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Dr James D. Fry

The Department of Law

Associate Professor of Law
Director of the Master of Laws (LLM) Programme
Academic Member of the Centre for Chinese Law
Fellow of the Centre for Comparative & Public Law

Visiting Professor, Chuo University School of Law, Japan
Visiting Professor, Seoul National University School of Law, South Korea
Fellow, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Biography

James Fry, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the LLM Programme, served as a member of the teaching faculty of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva before joining the University of Hong Kong in 2008. Before that, Dr. Fry worked with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser, with the International Litigation and Arbitration Group of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York and with Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye on the New York Court of Appeals. Dr. Fry has provided legal counsel and expertise to various international organizations throughout the world, including the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, and he was selected to represent the New York City Bar Association and the American Society of International Law in the United Nations at various times. Dr. Fry also has worked on a wide range of international cases under HKIAC, ICC, ICSID, NASD, UNCITRAL, UNCLOS and ad hoc rules, including cases involving the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and he has given legal advice to various states in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Since joining HKU, Dr. Fry has held visiting academic positions with such reputable institutions as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the University of Fribourg Faculty of Law, the International Maritime Law Institute, the McGill University Faculty of Law, Seoul National University School of Law, the SMU Dedman School of Law, the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Law and Politics, and the University of Vienna School of Law. He also has been a fellow with the Aspen Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Fry is an active member of the Education Advisory Board of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, the New York Bar, the Hong Kong Law Society, the International Law Association and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is an accredited mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.

Dr. Fry hails from the New York City area, although he has spent significant time in Bahrain, Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands and China. As a result, he has varying degrees of proficiency in the languages and cultures of those countries.

Education

PhD, University of Geneva (IHEID)
LLM, Leiden University
JD, Georgetown University Law Center
MIA, Columbia University
BA, Brigham Young University

Research Areas

  • Public International Law
  • Private International Law
  • Comparative Law
  • Contract Law
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Research and Supervision Interests

Dr. Fry’s research lies at the intersection between law, history and international relations. Operating from a critical realist ontology and a postpositivist epistemology, he combines archival, empirical and doctrinal analysis and reasoning in an effort to better understand why the law is the way it is and what the relationship is between law and state behavior, if any.

As an active researcher and mentor, Dr. Fry is eager to supervise research students in the area of international law (both public and private). His current interests involve international energy law, international investment law, territorial and maritime boundary disputes, international dispute settlement, law of the sea, international organizations law, and the history and theory of international law, although these interests periodically change. He also is interested in supervising some projects dealing with comparative law (especially East Asian law) and legal education (especially comparative professional responsibility).

 

Placement of Selected PhD Students

Dr. Agnes Chong, Assistant Professor (Law), University of Hong Kong Faculty of Business and Economics
Dr. Odysseas Repousis, Associate, International Arbitration and Transnational Litigation Groups, The Law Firm of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, London
Dr. Inna Amesheva, Associate, Arabesque Asset Management, Frankfurt
Dr. Liu Yang, Associate, International Arbitration Group, The Law Firm of Haiwen & Partners, Shanghai

 

Selected Teaching

Public International Law
Private International Law
Comparative Law
Law of Contract I & II
Law of Tort I & II
International Dispute Settlement
International Investment Law
Law and Development
International Organizations Law
Arms Control and Disarmament Law
Law of the Sea

Selected Publications

Books 

  • Termination of Secretaries General (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2021, approximately 340 pages; sole authored; completed manuscript)
  • The Values of International Organizations (Manchester University Press, Melland Schill Perspectives on International Law Series; forthcoming 2020; 256 pages; with two co-authors; completed manuscript)
  • Legal Resolution of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Disputes (Cambridge University Press, 2013, 504 pages, sole authored) (book reviews provided by Dieter Fleck in 20 Journal of Conflict and Security Law 481-483 (2015), Bahram Ghiassee Bahram in 6 International Energy Law Review 226-229 (2014) and Jaemin Lee in 21 Seoul International Law Journal 171-175 (2014))

Articles, Book Chapters and Book Reviews

International Dispute Settlement and Private International Law

  • Article, ICJ Evidentiary Inferences and Assumptions Favoring Non-Producers (under consideration; forthcoming 2021; approximately 40 pages)
  • Article, Judicial Settlement of Nuclear-Weapon Disputes: Chicken Salad Out of Chicken Feathers? (under consideration; forthcoming 2020; approximately 40 pages)
  • Book Chapter, The Limited Role of Judicial Dispute Settlement, in Research Handbook on International Arms Control Law (Eric Myjer & Thilo Marauhn eds., Edward Elgar Publishing; forthcoming 2020)
  • Article, Ethiopian Exceptionalism and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, 24 African Journal of International and Comparative Law 135-157 (University of Edinburgh Press, 2017; lead article; “A” journal ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Other Pacific Means of Resolving Iran’s ICJ Certain Iranian Assets Application, 28 American Review of International Arbitration 191-234 (2017; lead article; published by Columbia Law School; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Towards a New World for Investor-State Arbitration through Transparency, 48 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 795-866 (2016; with a co-author; “A*” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Armed Conflict and State Succession in Investor-State Arbitration, 22 Columbia Journal of European Law 421-449 (2016; with a co-author; “B” journal ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Book Chapter, Investment Arbitration with Disputes in the Nuclear Energy Sector: Environmental Protection versus Investor Protection, in Bridging the Gap between International Investment Law and the Environment 215-246 (Ige Dekker et al. eds., Eleven Publishing, 2015; with a co-author)
  • Article, Intertemporality and International Investment Arbitration: Protecting the Jurisdiction of Established Tribunals, 31 Arbitration International 213-259 (Oxford University Press, 2015; with a co-author; “A” journal ranking by the ARC; Scopus journal)
  • Article, The Roots of Historic Title: Non-Western Pre-Colonial Normative Systems and Legal Resolution of Territorial Disputes, 27 Leiden Journal of International Law 727-754 (2014; with a co-author; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Forged Independence and Impartiality: Conflicts of Interest of International Arbitrators in Investment Disputes, 30 Arbitration International 189-264 (Oxford University Press, 2014; with a co-author; lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus journal)
  • Article, Towards an International Piracy Tribunal: The Cure to the Legal Limbo of Captured Pirates, 22 African Journal of International and Comparative Law 341-368 (University of Edinburgh Press, 2014; lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Towards an Agreement on Investment in Mercosur: Conflict and Complementarity between International Investment Law and International Trade-in-Services Law, 13 Journal of World Investment & Trade 556-596 (Brill, 2012; with a co-author; “A” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Regularity through Reason: A Foundation of Virtue for International Arbitration, 4 Contemporary Asia Arbitration Journal 57-94 (National Taiwan University Press, 2011; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Non-Participation in the International Court of Justice Revisited: Change or Plus Ça Change?, 49 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 35-74 (2010) (lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Book Chapter, Ambiguity in “Arising” Phrases: Caution for Drafters of Intended Narrow Arbitration Clauses, in AAA Handbook on Commercial Arbitration 127-134 (Thomas E. Carbonneau & Jeanette A. Jaeggi eds., 2d ed., 2010; with a co-author)
  • Article, Désordre Public International under the New York Convention: Wither Truly International Public Policy, 8 Chinese Journal of International Law 81-134 (Oxford University Press, 2009; “B” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Arbitrating Arms Control Disputes, 44 Stanford Journal of International Law 359-420 (2008; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Dionysian Disarmament: Security Council WMD Disarmament and Arms Control Measures and their Legal Implications, 29 Michigan Journal of International Law 197-292 (2008; “A*” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, International Human Rights Law in Investment Arbitration: Evidence of International Law’s Unity, 18 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 77-150 (2007; “B” ranking by the ARC), reprinted inClassics in International Investment Law ch. 19 (August Reinisch ed., 2014, Edward Elgar Publishing)
  • Article, The Federal Arbitration Act, UNCITRAL Model Law and New York, 8 International Arbitration Law Review 1-13 (2005; lead article; “C” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Quasi-In Rem Jurisdiction and Discovery in Enforcing an Arbitration Award: Understanding CME Media Enterprises B.V. v. Zelezny, 6 International Arbitration Law Review 100-105 (2003; “C” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Islamic Law and the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal: The Primacy of International Law over Municipal Law, 18 Arbitration International 105-124 (Oxford University Press, 2002; lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus journal)

 

International Organizations Law

  • Article, UN Security Council Resolution of International Water Disputes, 50 Georgetown Journal of International Law 363-424 (2019; with a co-author; “A” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Rights, Functions, and International Legal Personality of International Organizations, 36 Boston University International Law Journal 221-249 (2018; “B” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, The OSCE and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Un Savant Mélange, 45 North Carolina Journal of International Law 1-29 (2018; lead article; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Book Chapter, Membership in the United Nations, in Leading Judicial Decisions of the Law of International Organizations 138-155 (Ramses A. Wessel et al. eds., Oxford University Press, 2015; with a co-author)
  • Article, Early Security Council Efforts at Nuclear Non-Proliferation Law and Policy: Cooperation Forgotten, 21 Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 337-358 (2012; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Formation of Customary International Law through Consensus in International Organizations, 17 Austrian Review of International and European Law 49-82 (2012)
  • Article, Dionysian Disarmament: Security Council WMD Disarmament and Arms Control Measures and their Legal Implications, 29 Michigan Journal of International Law 197-292 (2008; “A*” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Remaining Valid: Security Council Resolutions, Textualism, and the Invasion of Iraq, 15 Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law 609-660 (2007; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, The UN Security Council and the Law of Armed Conflict: Amity or Enmity?, 38 George Washington International Law Review 327-348 (2006; “B” ranking by the ARC)

 

Comparative Law

  • Article, The Semisecret Life of Late Mao-Era International Law Scholarship, 39 Pace Law Review 991-1057 (2019; with a co-author; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Case Comment, First Financial Ins. Co. v. Jetco Contr. Corp., 1 NY3d 64 (2003), in Judith S. Kaye in Her Own Words 229 (SUNY Press, Henry M. Greenberg et al. eds., 2019)
  • Article, Privacy, Predictability and Internet Surveillance in the US and China: Better the Devil You Know?, 37 University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 419-501 (2015; lead article; “B” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, China’s Version of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention: Comparing Ravens and Writing Desks?, 27 King’s Law Journal 60-84 (2013; “B” ranking by the ARC; Scopus journal)
  • Article, Reassessing Venezuela’s Organic Hydrocarbon Law: A Balance Between Sovereignty and Efficiency?, 6 Journal of World Energy Law & Business 234-259 (Oxford University Press, 2013; with a co-author; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, The Swindle of Fragmented Criminalization: Continuing Piecemeal Responses to International Terrorism and Al Qaeda, 43 New England Law Review 377-435 (2009; lead article; “C” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, European Asylum Law: Race-to-the-Bottom Harmonization?, 15 Journal of Transnational Law & Policy 97-108 (2005; “C” ranking by the ARC)
  • Book Chapter, Foreign Direct Investment in Arab Countries: A Guide to Better Understanding Islamic Financial Doctrine, in Strengthening Relations with Arab and Islamic Countries through International Law: E-Commerce, the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism and Foreign Investment 287- 308 (Permanent Court of Arbitration ed., 2003; with a co-author)
  • Article, Struggling to Teethe: Japan’s Antitrust Enforcement Regime, 32 Georgetown Journal of International Law 825-858 (2001; formerly Law and Policy in International Business; “A” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, A Safety Net for the Internet?: SEC Protection of Online Investors from Fraud, George Washington Corporate Law and Business Journal, Summer 2000, at 56-85 (with a co-author)

 

International Natural Resources Law

  • Article, UN Security Council Resolution of International Water Disputes, 50 Georgetown Journal of International Law 363-424 (2019; with a co-author; “A” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Oil Pollution and the Dynamic Relationship between International Environmental Law and the Law of the Sea, 47 Georgetown Journal of International Law 1001-1034 (2016; with a co-author; “A” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Cleaved International Law: Exploring the Dynamic Relationship between International Climate Change Law and International Health Law, 40 Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 73-98 (2016; with a co-author)
  • Article, International Water Law and China’s Management of its International Rivers, 39 Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 227-266 (2016; lead article; with a co-author; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Book Chapter, Investment Arbitration with Disputes in the Nuclear Energy Sector: Environmental Protection versus Investor Protection, in Bridging the Gap between International Investment Law and the Environment 215-246 (Ige Dekker et al. eds., Eleven Publishing, 2015; with a co-author)
  • Article, The Roots of Historic Title: Non-Western Pre-Colonial Normative Systems and Legal Resolution of Territorial Disputes, 27 Leiden Journal of International Law 727-754 (2014; with a co-author; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Reassessing Venezuela’s Organic Hydrocarbon Law: A Balance Between Sovereignty and Efficiency?, 6 Journal of World Energy Law & Business 234-259 (Oxford University Press, 2013; with a co-author; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)

 

International Security Law

  • Article, Judicial Settlement of Nuclear-Weapon Disputes: Chicken Salad Out of Chicken Feathers? (under consideration; forthcoming 2020; approximately 40 pages; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Book Review, Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law (Volumes 1-4), by Jonathan L. Black-Branch & Dieter Fleck eds. (under consideration; forthcoming 2020; approximately 12 pages)
  • Article, Moral Disarmament: Reviving a Legacy of the Great War, 40 Michigan Journal of International Law 1-45 (2018; lead article; with a co-author; “A*” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, The OSCE and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Un Savant Mélange, 45 North Carolina Journal of International Law 1-29 (2018; lead article; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Smoke and Mirrors: Reconciling the Right to Health and the Right to Tobacco in Times of Armed Conflict, 39 Houston Journal of International Law 489-555 (2017; lead article; with a co-author; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Armed Conflict and State Succession in Investor-State Arbitration, 22 Columbia Journal of European Law 421-449 (2016; with a co-author; “B” journal ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Book Review, Non-Proliferation Law as a Special Regime, by Daniel H. Joyner & Marco Roscini, eds., 108 American Journal of International Law 146-153 (2014; “A*” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Towards an International Piracy Tribunal: The Cure to the Legal Limbo of Captured Pirates, 22 African Journal of International and Comparative Law 341-368 (University of Edinburgh Press, 2014; lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, The XM25 Individual Semi-Automatic Airburst Weapon System and International Law: Landing on the Wrong Planet?, 36 University of New South Wales Law Journal 682-710 (2013; “A*” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science Journal)
  • Article, Early Security Council Efforts at Nuclear Non-Proliferation Law and Policy: Cooperation Forgotten, 21 Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 337-358 (2012; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Gas Smells Awful: UN Forces, Riot-Control Agents and the Chemical Weapons Convention, 31 Michigan Journal of International Law 475-559 (2010; lead article; “A*” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Sovereign Equality under the Chemical Weapons Convention: Doughnuts over Holes, 15 Journal of Conflict & Security Law 45-63 (Oxford University Press, 2010; “C” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, The Swindle of Fragmented Criminalization: Continuing Piecemeal Responses to International Terrorism and Al Qaeda, 43 New England Law Review 377-435 (2009; lead article; “C” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Arbitrating Arms Control Disputes, 44 Stanford Journal of International Law 359-420 (2008; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, Dionysian Disarmament: Security Council WMD Disarmament and Arms Control Measures and their Legal Implications, 29 Michigan Journal of International Law 197-292 (2008; “A*” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Remaining Valid: Security Council Resolutions, Textualism, and the Invasion of Iraq, 15 Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law 609-660 (2007; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Contextualized Legal Reviews for the Methods and Means of Warfare: Cave Combat and International Humanitarian Law, 44 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 453-519 (2006; “A” ranking by the ARC; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Article, The UN Security Council and the Law of Armed Conflict: Amity or Enmity?, 38 George Washington International Law Review 327-348 (2006; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Terrorism as a Crime Against Humanity and Genocide: The Backdoor to Universal Jurisdiction, 7 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 169-200 (2002; “B” ranking by the ARC)

 

History and Theory of International Law

  • Article, The Permanent Court of International Justice in Global History (work in progress, forthcoming 2020 or 2021; approximately 90 pages)
  • Article, The Semisecret Life of Late Mao-Era International Law Scholarship, 39 Pace Law Review 991-1057 (2019; with a co-author; “C” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Moral Disarmament: Reviving a Legacy of the Great War, 40 Michigan Journal of International Law 1-45 (2018; lead article; with a co-author; “A*” journal ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Pluralism, Religion and the Moral Fairness of International Law, 4 Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 393-418 (Oxford University Press, 2014; Scopus and ISI Web of Science journal)
  • Book Chapter, Attribution of Responsibility, in Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law: An Appraisal of the State of the Art 99-135 (André Nollkaemper & Ilias Plakokefalos eds., Cambridge University Press, 2014)
  • Article, Legitimacy Push: Towards a Gramscian Approach to International Law, 13 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 307-336 (2008; lead article; “B” ranking by the ARC)
  • Article, Coercion, Causation and the Fictional Elements of Indirect State Responsibility, 40 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 611-642 (2007; lead article; “A” ranking by the ARC)

 

Raw Data for the Valuing International Organizations Project

The project Valuing International Organizations has been made possible by a generous grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No 1740221). The results of that project will be published in book format in 2019. The book quantifies international organizations’ affiliation with particular principles like cooperation, peace and equality through the language of their charters. The raw data at the heart of that book can be found at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r5mx62ev58r0lzb/AADm4r1ecOuJLX3OsEWsBssca?dl=0.

When using this material, please acknowledge the copyright of James D. Fry, Bryane Michael & Natasha Pushkarna, Valuing International Organizations Data, at https://www.law.hku.hk/faculty/staff/fry_james.php.