Matthew S. Erie | Lightnews

Matthew Erie

@matthewserie.bsky.social

820 followers 660 following 210 posts

Assoc. Prof. of Law, American U. Washington College of Law; Assoc. Member, Oxford Law; lawyer & anthropologist; writes on non-liberal law, international development, transnational business, property, justice; https://www.matthewserie.com/ Views are my own. .. more

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Political science 48%

Sociology 19%

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Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Mar 3

I'm happy to announce that we've just published a Casebook on Chinese Outbound Investment: Law, Policy, and Business (CUP 2025).

Given the US's retreat from overseas development, the future of international development looks very Chinese. We need to understand what this means.

lnkd.in/e2KSFgVR.

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 15h

A win for our judicial system.

Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 16h

Comey and James cases were tossed yesterday in a major setback for Trump’s retribution drive. "A message has to be sent that the president... cannot use the [DOJ] to target his political enemies,” Comey said in a statement.
https://bit.ly/47ZkAK7

Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Political Prosecutions of former FBI Chief Comey, NY AG James

Read more here.

bit.ly

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 18h

On Nov. 14 & 15, I was fortunate to attend a special conference to honor the life & works of Professor Frank Upham of NYU Law School who is retiring. Frank’s approach to understanding the relationships b/w law, politics, & ideology in comparative & socio-legal studies has left a profound legacy.

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 7d

Looking forward to returning to the #AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation annual meeting after about a 10-year hiatus. If there was ever a time to think outside the box, this is it, and anthros are trained to do exactly that.

Excited to participate in these 2 China legal anthro events.

#legalanthro

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 19d

Sorry to hear this, @lauratmurphy.bsky.social. Let me know if you come to DC. Would be great to have you speak to my class.

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 21d

Hope.

Reposted by Laurence H. Tribe, John Palfrey, Matthew S. Erie

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 27d

#BREAKING: In the Illinois National Guard case, #SCOTUS is asking for additional briefing on one of the key substantive questions (and one flagged by my Georgetown colleague @martylederman.bsky.social in an amicus brief):

Among other things, this means no ruling until *at least* the week of 11/17.

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · 28d

A hundred times over.

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 29d

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

Reposted by Neil Pederson, Robert W. Wallace, David R. Miller , and 7 more Neil Pederson, Robert W. Wallace, David R. Miller, Silvia Secchi, Jason Lyall, Susan Strasser, Seth Masket, Charles T. Mathewes, Matthew S. Erie, Ignacio Quintero

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 29d

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Oct 21

Inspiring to attend the 2025 #ASCL meeting @ McGill University to discuss law & democracy, decolonization of comparative law, and emerging international orders. A pleasure to organize the panel "ASCL Studies in Comparative Law New Book Panel: Asia, the Global South, and the New Comparative Law."

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Oct 20

China mimics US foreign direct products rule:

apnews.com/article/chin...

China is indeed learning from US “extraterritoriality.” The US is creating its own Frankenstein.

For a deeper dive on what I call “Adversarial Comparativism”, see papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

To hit back at the United States in their trade war, China borrows from the US playbook

China has expanded its export rules on rare earths, requiring foreign firms to get approval for exporting products containing even small amounts of China-originated materials.

apnews.com

Reposted by Matthew S. Erie

Alex Wang @greenlawchina.bsky.social · Oct 7

A must read. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

A Compact for Control (opinion)

No self-respecting institution of higher education should accept the Trump administration’s unconstitutional terms, Robert Post and Tom Ginsburg write.

www.insidehighered.com

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Oct 4

Go Big Green!

(BA ‘99)

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · Oct 4

It appears that my employer, Dartmouth, one of the Trump 9, has said no to the compact. All the better given that our president is cited within it. But she’s saying no. Count the small victories when they come.

Office of the President
Dear Dartmouth community,

As many of you know, Dartmouth was one of nine universities asked by the White House to give feedback by Oct. 20 on a draft of its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

I am deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence.

You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves.

Best,
Sian Leah Beilock
President

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · Oct 4

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 29

Proud to be Captain of the National Postal Museum. Shout out to the volunteers I’m working with. Citizens are heroes, too.

#savetheSmithsonian

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Citizen historians document Smithsonian exhibits under White House scrutiny

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. It's a public-private trust that has long operated at arm's length from the White House, but now finds itself...

www.pbs.org

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 26

After 7 yrs of work, the special issue "China in Compliance" is out with @reggovjournal.bsky.social. The focus is to unpack how #compliance works in globalizing China. #Cambodia #Kyrgyzstan #Tajikistan #Fiji #Vanuatu #Singapore #Taiwan #Ethiopia #Hungary

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

Reposted by Matthew S. Erie

Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal @polar-journal.bsky.social · Sep 18

PoLAR is hiring a new managing editor. The full details are available here: shorturl.at/uqEn5

Hiring Announcement: PoLAR Managing Editor

PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, the journal of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA), is hiring a Managing Editor. PoLAR is in an exciting transformational sta…

shorturl.at

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 13

These figures rebut the “whataboutism” line of the administration.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · Sep 13

Extremist murders by ideology, 2013 to 2022. www.pbump.net/o/reassessin...

Philip Bump @pbump.com · Sep 13

Extremist murders by ideology, 2013 to 2022. www.pbump.net/o/reassessin...

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 10

My amazing colleague Bec Hamilton is swimming 20km to raise money for Charlie's Place, a drop-in shelter for homeless in #WashingtonDC whose numbers and hardships are increasing of late. Please consider giving here: www.gofundme.com/f/swim-for-c...

Thank you.

Donate to Marathon swim for people experiencing homelessness in D.C., organized by Rebecca Hamilton

People experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C. are havi… Rebecca Hamilton needs your support for Marathon swim for people experiencing homelessness in D.C.

www.gofundme.com

Reposted by John Marston, Gerald Friedman, Nancy K. Baym , and 1 more John Marston, Gerald Friedman, Nancy K. Baym, Matthew S. Erie

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · Sep 9

"We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent." —Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 7

The incremental normalization of life under authoritarianism is one of its defining features.

Authoritarianism is often not a rupture but, rather, a slow tear.

*Every* day we must be vigilant to this fact.

Eric Champnella @echamp.bsky.social · Sep 6

This. 👇👇👇

JB Pritzker: "Any rational person who has spent even the most minimal amount of time studying human history has to ask themselves one important question: Once they get the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law, what comes next?”