Statement of Interest

It is my pleasure to apply for the Transnational Program, which presents an ideal,

immersive opportunity to synthesize my undergraduate and law studies. As an undergraduate, I
was fascinated by globalization. Having grown up in a bicultural household, I wanted to
understand our present age of unprecedented cross-border movement of people, goods, and
ideas. In a course on East Asian Cultures and Globalization, I studied critiques of globalization
characterizing it as westernization. My final essay discussed how capitalisms promotion of
selfish rationality clashes with the historically collectivist (e.g. Confucian) norms in East Asian
cultures. I went on to study the political economy of development in the global age while
studying abroad. In my research, I discerned how a robust legal regime fostering accountability
and internal stability is crucial to attracting international investment and thereby promoting
economic development.
These studies will provide a useful backdrop for my understanding of comparative
criminal law in the Transnational Program. I imagine the adaptation of the jury mechanism to
East Asian legal systems must likewise take into account the socioeconomic, political, and
cultural overlays unique to those nations. Furthermore, I am excited to bring my analytical tools
to bear on a comparative law course I am taking this semester. I anticipate writing a paper
applying Delaware corporate law to the fact pattern of a duty of care case decided in the UK and
in turn comparing the different jurisdictional jurisprudence and outcomes.
Additionally, the Transnational Program would advance my newfound interest in criminal
law. Having taken criminal law, I came away from my first semester with a great appreciation for
the jurys role in obtaining justice. I was enthused with the theory of empirical desert, which
treats the moral intuitions of laypeople as the fundamental punishment principle behind the
criminal justice system. The following summer, I gained practical experience in criminal cases as
an intern. Although the bulk of my responsibilities related to the disposition of habeas corpus
petitions, I most cherished my conversations with the judges regarding sentencing decisions as
he weighed equities of each case, often imagining the weight of the defendants wrongdoing
from the perspective of lay citizenry.