At a Glance
Professor of Law
Brown University, AB 1979
New York University, JD 1983
Georgetown University, LLM 1989
Office: 32 Cargill Hall
Mail: 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 373-3309
Fax: (617) 373-5056
E-mail: m.woo@neu.edu
Margaret Y.K. Woo
Professor Woo teaches civil procedure, administrative law and comparative law. In 1997, she was named the law school’s Distinguished Professor of Public Policy. She is a former fellow of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and is presently an associate in research at the East Asian Legal Studies Center of Harvard Law School and the Fairbank Center of Harvard College. She is also a faculty director for the law school’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy.
Professor Woo has published and spoken widely on China’s legal reforms. She is the co-editor of East Asian Law—Universal Norms and Local Cultures (Cruzon/Routledge Publishers, 2003), a collection of interdisciplinary studies on the competing tensions of global/local forces on East Asian identities and legal systems. She is also the co-author of American Civil Litigation (Aspen Publishers, forthcoming), which places American civil procedure in historical, empirical and sociological context.
At present, Professor Woo is co-editing a volume tentatively titled Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in China. The volume is a collection of interdisciplinary papers from an international conference she organized at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in October 2007. The conference was funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, Harvard’s East Asian Legal Studies Center, and the Lam Fund. The volume will focus on how ordinary citizens are accessing the Chinese legal system and the role of courts in authoritarian regimes.
Among her other activities, Professor Woo is also committed to Asian American and civil rights issues, serving as a board member of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Harry Dow Legal Assistance Memorial Fund and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She previously chaired the Association of American Law School’s standing Committee on Retention and Recruitment of Minority Law Teachers, and was a member of the executive committee for the Section on Civil Procedure.
Professor Woo has published and spoken widely on China’s legal reforms. She is the co-editor of East Asian Law—Universal Norms and Local Cultures (Cruzon/Routledge Publishers, 2003), a collection of interdisciplinary studies on the competing tensions of global/local forces on East Asian identities and legal systems. She is also the co-author of American Civil Litigation (Aspen Publishers, forthcoming), which places American civil procedure in historical, empirical and sociological context.
At present, Professor Woo is co-editing a volume tentatively titled Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in China. The volume is a collection of interdisciplinary papers from an international conference she organized at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in October 2007. The conference was funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, Harvard’s East Asian Legal Studies Center, and the Lam Fund. The volume will focus on how ordinary citizens are accessing the Chinese legal system and the role of courts in authoritarian regimes.
Among her other activities, Professor Woo is also committed to Asian American and civil rights issues, serving as a board member of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Harry Dow Legal Assistance Memorial Fund and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She previously chaired the Association of American Law School’s standing Committee on Retention and Recruitment of Minority Law Teachers, and was a member of the executive committee for the Section on Civil Procedure.
Selected Publications
- Articles:
- “Civil Justice in China: An Empirical Study of Three Provinces,” 53 American Journal of Comparative Law, 4, 2006.
- “Law, Development and the Socio-Economic Rights of Chinese Women,” 19 Columbia Journal of Asian Law 345, Spring 2005.
- “Shaping Citizenship: Chinese Family Law and Women,” 15 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 75, 2003.
- “Reflections on International Legal Education Exchange,” 51 Journal of Legal Education 449, September 2001.
- “Reaffirming the Merit in Affirmative Action,” 41 Journal of Legal Education 514, December 1997.
- “Biology and Equality: Challenge for Feminism in the Socialist and the Liberal State,” 42 Emory Law Journal 143-196, 1993.
- Books:
- Ordinary Justice: The Role of Civil Courts in Contemporary China, in progress.
- Chinese Justice: Empirical Studies of Dispute Resolution (with Gallagher), in progress.
- Litigating in America: Civil Procedures in Context (with Subrin), Aspen Publishing Co., 2006.
- American Civil Litigation: Historical, Social and Cultural Context (with Subrin), Falu Chubanshe, 2002.
- East Asian Law — Universal Norms and Local Cultures (with Rosett and Cheng), Cruzon/Routledge Publishers, 2002.
Find NUSL on 
