Milhaupt Hastings Visiting Prof at HK University

Hong Kong University has named Columbia Law School (CLS) Professor Curtis J. Milhaupt as the Paul Hastings Visiting Distinguished Professor in Corporate and Financial Law. The appointment will commence at the end of Columbia's spring semester.

 

Prof. Milhaupt's current research deals with the institutional aspects of China's explosive economic growth. He and Columbia Law School Professor Benjamin Liebman are currently writing Reputational Sanctions in China's Securities Market, which explores a novel, informal form of securities regulation in China.  With Columbia Law School Professor Katharina Pistor, Prof. Milhaupt is finishing a book titled Law and Capitalism: What Corporate Scandals Reveal about Legal Systems and Economic Development around the World (forthcoming in 2007 by the University of Chicago Press).

 

"Hong Kong University's appointment brings honor to Columbia Law School as another example of the School's global influence”, said David M. Schizer, Dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law. "Professor Curtis Milhaupt epitomizes our leadership in global business and law."

 

Prof. Milhaupt plans to deliver two public lectures on his current research on China's stock exchanges and the link between legal institutions and economic development. As a guest lecturer at Hong Kong University, he will be teaching aspects of U.S. corporate law with special focus on how the law deals with "agency costs", in particular, malfeasance by board members, and conflicts of interest posed by controlling shareholders. He also will address the ongoing controversy over the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the role of cross-listing on foreign stock exchanges as a means of improving corporate governance. Prof. Milhaupt chose these topics, he said, for their "relevance to contemporary developments in mainland China and Hong Kong, where there is an ongoing process of experimentation with legal rules and market incentives to improve the governance of Chinese corporations."

 

As Columbia Law School's Fuyo Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Prof. Milhaupt is an expert on the legal systems of East Asia, as well as comparative corporate governance. He has authored or edited several books about Japan's legal system and other topics and advised international organizations on topics ranging from shareholder activism to unification of the Korean peninsula. He speaks fluent Japanese and is currently studying Mandarin Chinese. Prof. Milhaupt received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1989.