Mark Wu, a leading expert on international trade and international economic law, was promoted to full professor, effective July 1. He was named the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law.
“Mark Wu’s international trade scholarship is respected globally and has unmistakable relevance for the rapidly evolving global economy and international affairs,” said John F. Manning ’85, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean of Harvard Law School. “Mark has been recognized at Harvard Law School as a gifted teacher, a generous mentor, and a valued colleague. I’m so delighted that he is part of our HLS community.”
At Harvard Law School, Wu teaches classes on international trade law and law and the international economy. He is a faculty director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and a member of the Faculty Advisory Committees of the East Asian Legal Studies Program, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Harvard University’s Asia Center and a faculty associate of the Center for the Environment.
In 2017, Wu received the prestigious Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence. The award recognized his work as a dedicated professor and mentor who cares not only about the intellectual development of his students, but also their emotional well-being. Wu was only the second junior faculty member to receive the award.
Upon receiving the award, Wu thanked the Class of 2017 for the “most amazing, meaningful award I’ve ever received.” He also challenged graduates to keep in mind what he calls “’the Professor Wu question’: What are you doing to make our profession more inclusive?”
Wu is also a past recipient of the HLS Student Government’s Teaching and Advising Award. The award recognizes exemplary instruction and mentorship among the faculty. Wu was the first, and, to date, only faculty member to have won both teaching awards.
“More than twenty-five years ago, Harvard sparked my curiosity to understand the world as it is evolving, and to find ways to mediate the frictions generated by globalization,” Professor Wu remarked. “I have been fortunate to have tremendous resources and friendships with colleagues to guide me through this journey. And I consider it an immense privilege to teach so many fantastic students who have provided inspiration for my work.”
Wu comments frequently in the national and international press about global trade, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Fox News, NPR, and Financial Times. At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos this past year, he spoke of the growing frictions generated by two competing narratives of globalization.
His article, “The ‘China, Inc.’ Challenge to Global Trade Governance,” published in the Harvard International Law Journal in 2016, was deemed “essential reading” by a Council on Foreign Relations expert for understanding for the ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions. It has been cited in several important policy reports, including the U.S. government’s Special 301 report on Chinese technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, and an expert group report recommending improvements to the World Trade Organization.
Besides serving as the faculty advisor to a number of student organizations, Wu also inspired the creation of moot court teams at Harvard for trade and investment law. The WTO Moot Court team has won the North American regional championship in six of the past seven years, and became the first U.S. team to capture the global championship in 2017. The Foreign Direct Investment Moot Court team also won the global championship in 2013.
In 2016, Wu was appointed by the World Trade Organization to serve on the Advisory Board for the WTO Chairs Programme, which aims to enhance understanding of trade by academics and policymakers in developing and least-developed countries. He also serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment. In addition, he has worked with a number of international institutions and non-governmental organizations, including the World Bank and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.
Prior to his career in academia, Wu served as the director for intellectual property in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He also worked as an economist and operations officer with the World Bank in China and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Wu earned his A.B. summa cum laude in Social Studies and East Asian Studies from Harvard College, during which he studied as a Monbusho Scholar at Kyoto University. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he received his M.Sc. in Development Economics. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval ’63 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
https://today.law.harvard.edu/feature/trade-surplus/