Studying Law in Motion Across Borders
Welcome to my site. My name is Mae Nguyen. I am an Associate Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law and an Affiliated Scholar at New York University School of Law’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute. I am also an elected Stephen M. Kellen Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (2023–2028).
I study the legal architecture of global commerce, with a focus on Asia. My work examines how cross-border business activity is organized, governed, and contested through the interaction of corporate law, contracts, and trade and investment rules. I’m also drawn to the bigger geoeconomic picture: how middle powers use legal and institutional tools, including their positions in global commerce, to navigate great-power competition and what that means for the fast-changing international legal order.
Beyond my core research, I enjoy engaging with policy and practitioner audiences on these questions. I’m always glad to connect with scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of transnational business law, corporate governance, trade law, and Asia (especially East and Southeast Asia).
Contact me at trang.nguyen@nyu.edu
Featured Projects
Hidden Power in Global Supply Chains
Harvard International Law Journal (2023)
ComplianceNet Outstanding Junior Scholar Paper Award
Today, transnational first-tier “Big Suppliers,” not brands, increasingly quarterback global production. In so doing, they reshape the legal and economic organization of global supply chains and challenge conventional wisdom on corporate compliance.
Global Company Towns
University of Colorado Law Review (2025)
Featured on the Business Scholarship Podcast
Modern “supply chain cities” revive the company-town model as a transboundary system of corporate control, operating as “legal entrepôts” that generate, diffuse, and exploit overlapping trade, investment, and labor regimes.
Goods’ Nationalities
Southern California Law Review (2026)
A product’s nationality is not fixed but rather a legally constructed designation. This Article advances a conceptual framework to unpack how various legal regimes (e.g., trade, security, human rights) pivot on distinct product attributes to pursue their own policy goals while straining against the reality of global production.
Legal Hedging: Power Acceptance and Power Rejection in Sino-Southeast Asian Ties
Wilson Center Policy Report (2023)
Southeast Asian states use “legal hedging” to both enmesh with and resist China by bundling power-acceptance and power-rejection strategies, including selective partnerships, multilateralism, and legal innovation.
Academic Appointments
Temple University Beasley School of Law, 2020–Present
Associate Professor of Law, 2023–Present (tenured July 2026)
Assistant Professor of Law, 2020–2023
Courses taught (JD and LLM students): Corporate Law; Contract Law; Law & Globalization
New York University School of Law, U.S.-Asia Law Institute, 2017–Present
Affiliated Scholar, 2020–Present
Inaugural John N. Hazard Fellow in Comparative & International Law, 2017–2019
Visiting Appointments & Affiliations
Council on Foreign Relations, Stephen M. Kellen Term Member, 2023–2028
University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Summer 2024
National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, Visiting Scholar, Fall 2023
Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting Scholar, Fall 2023 and Winter 2025
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Fellow, 2022–2023
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Center for the Study of Law and Society, Visiting Scholar, 2017–2019
Teaching Interests
Corporate Law; Contract Law; Transnational Business Governance; Comparative Law; Asian Legal Systems; International Economic Law; Law & Development
Awards & Recognitions
American Law Institute Early Career Scholars Medal nominee, 2026
ComplianceNet Outstanding Junior Scholar Paper Award, 2025
NYU Law Edmond Cahn Award (outstanding contributions to the NYU Law Review), 2013
NYU Law Jacobson Leadership Program in Law & Business Scholar (full scholarship), 2010–2013
Maine Civic Award (outstanding public service), 2007
Stangle Economics Research Grant, 2006
Bates College International Scholar (full scholarship), 2004–2007
Professional Service
American Journal of International Law Unbound, Managing Editor, 2026–Present
Association of American Law Schools, Section on East Asian Law & Society, Chair, 2026–2027
Ad Hoc Peer Reviewer, Cambridge University Press, American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, American Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of International Economic Law, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, Leiden Journal of International Law, Asian Journal of Comparative Law
(1) Honored to be a Lee Kong Chian Visiting Scholar at Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law (2025), (2) Honored to receive the ComplianceNet Outstanding Junior Scholar Paper Award (2025), (3) With my Wilson Center fellowship cohort (2022–2023)