I first met Jerry Cohen (then Professor Cohen to me!) when I was 20 years old. At the time, I was a Yale College senior, when “dinosaurs roamed the earth” (1975). He helped to arrange for me to study Chinese in Taiwan during my last semester of college. It was then impossible for me to study in Beijing. When I studied at Harvard Law School, I had the good fortune to take all his courses, attend East Asian Legal Studies lunch-time talks, and be a member of the East Asian Legal Studies group. Many of my then fellow students are my good friends these many years later! I believe he was responsible for my being a research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Center from September 1987 to November 1988.
I am one of his (many) students whose lives he changed–among those were enabling my move to Hong Kong, providing recommendations, supporting my blog, and encouraging my work on the Supreme People’s Court.
The English-reading world seems less aware of the tributes to Jerry in Chinese social media, so I’ll bring attention to some of the articles that have been published on WeChat:
| Author | Article |
| this article is a translated excerpt from his memoirs (by Chen Yu-Jie); | 逝者｜孔杰荣：改革开放初期中外法律交流亲历记 (Those Who Have Passed: Kong Jierong: A Personal Account of Sino-Foreign Legal Exchange in the Early Years of Reform and Opening Up
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| Li Qi (李骐), Partner of JunHe | 我所认识的科恩教授 (The Professor Cohen I Knew)
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| Yu Ping （虞平） introduction to 法治流變及制度構建：兩岸法律四十年之發展：孔傑榮教授九秩祝壽文集. | 缅怀 | 孔杰荣：冰心玉壶，德范长存 (In Memory of Kong Jierong: A Heart as Pure as Ice and a Jade Pot, His Moral Model Lasts Forever
)
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| Xu Xin (徐昕）the prominent defense counsel | 纪念柯恩教授 (In Memory of Professor Cohen) |
| Peking University Law School Professor Zhang Qianfan (张千帆) | 沉舟｜中国法治的“不老松”——追忆孔杰荣教授
(originally published in FT Chinese), translation available here |
| Fudan University Professor Gao Lingyun （高凌云） | 有些人注定不普通——怀念科恩老师 |
| Liu Guiming (editor in chief of the magazine Democracy and Legal System 民主与法制 | 刘桂明：这位美国教授，为何往返中国几百次 (Liu Guiming: Why did this American professor travel to and from China hundreds of times?)
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| China-America Law Review (student-led translation team) | Translation of NYU obituary, 中文翻译首发 | 缅怀柯恩：第一位在北京执业的西方律师
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| Chen Hongyi (Albert Chen), Fu Hualing, and Huang Yue (Andrew Huang)) | 陈弘毅 傅华伶 黄岳｜孔杰荣教授回忆篇（一）
(Chen Hongyi, Fu Hualing, Huang Yue | Professor Kong Jierong’s Memoirs (Part 1) ) |
Lawyers and scholars have also posted tributes to him, while those within the System remember his good deeds privately.
斯人已逝，风范长存. He still lives on earth in the acts of goodness he performed and in the hearts and lives of those who cherish his memory.
Supreme People's Court Monitor 