisions and scholarship.

The ALI has 3,000 elected members, selected for their demonstrated achievement and leadership in the legal profession. The majority of candidates accepted are judges of a court of record, tenured professors at an accredited law school, and partners in a law firm. As an associate professor currently on the tenure track at New York Law School, Professor Cheng stands apart for being elected to the ALI at this stage in his career—a testament to his significant expertise and accomplishments in international law.

“I am honored and humbled to be elected to the American Law Institute,” Professor Cheng said. “The ALI has many important ongoing projects, such as the Restatement Third of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration. I look forward to actively contributing to its projects.”

Professor Cheng is an expert in public and private international law, especially state succession and regime change, international trade and investment, and international dispute resolution. He joined New York Law School in 2006 and is the Associate Director for the Center for International Law. His book, State Succession and Commercial Obligations (Transnational Publishers, 2006), has been widely reviewed, and has been relied on and cited as authoritative by U.S. federal courts. His next book, An International Law Paradigm, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. He holds a Doctor of the Science of Law degree and a Master of Laws degree from Yale Law School, where he was Howard M. Holtzmann Fellow for International Law. He also holds a Master of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree in law with first class honors from Oxford University, where he was Oxford University Scholar.

Professor Cheng is an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. He also serves on many committees, including the Awards Committee of the American Society of International Law, the Academic Council of Institute for Transnational Arbitration, and the Standing Committee on International Commercial Disputes Resolution of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is a member of the international panel of neutrals of American Arbitration Association, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center. He has given presentations at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, the United Nations, and Yale Law School.

Professor Cheng was formerly associated with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and previously advised the Singapore Police Force and the Prosecutor-General of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.

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