Professor Margaret Y.K. Woo Co-Edits New Research Handbook on Comparative Civil Procedure

12.04.2025 — Professor Margaret Y,K Woo of Northeastern Law and Professor Cornelis van Rhee of Maastricht University have launched Comparative Civil Procedure (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025), a dynamic addition to the Research Handbooks in Comparative Law series.

This new volume brings together leading legal scholars from around the globe to dissect how civil disputes unfold across different legal systems. Contributors trace the complete litigation journey—from filing that first complaint to enforcing a final judgment—revealing striking contrasts and unexpected similarities in courtroom procedures spanning Asia, Europe and the Americas. The result is an essential roadmap for anyone seeking to understand how justice systems actually work when they collide with real-world disputes.

“A global understanding of civil justice systems and their potential is essential to preserving rule of law,” said Woo.

Woo is a former fellow of the Bunting Institute (Radcliffe College) and is presently an associate of the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard University. She has received many prestigious grants from a variety of organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation, and is on the Senior Scholar Roster for the Fulbright Scholars Program. She co-edited East Asian Law: Universal Norms and Local Culture (Routledge, 2003) and Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and co-authored Litigating in America: Civil Procedure in Context (Aspen Publishing, 2006) and Global Issues in Civil Procedure (West Academic, 2021). She is a past co-editor of the American Association of Law Schools’ Journal of Legal Education.

Woo’s forthcoming memoir, The City of Jade Trees, recounting her Chinese family’s challenges, ordeals and accomplishments in the United States, will be published by The New Press in fall 2026.