Dr. Tae-Ung Baik
Director, Center for Korean Studies
Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law
Dr. Baik joined the University of Hawaii in 2011 after teaching at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia (UBC), for seven years since 2003 as an assistant professor and Director of the Korean Legal Studies program. He was selected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in 2015 and served as member, Vice-Chair, and Chair-Rapporteur during 2015 – 2022 reviewing the enforced disappearance cases submitted to the United Nations by the member states and the families of the victims or civil society organizations.
He had conducted research as a visiting scholar at the East Asian Legal Studies program at Harvard Law School from 2002-2003, and, during his sabbatical year in 2017-18, he researched as a visiting researcher at the Seoul National University Law Research Institute. He is a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative Advisory Council, a project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis to establish the world’s first treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.
Dr. Baik was born in South Korea and graduated from Seoul National University College of Law. He earned his master (LL.M.) and doctoral (JSD) degrees on international human rights law from Notre Dame Law School in the U.S. He was admitted to the Bar as an attorney-at-law in the State of New York, and worked for Human Rights Watch in New York as a research intern and later as a research consultant with a focus on human rights problems in both North and South Koreas. In 2003, he served the South Korean Delegation to the 56th United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as a legal adviser.
Dr. Baik was involved in the democracy movement against the military dictatorship in the 1980-90s in South Korea, and he is still active in human rights advocacy projects. His book, “Emerging Regional Human Rights Systems in Asia,” was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012. The translated and updated version of this book was published in Korea by Changbi Publishers Inc. entitled “Seeking the Human Rights Community in Asia” in 2017.
Educational Background
LLB Seoul National University
LLM cum laude Notre Dame Law School
JSD magna cum laude Notre Dame Law School
Email: tubaik@hawaii.edu
Phone:(808) 956-7041