Law School Offers Post to China Expert

For the first time in nearly two decades, the Law School faculty may fill the chair of its East Asian Legal Studies program after voting unanimously to offer the post to a professor from the University of California at Los Angeles.

William P. Alford, who legal scholars characterized yesterday as the leader in the field of Chinese legal studies, would not say whether he will accept Harvard's offer.

But professors said that if he did, it would mean a dramatic upsurge for the Law School's program, which has floundered in recent years when compared to UCLA's coverage of East Asian legal issues.

"He's the best in the field, and it breaks our heart," said J. Mark Ramseyer, an acting professor at UCLA's School of Law. "But he hasn't accepted yet."

'A Great Gain'

Said Stanley B. Lubman, a former visiting professor at the Law School and a specialist in East Asian legal studies, "It would be a great gain for Harvard."

According to Lubman, Alford would provide a much needed boost to Harvard's program, which has been kept alive in recent years by a series of visiting professors. "Any program requires continuity and [Alford] will give [Harvard] vision and continuity both," he said.

Alford, a 1977 graduate of the Law School, is a widely recognized expert on the field of Chinese law who has published numerous papers and consulted with such politicians as former President Jimmy Carter and Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

"He is one of the few scholars in Chinese law with respectable credentials who writes on Chinese history as well as Chinese law," Lubman said.

And Ramseyer said UCLA's program has been almost singlehandedly improved by Alford. "It's better here because of him," Ramseyer said.

East Asian legal studies is a very specialized field, according to Jim V. Feinerman, an associate professor at the Georgetown Law Center who did graduate work at Yale with Alford. In particular, Feinerman said, many people are discouraged from specializing in the area by the number of years needed to achieve expertise.

"You have to have years of language training, cultural back-ground, and on top of that, a law degree," Feinerman said.

But still, Feinerman said, the field has gone through a resurgence in the years since 1979, when scholars were first allowed to travel back and forth between the U.S. and China.

Because of this freedom, Alford, Feinerman and others are known as the "new generation" of Chinese legal specialists. "We are the first generation to have had extensive contact with China," Feinerman said.

But it is unclear what effect the upheaval prompted by last spring's Tiananmen Square massacre will have on Chinese legal scholars here.

Alford himself called off his annual summer teaching seminar in China, and other scholars said they are less sure of the ease with which they will be able to enter and exit China.

Alford, who received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College, has had an unusually versatile career. The 40-year-old professor has gone from reporting in England for The Boston Globe to practicing law in Washington, D.C., to teaching law at UCLA.

Alford has been teaching in California since 1982, and he received tenure at UCLA in 1986.